New York at last...

---

"Hey lady, it's free, don't be shy now" said the dreadlocked Bob-Marley-alike leaning at the top of the 14th Street subway entrance, a newspaper in his outstretched hand. A yellow taxi whizzed past, then an NYPD car.

I clutched my paper bag of danish pastries and my cup of strong smelling coffee. It was 6am in NYC and the only thing missing was Al Pacino. If I squinted I could almost see him, slouching past, hands stuck deep into leather jacket pockets, collars turned up against the bitter February cold. The whole of New York is a movie set, the show never stops.

I have wanted to visit New York for as long as I can remember. Everything happens in New York - every street name is as familiar the one you grew up on and everyone has a story you know. Broadway, Wall Street, Times Square, Park Avenue, Fifth Avenue, Lexington Avenue, Madison Avenue. The buildings, you know them too. Even the park, even the shops, the taxis, the subway, right down to what New Yorkers eat for lunch (pastrami over easy, double skinny mocha frappucinos on rye and yes, absolutely, fries with that).

So our list of things to do for our week in New York was ridiculously huge. Happily jet lag had us (well, me and a slightly more reluctant Nico) up and out of bed at 4am every morning, cheese danish and coffee from Nana's Treats scoffed by 6am, first in line for the Statue of Liberty ferry, the Empire State building and the rest, settling in for breakfast no 2 by 10am. Perfect. The weather was bone chillingly, bitingly, cold, but nothing 3 jumpers, 2 pairs of gloves and a belly full of bagels couldn't deal with.

tbc

---

Photos

6:30am in the Hollywood Diner, 6th Avenue
Watching the yellow taxis whizz by...

Wildlife, New York style
(Le nature, style new yorkais)

Little known New York monument
Monument new yorkais, tres peu connu.

Manhattan Skyline from Brooklyn
Couldnt open eyes wide enough to take it all in.

New York Stock Exchange
La Bourse

Nico of the Antartic on Liberty Island
Nico de l'Antartic sur l'isle de Liberte -(ou se trouve le Statue of Liberty)

What, no monkey?
Empire State building from the Meat Packing district

Our subway
notre arret de metro

Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge
1 km of wooden walkway suspended just above multiple lans of speeding cars. In sections you can look through the slats down a million miles to the Hudson river. Terrifying but fab.

I WANT TO LIVE HERE
corner of Willow and Pineapple St. Best address ever. Truman Capote wrote Breakfast at Tiffanys in a house on Willow St.

Times Square.
I hate to say it but it's a road, not a square.