Category Archives: NYC

It’s often cheaper to fly back from other USA places via New York and we thought that if we were going to be changing planes there we might as well plan in to stop for a few days. We have been to New York before and so didn’t feel pressure to be very touristy. We stayed at The Gershwin which has the most reasonable (that aren’t in a complete dive) en suite rooms in a good location that I could find. The only specific thing on my to-do list was to visit The High Line park which had opened since I was last there, such a great place! A must-see. Otherwise we would just set off in the morning and would wander and talk and wander and talk until we got hungry, then I’d find a Wi-Fi spot and Yelp for suggestions. We ate as much Japanese food as possible while we still could as our access to it is so limited over here.

This is the end of me talking about New York now I promise ;)

Before I left I plotted all the tips I got onto a Google map. Here it is, click through to view it properly:

View Larger Map

I learned a few things while I was there:
- New Yorkers have the CUTEST dogs.
- The fall in Central Park is beautiful.
- New York is much less intimidating than I thought it would be. I felt much safer than I do in London. So many people were friendly and helpful.
- In a diner you leave the tip on the table and pay by the door. At a bar if you buy a drink at the bar you leave a tip on the bar. If you sit at a table in a bar you order from the waitperson and get the 'check' from them at the end and tip them then.
- It is well worth getting out of Manhattan if you have time – we went to places like Greenpoint and Brighton Beach.
- It is pretty easy to get around. Having express trains on the underground is genius.
- There is an amazing selection of food! You are never more than two steps away from something interesting.
- There are way more staff in shops and restaurants than over here.
- People jay-walk like mad! While constantly beeping the traffic was actually way more sympathetic to the pedestrians than in London.
- Takeaway delivery people are crazy – cycling without lights on the wrong side of the road!
- The cinema seats are so incredibly comfortable.
- If your hotel is inconvenient for leaving luggage on your last day you can check it in to the Natural History Museum coat check for $2.

Here some of all the things we did! I have borrowed some of this from a list that Simon made :)

'A' train to from JFK to Manhattan
Drink at Jake's Dilemma bar
Dinner at Yuki Sushi
Free wine tasting
Croissants, coffee and green tea in bed
Watching the NYC Marathon with a picnic from Zabars
New York Metropolitan Museum
Drinks at the Met caf√©
Guggenheim inc. Opie photos and Rauschenberg photos
Grand Central Station
Dinner at the Comfort Diner
Train to Battery Park
Boat to Statue of Liberty
Had our breakfast on the island and climbed up the plinth
Boat to Ellis Island
Past Ground Zero
Barnes and Noble caf√© looking at the American Magazines
Bed Bath and Beyond.
Child falls down escalator. He is ok.
Wholefoods.
Looking around Wall Street/Chase Manhattan Plaza
Finding start of Brooklyn Bridge (took about an hour to find the start)
Walk over Brooklyn Bridge.
Our legs died about now.
Drinks at Front St Pizza Deli
Dinner Grimaldi's Pizza
Walked to the waterfront looking at night skyline
To Lower East Side
Katz's Deli for breakfast.
Tenement Museum to hear about the Irish story
Lunch of tea and cake at Moby's cafe TeaNY
Exploring East Village, Bleecker Street, etc – inc. Bleecker Street Records
Exploring Soho
Times Square/Rockefeller Plaza – looking at election stuff
Carnegie Deli – Simon had a giant sandwich and ate about 1/4
Dive Bar – drinks and election results; chips and salsa
Obama wins, New York goes wild!
Starbucks coffee and pumpkin muffin breakfast
To Madison Square Garden to book tickets for a game
Bought picnic lunch items from Ernest Klein
Sat outside eating lunch in Midtown watching the workers
To MOMA – started at top and ended in sculpture garden
MOMA Design Shop
Paley Park – sitting by waterfall
Up to Top Of The Rock
Dinner at AsiaKan restaurant – double seafood delight was fantastic
Lie in until 11 am
Brunch at Key West Diner
To United Nations – tour including General Assembly
Tea in the UN Coffee Shop
To Macy's
Drinks in Lindy's Diner opposite Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden – NY Rangers v. Tampa Bay Lightning hockey
Drinks at the Dive Bar
Picnic breakfast in Central Park
'F' train to Brighton Beach.
Walked along the boardwalk to Coney Island.
To Bryant Park – watching the ice skating
Kinokuniya Bookstore – browsing and lunch in the caf√©
Pierpoint Morgan Library. Babar exhibit, Paradise Lost exhibit, exhibit of ancient wax seals
Dinner at Acqua
Breakfast in bed
Union Square Greenmarket – drank hot apple cider
Sandwich lunch by Union Square.
Forbidden Planet comic store
The Strand Bookstore
Afternoon at the Cinema, as it was raining – Burn After Reading
Japanese Sunrise Mart
St Marks Bookstore
Exhibition opening at Giant Robot
Martinis in the East Village
Dinner in Japanese restaurant
Breakfast at Tom's Restaurant – aka the Seinfeld diner and 'Tom's Diner'.
To Brooklyn: Brooklyn Flea market, looking around Park Slope area, got coffee and green tea in a caf√©
Went to Target
Fred Flare shop
Dinner at Charm Thai restaurant.
Early start
Empire State Building
Rockefeller Plaza – shops – Anthropologie
Union Square – Wholefoods for a salad for lunch.
Up to Soho.
Looked at A Bathing Ape shop and wandered around
Cinema in Union Square – Role Models
Dinner at Acqua.
Chatted for several hours in a cafe
Went to Zabars to buy mugs.
American Museum of Natural History, had lunch there and looked at the exhibits.
Took 'E' train to Jamaica and then Airtrain to airport