NYC Best Bits

En route to Washington DC now, so we are writing this posting from the comfort of the Megabus!
 
Looking back over the past (and very quick) four weeks, some of our best bits have to be:
•    Seeing the Foo Fighters in Madison Square Garden
•    Taking a boat out on Central Park lake
•    The hustle and bright lights of Time Square in the evening
•    Chilling out in Washington Square Park in the sunshine and listening to the piano man
•    Visiting the Metropolitan Museum in the evening...and getting in for a $1 each!
•    The view from Brooklyn Bridge on a very sunny November morning
•    Sunbathing in Central Park...in November
•    A Shack Burger from the Shake Shack - hands down the best burger!
•    Being in the city in the lead up to Christmas

But to save me writing tonnes of stuff, why not have a look for yourselves: NYC Video

Arran & Emily

Best of Manhattan Part...2

Last week we managed to fit in a few more “best ofs” from the Best of Manhattan 2011 guide.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Best dive bar...Holiday Cocktail Lounge.
The term “dive bar” is used a lot of here, I was a bit worried it meant somewhere a bit sticky and horrible... like Exodus in Aberdeen! But apparently it just generally refers to independent bars with juke boxes and cheap drink. The guide recommended this bar for its free popcorn, unfortunately, there was no free popcorn on tap when we were there, despite us sitting at the bar and trying to look hungry, but it did have some very good happy hour prices and after staying for a couple of rounds, the bartender treated us to a free round, which was a bonus. It is also had a well stocked juke box with some good 70s rocks classics, so we managed to hear some good tunes, until my quarters ran out.  A nice laid backed bar in the East Village, but for free bar snacks, I think our favourite bar would have to be the Rodeo Bar (just a two minute walk from our apartment) – masses of free monkey nuts!

Best underdog store in the East Village...Ray’s Candy Store
I had read about Ray’s Candy Store before in another guide book, so we felt we should give it a try. The store is renowned amongst locals in the East Village, and Ray, the 80 year old owner, seems to be a local legend too. Really pleased we looked this place up. It was actually around the corner from the cocktail lounge, so we popped in on the way home to for an egg cream (a yummy milkshake type drink) and some fries. A tiny store (actually looks a bit more like a shack) but again, once you are in you can see what all the fuss is about. It’s a quirky little place; as well as selling burgers and fries it sells merchandise with Ray’s logo on it as well as Obama socks for $1. Huge portion of fries, would definitely recommend it if you’re in the neighbourhood.

Tomb Chapel of Raemkai - 2446–2389 B.C

And if you can only visit one museum while you are in NYC...The Metropolitan museum
We’ve managed to visit a few museums whilst we’ve been here, but hands down the best one has to be the Met. We went last Sunday and spent a good 5 hours wandering around the exhibits. We stayed until closing time (9pm) and still didn’t have enough time to see the second floor. Again, it’s one of those museums with a “recommended” admission price, so we got away with paying $1 each. We didn’t feel too bad about it though as the museum was really busy (even at 4pm in the afternoon) and we had just paid $26 the night before for two beers, so we felt we needed to make our money back somehow!
 

Tomorrow is our last day in New York before we set off for the next stop on our trip -  Washington DC.

Emily

The best of Manhattan...Part 1

One of the most useful guide we’ve found is the Best of Manhattan 2011 (a free paper we picked up in Grenchwich Village). It recommends everything from the best place to eat a bagel to the best place to shop in Manhattan away from all the tourists (like us). It’s pretty much a guide for the locals.

We’ve spent this week working our way through some of the “best ofs”.

The best place to see a live band...Pianos

A great little bar in SoHo. From the outside, its not much too look at (it would easy to walk past it) but It was definitely the the place to be to see some great local bands, free of charge. The place filled up pretty quickly. We arrived just in time for happy hour, so we managed to have a few cheap beers and bar snacks before the first band started. I would definitely recommend this bar. Very laid back, indie feel and great happy hour prices! 

The best place to eat a Michelin star meal for under $70...Aldea

A restaurant on 17th Street, between 5th and Broadway. Instead of going for dinner, we decided to save some pennies and go for lunch. For 3-courses at $24.70, it was definitely worth it. The chocolate pudding with homemade gingersnap ice cream was the best bit.

Next week is our busy last week in New York, but we are going to try to fit in some more "best ofs" before we go!

Emily

Foo Fighters at Madison Square Garden

Just back from watching the Foo Fighters play their first gig at Madison Square Garden after 16 years and as Dave Grohl put it “Sixteen years, we’ve been practicing to get here.” And it's all been well worth it.

“We don’t play those insy-teensy two hour shows anymore” - Dave Grohl

No gimmicks rock & roll was the theme of the night. Supported by Welsh band The Joy Formidable (who Grohl heard playing on the radio one day) and veteran punk band Social Distortion, for your buck you got five hours of solid rock n’ roll. 

And a long night it proved to be, as Grohl ripped through a career-spanning 15-track set list before returning to the stage for an unprecedented 7-song encore. The length of the encore was deliberated backstage on the big screens for all of us to join in. The more screams the more songs.

In addition to fan favourites “Everlong” (which inspired an ear-splitting sing-along) and “This Is A Call,” the Foo’s played several songs from this year’s Wasting Light, including “Walk” and the emotionally charged “These Days,” - the latter of which Grohl claimed to be the best song he’s ever written. It is pretty good. See

Other highlights of the evening included solo guitar battles between lead guitarist Shiflett and Dave Grohl and surprise appearances by rock legends Bob Mould (who is featured on Wasting Light’s “Dear Rosemary”) and Joan Jett.

This has to have been the best thing I've ever seen. 

Arran

Manhattan is barking!

A blog posting on the canines of New York City, as requested by Isla, for Lenny, the Jack Russell.

NYC is crawling with dogs; they really love their dogs here. Apparently there are over 1 million dog owners in the city. The most popular dog of choice appears to be a poodle, or those small, yappy handbag dogs.

A lot people tend to carry their dogs, while crossing the streets or at the end of a walk (I don’t really blame them, Central Park is massive, I sometimes wish I could get a piggy back home). I haven’t seen a dog bigger than a poodle being carried though; I hope to see someone carrying a German Sheppard before we go!

Is he wearing denim?

If you thought carrying a dog around the park is bizarre, nothing is a mad as the doggy fashion they adopt. There is an abundance of dog clothes shops here!

Gold body warmers are this seasons must have.

All the parks we have visited so far have specific walking arenas and ‘gyms’ for dogs. Apparently there is even a classification of New Yorkers called ‘doglers’ – those people who love dogs and would like to own one but can’t due to their lifestyle, so they get their dog fix by hanging out in dog parks now and again...

And if all this wasn’t barking enough, I even came across a specific blog for dogs this afternoon: http://ablogfordogs.tumblr.com/ ...woof!

Seriously?

Emily

No Trouble in Little China

Started our day in China Town. A very busy area of New York, with good shops and lots of interesting places to eat...although there was a dinstinct smell of wet dog in the air yesterday, which cut our visit a little short.
China town like Greenwich, doesn't follow the same city layout as uptown Manhattan, so is a little more difficult to navigate. But after a little walking around we managed to find Bret and Jemaine's apartment from Flight of the Conchords.

Bret and Jemaine's Apartment

Had lunch at the "five points" (which is now known as Columbus Park), whilst watching a basketball game. We then headed over to SoHo for some shopping and some ice cold beers.

Arran

Spent some time in TIme Square

Did a bit of sightseeing today, mainly around Times Square. Bought some comedy tickets to a show at the Comic Strip, the ticket seller asked us if we had heard of a comedian called "Billy Connelly", apparently he was spotted by Woopi Glodberg in Comic Strip and it launched his career in the US. Looking forward to using those tickets sometime next week.

Found a  nice little Japanese bar in the East village last night, pretty cheap. Nice Japanese beer called Sapporo.

Catching the Staten Island ferry tomorrow and will have a look at the One World Trade Centre, and maybe see a bit of the Occupy Wall Street demo on the way back.