Day 25- Friends Apartment and Brooklyn!

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Today we were out for 11 consecutive hours. That is the longest day out we’ve had this whole trip without coming home for a little stop! Which to be honest is a little embarrassing but let’s move past that.

The original plan was to spend the whole day over in Brooklyn, because we were watching the Nets vs Suns game at night, however Adam pointed out to me that whilst Brooklyn is cool, he didn’t think we’d find enough to do to take up the whole day. But before I get to that, breakfast. We went to a Fresh & Co (or something along those lines) for our first meal of the day, and it was kind of like a subway but also had prepackaged sandwiches and salads if you didn’t want to create your own. They were really busy, and I wasn’t ready to order when they asked what I wanted but I didn’t want to keep them waiting and stress them out so I panicked and asked for the smoked salmon on rye bread and an iced coffee. Both of these were delicious, but it cost me almost $30aud!! Next time I will carefully consider options and not go for something so expensive. That’s my pledge, and now I’ve told all of you so I have to stick to it.

Anyway, after breakfast we headed to the subway where we were going to have to get two trains to get to Brooklyn. It was on the first leg that Adam mentioned he didn’t think we’d be able to spend the whole day there, so we got off at the midway point and realised we were in Greenwich Village- meaning we were right near the Friend’s apartment building and Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment!

So of course we went to these. I was pretty happy to see Carrie’s apartment but I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy in my entire life to see the Friend’s building. It looks exactly the same! I could have cried. We walked around these streets for a while, and I have to say that since we got to New York I’ve loved it, but I couldn’t have imagined living here. It would just be so stressful. But after walking through these neighbourhoods, away from the tourism in the Times Square area, I could definitely live here. Everything is so beautiful and neat. We stumbled across another Magnolia Bakery, so we got a teensy tiny banana pudding to share again, and everyone was SO NICE. Like, ridiculously nice. Over the top, so much so you think you’re being tricked nice.

We eventually found ourselves at the Hudson River, where we lay on the grass for a while pointing out different things we could see across the water in New Jersey. Our next plan had been to get the next subway over to Brooklyn, but then we realised we were close to so many things we wanted to see, and we also wanted to go over the bridge, so we decided to walk.

We stayed along the river, dodging joggers and skateboarders, Adam complaining that there were heaps of glorious basketball courts right next to the water and no one was even using them, and taking unnecessary pictures of NJ. We eventually got to the World Trade Centre, so we went to have a look at the 9/11 memorials. They are much bigger than I expected, and made me feel very sad and small. We didn’t go to the museum, but the memorials were definitely enough to get us thinking.

We kept walking then to Battery Park, where we got a pretty good view of the Statue of Liberty. We’d been told by friends that whilst it’s cool to go on the ferry over there and have a good close-up it’s mostly a waste of money if you can see it from the other side. And we did! She’s lovely.

This was an incredibly long walk. Fun and beautiful, but long. We did eventually have to go back into the city to loop around to get to the top of the bridge, and whilst in there we got some coffees from Starbucks to keep us going. We finally made it onto the Brooklyn Bridge! What a spectacular view. At one point we noticed the crowds were clearing and there was a big empty space at one of the base points. We were confused, until we got to that point and found two men standing there with gigantic snakes around their necks. They were mostly chatting with each other, ignoring the people staring at them with their hanging jaws, but as soon as I went to take a picture one of them saw me, pointed, and waved his hand over to him.
“No,” I said to Adam, “no freaking way. I’m not holding the snake.” I grabbed his wrist and ran away. Luckily he got a photo before my freak out!

We had two hours to kill until the basketball game, so we went down to Dumbo underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. The sun was just setting, so we got some amazing pictures of the bridge, the water and Manhattan. We went to find dinner and found a pizza place. Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “come on guys, you have had so much pizza. Surely you could have something better or healthier.” And I agree with you. It just was that everywhere else we could find was a bar (which I’m unable to go into) or a fancy restaurant. So we went into Front Street Pizza, where we got two slices each (mine were Eggplant+Ricotta and Chicken+Broccoli). It was honestly very difficult to stand up afterwards, and we’ve agreed- no more pizza this trip unless absolutely necessary.

It was then time to head over to the Barclay’s Centre to watch the game. And it was amazing. It was a close game for a while, until the Nets just completely amped up their game in the third quarter and they ended up winning 119-97. We were very happy.

There was no way we could walk much more today, both of us have blistered heels and sore legs (we did 28,000 steps!), so we got the subway back to Manhattan, and passed Carnegie Hall on our way back to the hotel. It was 11pm when we got in, so definitely bedtime. We managed to tick so much off our list today and had so much fun- I love New York!

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Comments

[Jaolm]

Luce, you sound like you are having the best time. Love these blogs they make us laugh so much! We can hear you in them. Love you pud xoxo