And we're talking NOO YAWK, baby.

Today we dragged ourselves out of bed after a very late night. We took the New York subway for the first time (and got kinda confused) and met Michael (that's THE 'Spence' from Melbourne Uni) on 8th Avenue for brunch in Chelsea. We went to this cafe called The Viceroy right in the heart of Chelsea and I had my best brunch ever - a Scottish smoked salmon florentine. Poached eggs on top of a generous serve of smoked salmon on top of a bed of creamed spinach drenched in hollandaise sauce. Exquisite. Double espresso too, of course!

Mmmm... mmm!

After being totally full, we went to hunt down some of New York's best cheesecakes. I already had some last night (omg it was the best I've ever had) but for some reason, there's some major rivalry of "New York's best cheesecakes" going on around town. So we can't just settle with one place y'know.

From Chelsea, we hiked all the way to The (Greenwich) Village through SoHo (which not to be compared to the one in London because SoHo really stands for "South of Houston"). It was so hot and humid I thought I was going to faint. SoHo, I must say - is brilliant. A creative hot spot where artists would line their work along the street for sale and galleries popping up here and there between streets of the best shops (such include A|X (hehe), Miss Sixty, MAC, Ralph Lauren, Otto Tootsi Plohound, Resurrection, Ana Sui, Triple 5 Soul, Vice etc etc). It's MY kinda scene ;)

Here are some pics I briefly took today during our walk. We will be dedicating a whole afternoon to SoHo tomorrow - very excited.

Some things you'll only find in New York...





Then after some more heavenly cheesecake, we went for a brief visit to Wall Street. Ahh, the New York Stock Exchange - future workplace? Uhhh... who knows!!



We then took the subway mistakingly for Brooklyn (ie: the wrong direction) when we were supposed to go up north towards the Bronx to visit Cloisters Museum. So we spent a solid hour or so riding the subway.

Cloisters was suddenly a huge change in scenery. There were suddenly no big tall buildings and lots of glass. It was just lush gardens and a castle looking thing overlooking the ocean. It didn't feel like New York at all and it's certainly not a placed I would have visited otherwise. So I'm glad we went.

We were meant to go straight to Central Park to check out a gig by The Blind Boys from Alabama but Robyn and I decided to take a bit of a round trip to Herald Sq and shop at Macy's!



It is sale season and the prices are to die for. Robyn bought this cute Ben Sherman mini skirt for USD 13.08!!! And a Calvin Klein top for USD 14.60. Unbelievable. I on the other hand was slightly unlucky as I could never find anything in my size. *Sigh*.

After Macy's we decided to head on home.
It is so easy to get around in NYC on the subway - it's great. In LA, it is close to impossible. We never ended up going to the Getty Centre or MoCA because we couldn't figure out how to get there! Well, we did but the buses never came!! Arghhh... You'll definetly NEED a car in LA, or you're stuffed.

New York is a brilliant city, that's all I can say (except for the coffee, believe it or not)!! There's so many great gigs happening every week. This friday I will be going to Spooky Ghost (that's Gerry Leonard, David Bowie's lead guitarist) show again! I saw him in Melbourne last year and I'll see him again this year - yay :)

To the topic of coffee - they don't know how to froth in America. I had the worst froth in LA and according to Michael, I don't think it is improved in NY. Melbournians, we are very lucky we have brilliant milk in our coffees.

There's a lot of trees around town. It's a very beautiful looking city with amazing buildings. Even the townhouses look gorgeous. Even if they aren't sparkling clean, there's something about its 'brickyness' and the fire escapes that make it so unique. I thoroughly enjoy walking around NYC compared to LA. I never really enjoyed walking around LA cos there are so many dodgy people there! You are always on constant alert in LA... I never felt this fear in New York. There was never once we didn't go on a bus and not encounter some crazy person talking about how they wrote Madonna's Lucky Star.

The only place that was pleasant in LA was of course, Beverly Hills - but even that is inaccessible to us very unfilthy rich mortal beings.

Anyways, I have to run.

More another time :)

PS: We have been making dinner of all sorts and doing our own laundry. We are becoming very domesticated :D