Had the first of many visitors this week with the arrival of the Sydney crew. Hoodie, PJ and Tim flew in from Rome to come hang out in the Big Apple for a week. It was quite exciting as it was finally a chance to do some really cheesy tourist things around the city. It was a jam-packed week with lots of laughs and lots of beers. Anyway here goes.
Friday 28 May
Met at 2A down on Avenue A. It’s my favorite watering hole in the East Village. Everyone was pretty stoked to get a beer on as it had been several months. From there it was a hike through the Lower East Side to Freemans for a bite to eat. This place really reminds me of Melbourne as it’s a cool restaurant located down the end of an alley. Pretty freaky inside with all the stuffed game heads.
Saturday 29 May
Met the lads for brunch down at 7A. This is a cool 24 hour café on Avenue A. They serve the best hamburgers in NYC. From here we headed up to East 9th to the Neighborhood Barbers. This is an old school local place to get a buzz and a shave. We were all looking rather feral so had the old fella’s bust out their razors and work their magic.
Next stop was the Brooklyn Bridge. Went for a quiet walk over it with about 15,000 other tourists. Headed down into Dumbo and explored the area. Headed back early afternoon for some chill time then it was time for the mighty Bon.
Caught a bus from Manhattan to the New Meadowlands Arena to go see Bon Jovi. The arena had just opened that week and this was his second concert. We all had an absolute ball and the crowd went ballistic. Highlights were the fireworks off the stadium near the end and closing out with Livin on a Prayer.
Sunday 30 May
Net up for some recovery Brunch. This time it was over to Five Point in Nolita. It’s on Great Jones St so thought it should be pretty good. What a cracka of a place. They have a wood fired pizza oven and cook eggs in it. Delicious. Caught a train up to the Bronx and headed to Yankee Stadium to watch a game between the Yankees and Cleveland. Sat out in the bleaches and got nuked in the sun. We had plans to smash down a few beers but at 10 bucks a pop we ended up having a pretty quiet one.
After the game we headed down to Chelsea to the German Bier Garden under the High Line. This was pumping as it was a long weekend and everyone was getting a good Sunday session on. In the mayhem we managed to find a table and stayed there for a while. We started getting a bit puckish so jumped in a cab and headed down to Chinatown. I think everyone had the munchies on and we went a bit overboard on ordering but it was fun anyway.
Monday 31 May
Headed down to the 48th Street pier and got on the Circle Line to do a tour round Manhattan. I really enjoyed this and the commentary was excellent. Only problem was the last hour was pretty boring. The captain should have put it in overdrive to get us back.
Once we docked we headed over to the USS Iwo Jima. This was in town as part of Fleet Week, which is when all the ships come to NYC for Memorial Day. Thought it was a great opportunity to view an active Marine Expeditionary Force aircraft carrier. It was a slightly painful start with a 2-hour wait. PJ took it upon himself to become crowd control for all the wankers who were trying to queue jump. It was worth the wait though. The ship was amazing and you could crawl over everything. Got inside an Abrams tank and up close with heaps of other hardware. Outside of the British War Museum it was probably the best military geek experience I had had. Tracy was in her element with all the buffed Marines.
Everyone was pretty tired after a massive weekend so ended up being a fairly quiet night spent smashing down taco’s at La Lucha down in the East Village. A cracking weekend overall.
So I have a slight case of typers’ fatigue so going to expedite the rest of the week.
Tuesday Night – Headed to Peter Lugers in Brooklyn. This is a cracking steakhouse. Got the prime aged bad boy for 4, which was a meat fest if I have ever seen one. Sensational. Oh and we also moved into our new pad in the West Village today. Woohoo.
Wednesday Night – Rock on. Went up the top of the Rockafella Centre. This was awesome with great night views of Manhattan.
Thursday Night. Tracy had some friends arrive in town so we chucked a bit of a house warming. It has been filthy hot and humid over here so it was not long before we headed to the pub. My new local is called Tavern on Jane and it is a cracking little gastro pub on Jane and 8th. Was good to get into some aircon.
I saw PJ and Tim off on Friday. Was a little sad as we ad had such a great week. Hoodie is hanging around another week, which is cool. Then it’s a week off and the parentals get here.
Friday 28 May
Met at 2A down on Avenue A. It’s my favorite watering hole in the East Village. Everyone was pretty stoked to get a beer on as it had been several months. From there it was a hike through the Lower East Side to Freemans for a bite to eat. This place really reminds me of Melbourne as it’s a cool restaurant located down the end of an alley. Pretty freaky inside with all the stuffed game heads.
Saturday 29 May
Met the lads for brunch down at 7A. This is a cool 24 hour café on Avenue A. They serve the best hamburgers in NYC. From here we headed up to East 9th to the Neighborhood Barbers. This is an old school local place to get a buzz and a shave. We were all looking rather feral so had the old fella’s bust out their razors and work their magic.
Next stop was the Brooklyn Bridge. Went for a quiet walk over it with about 15,000 other tourists. Headed down into Dumbo and explored the area. Headed back early afternoon for some chill time then it was time for the mighty Bon.
Caught a bus from Manhattan to the New Meadowlands Arena to go see Bon Jovi. The arena had just opened that week and this was his second concert. We all had an absolute ball and the crowd went ballistic. Highlights were the fireworks off the stadium near the end and closing out with Livin on a Prayer.
Sunday 30 May
Net up for some recovery Brunch. This time it was over to Five Point in Nolita. It’s on Great Jones St so thought it should be pretty good. What a cracka of a place. They have a wood fired pizza oven and cook eggs in it. Delicious. Caught a train up to the Bronx and headed to Yankee Stadium to watch a game between the Yankees and Cleveland. Sat out in the bleaches and got nuked in the sun. We had plans to smash down a few beers but at 10 bucks a pop we ended up having a pretty quiet one.
After the game we headed down to Chelsea to the German Bier Garden under the High Line. This was pumping as it was a long weekend and everyone was getting a good Sunday session on. In the mayhem we managed to find a table and stayed there for a while. We started getting a bit puckish so jumped in a cab and headed down to Chinatown. I think everyone had the munchies on and we went a bit overboard on ordering but it was fun anyway.
Monday 31 May
Headed down to the 48th Street pier and got on the Circle Line to do a tour round Manhattan. I really enjoyed this and the commentary was excellent. Only problem was the last hour was pretty boring. The captain should have put it in overdrive to get us back.
Once we docked we headed over to the USS Iwo Jima. This was in town as part of Fleet Week, which is when all the ships come to NYC for Memorial Day. Thought it was a great opportunity to view an active Marine Expeditionary Force aircraft carrier. It was a slightly painful start with a 2-hour wait. PJ took it upon himself to become crowd control for all the wankers who were trying to queue jump. It was worth the wait though. The ship was amazing and you could crawl over everything. Got inside an Abrams tank and up close with heaps of other hardware. Outside of the British War Museum it was probably the best military geek experience I had had. Tracy was in her element with all the buffed Marines.
Everyone was pretty tired after a massive weekend so ended up being a fairly quiet night spent smashing down taco’s at La Lucha down in the East Village. A cracking weekend overall.
So I have a slight case of typers’ fatigue so going to expedite the rest of the week.
Tuesday Night – Headed to Peter Lugers in Brooklyn. This is a cracking steakhouse. Got the prime aged bad boy for 4, which was a meat fest if I have ever seen one. Sensational. Oh and we also moved into our new pad in the West Village today. Woohoo.
Wednesday Night – Rock on. Went up the top of the Rockafella Centre. This was awesome with great night views of Manhattan.
Thursday Night. Tracy had some friends arrive in town so we chucked a bit of a house warming. It has been filthy hot and humid over here so it was not long before we headed to the pub. My new local is called Tavern on Jane and it is a cracking little gastro pub on Jane and 8th. Was good to get into some aircon.
I saw PJ and Tim off on Friday. Was a little sad as we ad had such a great week. Hoodie is hanging around another week, which is cool. Then it’s a week off and the parentals get here.
Pic's to come
