Back on the Road Again, A Cheeky Stop in New York: 7th - 11th February 2008

February 21, 2008 by Naomi.

Travelling to an airport without bicycles is highly recommended. With great ease we checked ourselves and very simple rucksacks in and flew back over the Atlantic for a long weekend in the Big Apple before heading south to continue with our travels. Once again, we were smote with the charm of those US immigration officers who, this time, sent us off to the ’secondary examination area’, where Naomi (but not Paul) timidly and tiredly answered the various questions barked at her. Clearly we were entering the States far too frequently for their liking (despite having a 10-year US visa firmly glued into our passports). It seems a month is insufficient time for the last of our paperwork (on departure from Phoenix) to be cleared and entered onto the computer system.

We were welcomed by Melinda, a friend of Paul’s from his early days in Seville, and Paulo, in their compact but bijou apartment in Brooklyn. For the next four days, we shopped and walked til our feet bled, and found refuge in cinemas, various bars and restaurants around Manhattan and Brooklyn. One particularly exciting night out saw us start out at a party at Paulo’s architect office, where quite copious amounts of booze were consumed. We drunkenly delighted in the view of the Empire State Building from the roof, but not before setting off the fire alarm by pressing the emergency bar to get out there. Much later on, we ended up in rather seedier company in a bar called Clem’s in Brooklyn. One particularly follically unchallenged bloke fondling his stars and stripes took great exception to our presence and desperately tried to pick a fight with us ‘redcoats’, using the positioning of Paul’s chair as an excuse. Luckily, our new-found enemy sent his mate to question us on the Irish Problem, and found someone better to pick on before Paulo was tempted to take things further.

Temperatures dropped quite dramatically during our visit and culminated in a great blizzard as we wandered the streets of New York with Mark on a bleak Sunday afternoon. From that moment on, at each corner we turned a blisteringly cold wind tore at any exposed skin on our faces and made being outside quite unbearable. Was this a forewarning of our visit Patagonia, where car renters are warned to watch out when opening car doors in case the wind tears doors off their hinges?

On our last night in Brooklyn, we ate dinner with our hosts at the excellent Bamonte’s, where the service is slow, and the waiters all over 70. But it is a regular hang out of wiseguys, the connected of Brooklyn and out-of-state mobsters, or at least the autographed photos on the wall of various Soprano’s actors, Italian celebrities and Tony Danza, would have you believe. At least the traditional Italian food lived up to the myth even if most of the clientele didn’t.

Recommendations after this visit:
Breakfast at Egg in Brooklyn
Prix Fixe lunch at Gotham Bar and Grill in Greenwich Village (30 bucks)
Erotic Photo Hunt at the Racoon Lodge in downtown Manhattan, but not the juke box!
Clem’s in Brooklyn if you’re looking for trouble!

We are proud to say that our written blog is now finally up to date with the photoblog, to clear up any confusion our readers may have had. We hope to keep it this way although some internet cafes are rife with technical problems…

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