Central Park

Central Park was amazing! The autumn colors were superb, so was the weather. We walked a lot, saw lots of squirrels and joggers, enjoyed a birthday cocktail at the Boathouse and super catchy tunes by Tin Pan.

The photos above are taken by both me and Sølve, with Canon 40D and Kodak Ektar 100.

bagel lunch in Central Park

After the High Line we walked to the nearest subway station and headed uptown to Central Park.


These beautiful yellow leaves were everywhere on the sidewalks.





We stumbled upon Murray's Bagels in 500 Avenue of the Americas. I remembered Brian told me "if you want good NY bagels, go to Murray's Bagels" - so we had to have one. I asked for a bestseller and we got one with cream cheese, smoked salmon, red onion and capers.





We entered Central Park in Strawberry Fields and enjoyed the bagel on a bench by the Imagine memorial. It was fun watching people pose for photographs there. We did it too - the look down way. The bagel was good, by the way, but had too much smoked salmon for my taste.

High Line

After breakfast at Pastis we grabbed a coffee from Ninth Street Espresso at Chelsea Market and walked the High Line. It was amazing - we both absolutely loved it! In fact I think it was one of my favorite things in New York.

The High Line was built in the 1930s, as part of a massive public-private infrastructure project called the West Side Improvement. It lifted freight traffic 30 feet in the air, removing dangerous trains from the streets of Manhattan's largest industrial district. No trains have run on the High Line since 1980. Friends of the High Line, a community-based non-profit group, formed in 1999 when the historic structure was under threat of demolition. Friends of the High Line works in partnership with the City of New York to preserve and maintain the structure as an elevated public park.

Text from thehighline.org.

The above photos are a mix of Canon 40D and Kodak Ektar 100, taken by both Sølve and I.

birthday breakfast

Our fourth day in New York, October 28, I turned 31.

Photo by Sølve, Canon 40D



We enjoyed Pastis so much the day before, we went back there for my birthday breakfast.


Photo by Sølve

The Egg Benedict was amazing! It was the first time I tasted this classic - now I'll have to learn how to make it at home.



The granola with yoghurt and fresh berries was also pretty amazing.



I find it always hard to decide on one thing on restaurant menus, so does Sølve. Our solution was to share all meals whilst in New York. That way we got to eat even more delicious dishes.



Pastis feels like the perfect mix of Paris and New York - I already look forward to our next visit.

All photos above (expect the top one), film: Kodak Ektar 100

Pastis

After a stroll in the Meatpacking District we took the subway downtown for some shopping at Century 21. The place was way too busy for my taste, so I didn't bother shopping for myself, but Sølve found some beautiful suits and coats at bargain prices.



Film: Kodak Ektar 100

Lunch on our third day in New York was at Pastis. We had a quick drink there the night before, while waiting for our table at Spice Market (both places were really close to our hotel). I'm glad we came back for food - it was delicious!




Canon D40

By the way, I did do some shopping in Soho after lunch; at Gap, Banana Republic, J. Crew and Uniqlo - brands/stores we don't have in Norway.

Meatpacking District

The Meatpacking District were a five minutes walk from our hotel. I loved the mix of high-end fashion boutiques, cool restaurants and old brick buildings. This is also where the High Line park starts - which we both absolutely loved. You can see a glimpse of it in the photo above with the truck, the taxi and the police car. I'll show you more from the High Line later.

I think Sølve's favorite part of this area was the Apple Store on West 14th Street (the photo above from inside the store is taken by Sølve). The only Apple product we own is a pink iPod Shuffle that we won. But after spending a couple of hours in this store, I'm sure Sølve could have walked out with a whole collection of Apple products. The only things stopping him were silly things like the lack of a Norwegian keyboard (for æ, ø and å, you know), the iPhone being locked, etc.