Our list of New York MOSTS

MOST EXCELLENT COFFEE SHOP
Vox Pop, on Cortelyou Rd. in Brooklyn. We discovered this place about halfway through our visit and could happily have spent the rest of our holiday hanging out there – in fact we almost did. We went back there daily for the superexcellent coffee [quite a rarity in NY, as we found out] and not least for the offbeat and sometimes radical reading material. Including the postcards. They even help people self-publish for a song!

MOST TOURISTY ACTIVITY
Grey Line Sightseeing tours – the Uptown, Downtown and Brooklyn loops. EPI was not easily sold on this one, considering it below his dignity to sit on top of a bus like a common tourist, but YT – who had taken a similar tour in London years ago – insisted. In the end EPI enjoyed it as much as I did, if not more.

MOST DELICIOUS BITE TO EAT
Pastrami on rye at Katz’s Deli. It’s famous – and for good reason.

MOST FANTASTIC PLACE TO CRASH
Our Bed and Breakfast in Brooklyn. I can’t praise this place enough! The hosts – Sue and Michael – were absolutely wonderful: easygoing, helpful, fun to be around, and intuitive to our every need. The bed was amazingly comfortable, and the numerous little details – DVDs in the hallway, bottled water in the fridge, soothing sound simulator [‘rainforest’, ‘ocean’...] in the room, little baskets in which to place our toiletries to take to the shared bathroom, gel pens at our disposal, bookshelf in the hallway ... lifted the B&B experience to new heights. And the breakfast was fabulous.

MOST TIME SPENT IN ONE NEIGHBOURHOOD
SoHo. Mostly shopping, but also dining. And meeting with Cassie.

MOST DELIGHTFUL SURPRISE
The amazing friendliness of almost everyone we met. People went out of their way to be kind, helpful and fun, and the service in every restaurant we went to was phenomenal. I loved the people we met – I would happily have taken every one of them home with us. [Except maybe the crazy guy on the subway who insisted on showing us in great detail on our subway map how we should get to our destination, but only because he smelled kinda bad].

MOST DOSH HANDED OVER TO A SINGLE COMPANY
The lucky recipient of most of our [substantial] expenditure was UNIQLO, closely followed by Apple.

MOST SATISFYING PURCHASE
The cute little ankle boots with a bow in the back, from Steve Madden.

MOST ALARMING
The invisible yet very evident divide between blacks and whites. An American friend used to say that she believed racial tensions would be the downfall of America. I don’t know if her prophecy will come to pass, but the tension was palpable.

MOST CONFUSING
The New York City subway. Why do some trains on some lines only go to some stops, and then only at some times? Why are the lines marked variously by numbers and letters, and then only some numbers and letters: 4, 5, 6, R, W, Q ...? And why can’t they just make up a map like the one of the London tube?

MOST ENJOYABLE STROLL
Walking along Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn last Saturday. So many delightful shops and restaurants!

Ok, that’s enough. Still suffering from jetlag, so it’s time to hit the sack. I’ve posted some photos to Flickr for anyone who’s interested. G’night!

PS Weather is rainy and windy. 10°C [52F], sunrise at 7:26 am, sunset at 7:08 pm.