Brooklyn, Night Out and Following Day - 3 & 4 NYC

We woke up day 3 to a total downpour, which is not good when you're walking 13 km a day! We layered up and hit the pavement. We decided to start with a bagel at a place in Brooklyn Jaime recommended which also had vegan cream cheese. Amazing again! Bagels don't have calories, right?

Next we got Jaime a fresh gingery juice as she had one extra glass of wine last night we then walked to some cute shops in Williamsburg, both new and thrift. The thrift stores here are nothing like home! They are awesome and I could have stayed in one in particular for hours. I got 4 things there Jaime found some super cute shoes on a crazy good sale. Overall a great day for shopping, minus the nasty weather.

Walking through the streets of Brooklyn we were getting absolutely soaked from the rain! We were starting to get a little grumpy from it, or at least I was, so we decided to hit up a German-style craft beer hall which promised to be warm and dry. It did not disappoint! The beer was good, Jaime got a massive pretzel, and we enjoyed the company of a couple in New York on business from Arizona.

After the beer we shopped some more, then went to find dinner at an all vegan hot dog cart, which happened to be stopped at a vegan pop up shop that day! Had I known that we probably would have gone earlier as the hot dogs were already gone we sampled some local vegan meats which were really, really good! I got a vegan macaroon and some caramels to take home, and we browsed the many other vegan stalls there.

We had to find somewhere else for dinner so we decided to hit up another shop on my list and get a doughnut from an all vegan shop also in Brooklyn. I may have had two...

At this point we parted ways and Jere and I headed homewards to dry off from our crazy rainy day! We stopped by Chipotle for a proper dinner and enjoyed the warmth of the restaurant for a few minutes. After that we got back into the pouring rain and saw Grand Central Station on the way home.

Back on the metro and out to Queens to have a rest as we planned on going out that night. We made it home by quarter to eight and we both napped for a few hours. I think I got up and started getting ready around 10:30, had some pre-drinks and planned our evening on the floor of our tiny Air BNB. By the time we left it was just after midnight! This girl hasn't done that in a while.

We headed downtown and found the club we wanted to go to. Luckily there was no line and no cover, but inside the place was PACKED! And the music was amazing, a really good mix from 80's until now. It was a gay club with, I would guess, 90% men, and Jaime and I got to dance freely with no worries! It was shaping up to be a really fun night.

One of my former colleagues from TD in Vancouver, Kenny, happened to see my snapchat and messaged me saying he was also in New York for a wedding! We had planned to meet at the club as well, and when he got there he promptly bought me a drink and we caught up as it's been a while since we've seen each other last. Lots to talk about! One thing led to another and the next thing I know were doing a double tequila shot... oops.

Lots of dancing and chatting later, the room was beginning to spin a bit! I'd also had 4 different types of alcohol at that point so we were ready to get going and find some late night food. I was wearing my new heels bought earlier that day and I had some good blisters from all the dancing and walking. Once we got outside I took turns walking and getting piggy backs! We'd picked up a walking partner from outside the club, Daylin, who was from Edmonton. What does he do? He works for TD as well! What a small world. We had lots to chat about as we hunted for food.

We tried a couple of places with no luck at all. Some of the guys got burgers while I sat and watched them eat as there was no vegan food at that spot. I assumed the big city would have falafel carts or French fries or something on the street but we couldn't find anything! It being after 4am might have had something to do with it. We found a Burger King on google maps and wanted to head there (vegan onion rings)... but they were closed!! We are in New York, right? We then talked about going to McDonalds but Daylin also used to be a vegan (?!) and he reminded us that the American McDonald's fries aren't vegan! How could I forget.

In all of our searching my feet were KILLING me. Kenny picked me up again for another piggy back, but all that tequila hit us hard and he fell flat on his face with me on his back. I'm lucky I didn't knock my teeth out! Actually we're both pretty lucky. But I did smash my iPhone on the streets of New York, so now I have a partly shattered screen. The WORST. I was pretty mad at myself but happy still as it could have been much worse! With that my heels came off and I walked barefoot in the streets of Time Square.

With all of the events of the evening behind us, no food in sight, and it was starting to get light out so we decided we'd better just head home. We said goodbye to our friends and hit the subway, myself still barefoot. We were home just after 6 and after a quick foot bath and some Chex mix we went straight to bed!

We got about 6 hours of sleep but about 4 too few for me. I woke up on the top bunk with the room spinning around me and I knew this would not be a great day! Checked the time and, oh right, I smashed my screen. Ugh! We slowly got ready and decided to hit the metro to make the most of the day. Jere was tired but feeling much much better than me!

Our first stop was food as we were both starving from the night before. We got to our favourite bagel shop and ate it on the stoop of a random brownstone. I was needing solid ground and a seat at that point! Jere was such a trooper in putting up with me

Next we walked through Rockefeller centre and were making our way down and towards the Statue of Liberty. We saw St. Patrick's Cathedral, and got near Wall Street and the bull statue.

I was feeling slightly better at that point and so we walked through a street market where Jere and I both found awesome sunglasses at $5 each! Score. Jere got some street corn to much on too. Suddenly we were checking out old New Yorker magazine prints, a flash rain storm hit! It went from sunny and blue sky to torrential downpour and wind in a few seconds. The market stalls battened down the hatches and invited us under shelter for about ten minutes until it cleared and went back to blue skies again!

We kept walking to the bottommost point of Manhattan to get as close as we were going to to the Statue of Liberty. Got some shots and headed back to the metro!

On the way through the little park this squirrel crossed our path. No biggie. Except it was very interested in us and we figured it was looking for food. I put my hand out (natural reaction) and. The squirrel was getting really close' closer and closer, it all of a sudden skittered off of the bench he was on, across the ground and UP my leg!!! I screamed! I totally didn't expect that. Jere wishes he got it on video!! When he realized I had no food he climbed back down and carried on. So funny!!

We took the metro back to the Chelsea market since we wanted another look at the stores there and there were a few options for a quick lunch, even though it was getting close to 6! We decided on a second round (different location) of the all vegan sushi place called Beyond Sushi. It was even better than the first! I have got to learn to copy these rice paper wraps. Delicious.

We had left our first day of shopping at Arash's apartment in Brooklyn since we went from his rooftop to the cute little bar and then in an uber home. We were running out of time to pick it up, so we decided to metro out to Brooklyn and meet him. It worked out well as we were thinking of having the pizza we had on Friday night again and they didn't deliver to our Air BNB. So we decided to walk from Arash's and pick it up, then uber home. All the transit took a bit of time and after a quick visit with Arash we had our pizza and we're on route home to enjoy! It was SO GOOD, even better than the first time around, and we saved a bunch for our lunch the next morning.

Overall a great few days in the city, and even with a killer hangover we managed to see quite a few areas of the city that we wanted to! My iPhone health app was off the charts and said that we walked 21.8 km that day, which I'm assuming includes all the food foraging from after the club. I just don't think that's possible, and Jere and I decided the dancing must have had some impact there.

We we're both really excited to sleep and get a good rest before an early rise Monday. Full from our delicious pizza we slept like babies.