Observe & Report

We are now back in the big NYC. In our favourite suburb (actually, I shouldn’t suburb I should say borough…) in Brooklyn, on Flatbush Avenue near New York City’s most populous borough Park Slope.

While Brooklyn is part of New York City, it definitely has its own distinct character – tall but not towering Nineteenth Century brick townhouses and brownstones apartments make up the majority of the neighborhoods while funky boutique cafes, cosy high-end bars and arty independent jewelry and fashion stores line the streets.

With a huge list of ‘Things to See and Do’ we headed into out the wild to complete as much recommended tourist activity as possible!

Manhattan is where all the action is. The famous the Upper East Side – also called the ‘Silk Stocking District’ as this area has the most expensive real estate in the United States and is believed to be the greatest concentration of individual wealth in the nation – this is obvious in the massive super flash cars that line the streets and door men in front of amazing apartments.

We checked out Madison Avenue, Park Avenue, 5th Avenue, SoHo etc however perhaps the (less bling) neighborhoods such as Greenwich Village, the Lower East Side and the East Village were the more interesting.

Everything in New York is impressive due to the larger than life size of everything -massive tall buildings, huge cars even servings of food are at least double that of a normal meal.

If your new to New York I would recommend a ride on the Staten Island Ferry. It sounds a bit lame but its such a good way to get an appreciation of the size of Manhattan and NY. The ferry is meant as a commuter route between Staten Island and lower Manhattan. The ferry ride covers a 5.2-mile, 20-minute mini-cruise with great views of the Statue of Liberty, New York Harbor, and lower Manhattan…. at no cost! The further you get from Manhattan the better the view of the Manhattan area is – you really get to appreciate it as a island of its own.

Also I would recommend the galleries, the galleries in New York at awesome. We visited the MET, MoMA and Guggenheim Museum. MoMA would be the one to visit if your not usually a gallery person – but they were all great. Be prepared to end up spending hours there!

At MoMA one of the main exhibits I wanted to check out was ‘Projects 85: Dan Perjovschi’. Perjovschi creates large-scale drawing installations allowing global and current events affairs to influence the final result of witty and incisive political images. His works are really thought provoking. Created with a black pen on white walls – his works also emphasize how its the concept or message which is powerful – rather than the medium. You can check out some of Perjovschi’s work from the exhibition online on the fantastic MoMA website. While your there you should also check out the MoMA Online store.

While trying to see and do everything we possibly could – we also ended up doing a few random ‘local’ treats… for example Kate insisted that we have a ‘black and white cookie‘. These classic cookies, voted “Best of New York” are supposedly a New York City institution. They have a cake-like texture topped with matching half moons of dark chocolate and vanilla icing. The black and white cookie is, in fact, not a cookie but a flat, thinly frosted cake, like ‘…someone has sat on a cupcake.’ The key to eating a black and white cookie, according to Jerry Seinfeld, is to get some black and some white in each bite. “Nothing mixes better than vanilla and chocolate,” says Jerry, explaining the art form (from episode 74 of Seinfeld).

Another random sight we found on our travels was the “Love” statue by Robert Indiana on Sixth Avenue at 55th Street in Manhattan. ‘Indiana’s best known image is the word “LOVE” in a square with a tilted “O”. This image, first created for a Christmas card for the Museum of Modern Art in 1964, was included on an 8 cent U.S. Postal Service stamp in 1973, the first of their regular series of “love stamps.” (Thank you Wikipedia). Sculpture versions are on display at Sixth Avenue in New York, the Pratt Institue campus in Brooklyn, the Indianapolis Museum of Art and in the so called “Love Park” in Philadelphia, among others.

And of course after all this tourist activity we needed a caffeine fix so we went to the recommended ‘Ninth Street Expresso‘ – which definitely lived up to its good reputation! Also just nearby was the awesome Giantrobot store – a graphic design mecca who style is described as ‘asian american pop culture and beyond’ – I wanted to buy everything and had to be dragged out of store!!

Another good coffee place that closely follows behind Ninth Street Expresso is Gorilla Coffee, which is a Brooklyn based coffee brand – with wicked branding! Check out their website. You’d think that because so many people live and work in New York it would have great coffee… but well, the coffee generally was, in my humble opinion, pretty bad… well, maybe I’ve just been spoiled by the fantastic coffee in Wellington : )

Another highlight in New York was the rooftop bar on 5th Avenue. Located on the 20th floor the bar provides great roof top views of the city – the Chrysler Building, Empire State Building and of the Manhattan skyline. Its has an unmarked entrance on 230 Fifth Ave and 27th St, just ask the doorman for the rooftop bar. A review on nymag.com provides a very accurately describes the bar, ‘As the palm trees rustle and the old-fashioned cocktails kick in, you can easily imagine Don Johnson landing his helicopter near the stuffed zebra and cruising for foxy investment bankers.‘ (Daniel Maurer). If you are ever in New York and are going to do only one ‘touristy’ thing you have to visit this bar, it pretty much sums up all that is good and bad about New York!