Brooklyn and Back

First, an apology for the ending of last night's blog, I was really quite sleepy...

After a night where nothing bad happened (!) Aaron and I were both wide awake around 5:30am...how we love you jet lag) so we were able to get a good start on the day.

I was so hungry when I woke up, but I've been scared to eat much (at all) since my colic attack the other night and I mentioned to Aaron that I missed cereal. It's super nice that here you can get an omelette or pancakes for $3 but I really wanted something that wasn't rich. I almost wept when Aaron mentioned that the cafe at the bottom of the hotel serve cereal so I dragged him down there for breakfast around 7am.

Today was going to be the day we went to a taping of Maury Povich, we'd ummed and ahhed originally and then decided we would go, but the crazy events of the last few days meant we felt like we hadn't seen enough of NYC, so we decided to skip it. Today's goal became about seeing some more of Brooklyn.

For those of you that aren't aware, my sister is named Brooklyn, so it's kind of got an extra level of interest for me (she is not named after the city/borough). (My other sister is Jordan, which makes me have an extra curiousity about that country too.)

We grabbed a hop on hop off bus from Times Square to Battery Park and then another for a loop around Brooklyn. Both rides were freezing. I'm hoping the rest of the trip brings a bit more sun and heat.

We probably didn't scratch much of the surface of Brooklyn, sticking mostly too the Brooklyn Heights area, and the main roads around the Botanic Gardens etc. No offence to the Brooklynites reading this but we were really surprised by how pretty Brooklyn was, the tree lined streets are full with gorgeous Brownstones, I think we imagined it much more industrial looking or similar. We had some nice views of Manhattan, especially the lower end, and the Brooklyn Bridge too. (The Brooklyn Bridge is going to be my big regret from this trip, as I really, really wanted to walk over it, but we just didn't have time, and won't tomorrow.) We really liked Brooklyn and will definitely spend more time wandering around it next time we go to NYC.

After heading back to midtown Manhattan on another bus (we deliberately sat in the much warmer bottom half and I promptly fell asleep!) we decided to stop off at an earlier stop outside of the Waldorf Astoria, so I could take Aaron to meet my real true love, the Chrysler Building. I love the Chrysler so much it's ridiculous. I found myself near patting its wall lovingly. It's just such a beautiful piece of architecture.

It was raining like a heavy mist by this point, so after also stopping by Grand Central Station, we headed back to the hotel, to get warm and dry, via Toys R Us.

I fell asleep again back at the hotel (whoops!).

After rousing, we walked to W46th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenue) to an area known as Restuarant Row. It's basically a restaurant in every building with cusines from Italian, Japanese, Russian, Brazilian etc to choose from. We didn't know what we wanted and I was still worried, so we ended up picking an Irish themed pub and it was really yummy and so cheap.

Heading back towards the hotel, we realised that the night loop version of the bus was picking people up, and they were using a covered bus, so we decided to get on. It was certainly warmer and dryer but photos were near impossible. We did get to really enjoy the lights of New York though, which wow us still every time.

Falling asleep again... so will sign off. Have a good day!