We both love New York and have been several times before so it was nice to come here and spend time with one of my besties while enjoying life without having to feel like we had to be anywhere or see anything in particular. Each day entailed a different neighbourhood and thinking of each one ‘we could live here’.

We arrived on a Friday evening to really chilly weather and were thankfully picked up by an uber driver in a big chevy suburban at JFK at the end of a very long taxi line. After arriving at Rhenise’s sweet pad in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, we went out for dinner, caught up on life and got excited about the ‘hood. The weekend was spent in Brooklyn going to the markets, rooftop bars, hipster bars, watching the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight (zzzzz), having a bottomless mimosa brunch (which turned out to have a bottom after about 2hrs), wiling away the afternoon at a brewery and immersing ourselves in the neighbourhood.

At the beginning of the week we spent our fist day walking around midtown enjoying the Rangers finals fever and spending hours in B&H (an insanely large and well organised Jewish electronics store) trying to find camera supplies. The next day was filled with walking around Brooklyn and then into the meat-packing district, highline and along the Hudson River to downtown where we toured the 9-11 memorial and finally making a feeble attempt to celebrate cinco de mayo (at an Irish bar). Day 3 we took a ferry down the East River and walked over the Brooklyn bridge and then in and around Little Italy where we had an amazing Italian lunch at Rubirosa (thanks Cath & Mick!). Finally, a perfect weather day in Central Park and an evening wandering the bars of Williamsburg & Greenpoint ended by a huge authentic Colombian dinner that left Jaymin in agony and ecstasy, unable to sleep that night.

On Friday morning we got up early and took our time to get to Chinatown before realising we had about 5 blocks and 5 minutes to get to our bus to Philadelphia. We ran through markets and smelly streets before hopping on the bus just in time without having eaten and completely without hydration. 2hrs later we arrived in Philly and dismounted the bus to be greeted by a psychotic woman swearing at me that she knew me and a guy who was ‘robbed’ on the bus and needed our assistance to get home. Obliged by Rhenny we hastily walked away in desperate need of food. The city looked cool but once our starvation was sated we ubered ourselves to the airport to pick up our new car, a Ford Focus and got on our way to Atlantic City.

Atlantic City ended up being a big night. We met new friends, danced in an 80’s club, drank too much and woke up 30mins before we needed to check out (at midday). It was a fun time in a city that we all hope to never return to. We then drove to Baltimore to see one of our best friends Casey, Liam and their 2 sons Brooklyn & Ashton. It was a beautiful afternoon catching up, enjoying the warm weather and wondering how we had all ended up here together. Our prior evening had ruined us so when we all said goodbye it wasn’t long before Rhenise & I were in the hotel room trying to convince Jaymin that Pitch Perfect was the best movie option.

Our return to New York the following day was arduous. We decided to detour through Amish country in Pennsylvania and even though it added hours to our journey were pretty happy that we had seen such a completely different snapshot of the US and were able to watch cars overtake horse and carts on incredibly busy intersections without a bat of an eyelid. The traffic coming back into New York was nothing short of horrific and it ended up being an 8hr day in the car preceding another long journey the following day to Montréal. Au revoir pour le moment!

T & J