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| New York City - Living (and Eating) Like the Locals | |
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11/12/06 - Brooklyn, NY (New York photo album) Enjoying the Sights, Sounds and Tastes of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens |
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After spending 4 months in Europe this year, we were still
feeling a bit sight-seeinged out, so we preferred to spend much
of our time in New York City just wandering around, seeing the
different neighborhoods and, of course, eating (it's what we
do!). We stayed in Brooklyn simply because we got an
attractive home exchange offer from a couple there and we
thought it would offer a less touristy perspective of the city.
The apartment was a spacious (by NYC standards) place with cool
wood floors, exposed brick walls and a new kitchen, located in
the trendy Park Slope neighborhood on a pleasantly bustling,
largely commercial street. It was perfect for us.
We fell in love with Brooklyn and one of the best parts of our trip was just living like the
locals, sampling the many delicious restaurants in our
neighborhood and strolling along the lovely, leafy old streets,
lined with brownstones and through Prospect Park in the crisp
autumn air. There were way too many restaurants to try
them all, but some we enjoyed were the California-style burrito
shop, a hip new-Italian place with an amazing scallop dish,
Brooklyn pizza-by-the-slice, the fish market downstairs from our
apartment that sold really fresh, cheap sushi and the ubiquitous
and delicious bagel sandwiches - yum! The subway was really conveniently located to our apartment and we took the train into Manhattan most days during our visit. Some of our favorite Manhattan experiences were visiting the small church across from the World Trade Center where the emergency workers were fed by volunteers and where they slept during the intensely emotional rescue effort, watching the ice skaters at Rockefeller Plaza, strolling the brownstone-lined streets of the Upper West Side and Central Park - the trees were ablaze with fall color! - and waiting in line with the locals at the Magnolia cupcake Bakery in Greenwich Village to try the tiny but tasty treats. We also enjoyed our trip to the wonderful (we highly recommend it!) museum at Ellis Island, where we found the listing showing that Caroline's great-grandfather, Anton Rytina, was processed in the early 1900s on his journey from Czechoslovakia to New York. The most touristy thing we did? Going to the Rainbow Room bar at the top of Rockefeller Center, where we ordered $18 (a piece) drinks for the privilege of admiring the city views after dark. Caroline's favorite hidden gem/discovery was a little place in Queens that offered a $10 weekend brunch (apparently, brunch is the thing to do in NYC!) that included super-tasty Bloody Marys in the price! Decadence on a budget - it's what we live for! By the end of our visit, we (ok, mostly Caroline) were exhausted after over a week of hoofing it around town but we can't wait to go back and do it again! |
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