the upper east side & then some

our host was this lady named michelle. michelle has a small, grey, fluffy dog called 'pee-wee'. this is an apt name because he often peed/did small poos on the floor. a lot of people on the upper east side have dogs but they all live in apartments so you see them on the street a lot. people take their dogs for walks in their pyjama pants which i thought was nice given that it was the posh upper east side. it is weird that so many people treat their dogs in this way, taking them outside only a few times a day, and not everybody has small dogs like michelle. and even still, it is weird keeping dogs cooped indoors all day. apartments in new york are usually pretty warm because of pipes that go throughout the whole building, so air isn't fresh and all the smells stay in unless you open windows. 

monday was spent mostly in the american museum of natural history. it was a really cool place that most people might recognise from 'night at the museum'. it was really cool and huuuge and you gotta allow a whole day to experience it. there are some disturbing things about it like the fact that a lot of the animals in cases are taxidermy. weird. it was a good experience though. our feet hurt a lot by the end of the day. 

we started buying breakfast from a nice bagel shop on 86th. i had jelly and cream cheese on mine which was pretty delish one day and my first experience of calling jam 'jelly'. tuesday was an unexpectedly legit day. we went on a tour of the UN and learnt about its role in international relations. i think we all felt a bit empowered by possibilities afterwards. our tour guide was peruvian. i want to roll my Rs like he does. lunch we used my zine guide of nyc to take us to this japanese place called menchanko tei and it was just what we needed, filling but not grossly and felt good for us as opposed to all the mexican and pizza we'd been eating. that evening i went to long island city to catch up with my cousin and go to a free comedy show. i felt like i mastered the subway. the show itself was pretty good. we had some beers then went to flux factory where they were having a birthday party for somebody. sam only wanted to stay for one beer but we ended up having some shots of rum and dancing around the kitchen. there was this one guy dancing really awesome and he had a beard and i asked sam if he was married because that's how i enquire about people's marital status. he was very tall and dancing in short fluoro green shorts and a salmon pink polo tee. that is not why he was attractive though. idk. he was ridiculous and uninhibited, i think that was attractive. i had not eaten dinner so i ate 2 donuts that were on the table. they were really delicious, cinnamonny things mm. we kept trying to leave but having conversations with people instead. i talked to a nice girl from canada and told some of the flux artists who i saw speaking last week that i liked their artwork. 'this charming man' by the smiths played and we got excited about english music being played then i said it was definitely our last dance and then we walked to the subway. i met the girls in the city and got pizza on the way back to our apartment. i was a bit drunk and kept exclaiming about how crunchy the pizza was. 

we had a big sleep in yesterday and woke up around 12pm and went to katz's deli for brunch. we ordered a pastrami sandwich, philly cheesesteak and cheese blintzes to share. it was all pretty good, but the pastrami was the best. katz's is overpriced. it wasn't too busy. it was raining a lot and i didn't have a raincoat or an umbrella so my jacket got quite damp. we split up after brunch (which was in reality a v late lunch) and i walked to a nearby salvation army thrift store. they had no fitting rooms so i could not try anything on. i walked back into soho to check out a wool shop, stopping in other pretty stores on the way. i walked past some nice looking galleries on west broadway. i like a lot of things about soho but i felt as if i looked too much like a drowned rat to go into many stores. the wool shop was a dream and is actually the store of a blog i read sometimes, the purl bee. emma came into the store while i was there, purely by coincidence. i thought she had already been there that day. we bought some wool and then went to meet caroline at mcnally jackson bookstore. we had a sit there for a while as our feet were very sore plus we were cold and wet. then went to hampton chutney co for dinner. we all had dosas which looks like a giant pancake with fillings of indian varieties. very tasty and filling. 

we went home to get gussied up to go to a zine launch that brodie told us about. there was a long line at the zine launch and we smoked cigarettes to have something to do in the line. we saw tao lin walk to the front of the line and get right into the store. we played a game that i know called 'end of the world' which is where you look around you and work out who you would sex if the world was going to end in five mins. we made it inside and drank syrupy red wine. brodie and anton were leaving as we arrived. it was nice to see them, however briefly. inside we bought a copy of the zine and stared at tao lin a bit and spotted ryan o'connell who writes for thought catalog. occasionally i overheard people saying '....tao lin' it was funny/weird. we went for a drink at a bar called botannica. the girls were drinking spirits so they got a bit drunk. my drink in nyc was 'brooklyn lager'. i felt weird in botannica. i suggested we leave to get second dinner or go to another bar. we went to a bar i had noticed after the sunday night comedy. it was called 'the scratcher'. lots of the people from the zine launch were there. there were more good looking people there than at the other bar and we played 'end of the world' again. we decided to go outside smoke the last cigarette that caroline had and also talk to emma's end of the world boy. instead, we struck up a conversation with his friend, jackson. jackson said he worked for the third best art auction house in new york. i was interested in this. he was from tennessee. we got a taxi uptown. caroline and emma called their friend laura who is doing student exchange in arizona. we ate the same pizza that i had eaten the previous evening. again, it was really good. we each had two slices. 

i woke up around 6am this morning and felt awake enough to do some emailing and other internet items. we had to leave the apartment to pick up tickets to our bus at 9am. caroline woke up, we said goodbye to sleepy emma and we were organised enough to get to port authority by 8.30. it was too early and we were bored and tired. it was cold today so everything was misty and looked grim out the bus window. we talked about how things seemed rundown as we were driving out of nyc. the bus journey took 4 hours. it was cool seeing more parts of america. as we drove through baltimore i kept thinking of that song from hairspray. we got to DC and carolyn decarlo picked us up and took us to her place. she lives in a really cool flat. she is an easygoing and nice girl, i think we will have fun staying here. she surprised me by saying that a lot of nice int lit people are coming over to her place on saturday night for a ustream. i got really excited and caroline said 'what's a ustream?'. we walked to get some food and coffee at a cafe near caro's house. caroline and i were both very excited to be out of nyc, which is a cool place, but its bustle became tiring after 10+ days of being there. it's nice to see sky and for there to be trees and less people. 

so we are staying in dc for a little while now, going to do some touristy stuff but also have some chill time and hang with nice lit people. i think it will be good. i am hungry now.

horribly almost daily recount of nyc so far

seems really hard to write enough about my trip so far & only like it will get more difficult

first night i arrived my friends were staying in soho. my face lit up when i saw the city skyline for the first time & getting the cab down prince street i just felt so happy... i was jetlagged and slept while my friends went to broadway. they got back at 2.30am and i was hungry so we went to get pizza. felt overjoyed that this was a possibility. was awesome because the pizza place we went to was playing really cool music like black keys and radiohead, then all of a sudden they played 'in my place' by coldplay which is one of my faves of theirs.

the next day we got a cab to our place in bed-stuy, which apart from being in a pretty rough area (for three white chicks), is amaaayzing and much bigger than the soho flat. we went for a wander around on our first day, caroline got a haircut in williamsburg, then we bought some groceries and made dinner in our place, watched some tv. wednesday we tried to actively go to places in brooklyn but we ended up doing a  more thorough walk down bedford ave in w'burg which was quite enjoyable as it was a fine day. just fiiine. we had lunch at this really cute cafe called egg. i had a chorizo and egg sandwich, while the other girls had pulled pork sandwiches. we have been eating quite well and cheap, i must say. food is pretty cheap, even with tipping, which i am gradually getting used to. that evening we met up with my cousin sam in the city and went to this art opening in noho. there was free champagne. the artwork was really cool, a mix of sort of nostalgia & design. by this i mean there were really well crafted bows & arrows & necklaces & games. we had pizza for dinner at lombardi's.

on thursday we went into the city and did shopping. i bought an american apparel hoodie because i have always wanted one, but in australia they are nearly double the price they are here. we went to urban outfitters. i spent half an hour in a changing room line. that evening i went to have dinner with my cousin at flux factory. once a month on thursdays the 15+ artists associated flux invite their friends/family to come have a potluck dinner and some drinks, then hang around afterwards to hear some of the artists talk about what they're up to. i found this part very interesting. there was a danish guy who had sculpted this log and other wood into a working sculpture with which to make fried egg. a polish guy was making a zine about homosexuality in eastern europe and also researching a documentary about the polish artist natalia ll. it was a very nice thing to do. i got the train back to brooklyn with my cousin's friend meg and then a taxi back to bed-stuy.

friday we did more shopping. you can do a lot of shopping in this city. in the evening we hung out with some friends from melbourne, brodie and anton. they are really sweet and it was nice to see them, catching up about uni things and talking trash about the differences between americans and australians. most people are really nice, but sometimes it's just manners and not very sincere. other times it's sincere. like in brooklyn when we asked people where to go they were always friendly. and when i was trying to get to flux i clearly had no idea what i was doing and these policemen were like "where are you trying to go, miss?". anyway the bar we met brodie & anton at had like a foot of sand on the ground. they instructed us to go up to the manhattan inn. we went into a few lame bars on the way but finally arrived at the manhattan inn which was super cool and what we had hoped williamsburg would be all about. we walked back down bedford ave after a bit of a dance in search of food. emma was pretending that her scarf was an invisibility cloak. we had a lie down on a basketball court halfway back. then we went to this really awesome place called the meatball shop which was so fucking tasty, i think my fave thing i've eaten so far. i really like that you can walk around at 2.30 in the morning and proper restaurants are still open and serving food. when we got back to our apartment the other girls skyped their friend laura in arizona but i had to sleep so i hit the ole hay.

we woke up feeling totally sleep deprived on saturday and struggled to pack up all our stuff for our move to the upper east side. we managed to pull ourselves together and clean up the place. we left our luggage with the nice lady who owned our apartment and went to the brooklyn flea market. this was an enjoyable and easy thing to do when you feel very tired, plus we couldn't check into our new place until later that day. at the market i had some nice food, looked at nice vintage clothes and pretty design things. i bought my mum a tea towel that has brooklyn written on it. our cab driver to manhattan was really nice. he seemed like a friendly family man and pointed out interesting things in brooklyn as we drove through it. everything looks so pretty at the moment because it is fall and the leaves are changing colour.. it's lovely. and it hasn't been too cold which has made for some nice walks around brooklyn & manhattan. after we arrived at our new place we left our bags and went to central park. this was my first time seeing the park and omg it was so kewl. there were a lot of fancy dogs on the walk there, which is inconvenient because my general reaction when i see dogs is like "aww puppy" or "aww doggie" (via stacey) but i can't do this now because it happens too frequently. but it's cute because you see people walking dogs in pyjamas - they obviously live in the apartments really close by and need to take their dog out a couple of times a day. after our little stroll we came back, rugged up and went downtown to take the staten island ferry, which is freeeeeeee. it was really nice seeing the city skyline and being closer to the statue of liberty (miss libs). we had dinner then went back home to watch some sex and the city and chill.

yesterday i met up with marshall mallicoat who is a fine young gentleman. we met at grand central station (which is really freaking awesome btw) then i raced across town to go on a tour of nbc studios with caroline. i got to go inside the SNL studio which made me so excited. the page kept telling us that we were breathing the same air as chris martin because coldplay had performed there the previous night. so cool. all the studios had lots and lots of lights. the halls are obviously decorated for tourists because they have a lot of framed photos of tv shows and actors lining them. we saw the board of controls (or something) which is where they show everything that is broadcast on the network at any given time. they said that if something bad happens to this one on the east coast they have a backup system that keeps it broadcasting for a whole week without power. then we went to the new york public library and sat there for a while but it was closed. marshall came to hang out with us. we wandered around, hung at grand central some more, then went to madison square park to get shake shack, which was pretty tasty, but not mindblowing i must say, after all the hype i'd heard about it. after dinner we went to a $5 comedy show and it was really funny. this was an incredibly satisfying day.

so i have been taking other notes and will try to do more updates but it's really hard because we stay out all day doing things and then get home. sorry friends. i love ya'll