Last full day in the Big Apple

I never quite understood why New York city was called the Big Apple, and did not find out this trip either. Not in the last place because of the fact that I didn’t bother to go looking for the answer anyway.
Oh well. The last full day. Only one more night of sleep and we’ll be heading to the airport to go to the next destination.

But first today. As we have visited most if not all of the items on our todo list, today has been a day of relaxation and trying to do stuff wedding not think of beforehand. This meant we started off at a restaurant which was recommended to us by a couple of friends.

Little Italy. Or SoHo. Or NoLita. We actually don’t know. All we know the place we had breakfast is called Balthazar and is located on 80 Spring Street. That’s on Spring Street and Lafayette Street. And it’s not Italian. But French. And really good. Actually, really good. It’s where the locals also go. And where we had our breakfast. 🙂

With our stomachs filled we headed off to nowhere actually. We ended up touring SoHo (Wooster Street, aka Woostah!) only to find quite a lot of hipsters and really stylish stores with furniture, kitchens, interiors and designer clothes. After this, we went back to NoLita and also Little Italy (Grand Street) to get a good taste of what this was like. As we were there around lunchtime, the restaurants were literally begging us to get a taste of cannoli and pasta. We politely refused.
We can definitely recommend touring these three districts as they are both historically important for the city itself and really fun!

Trying to find our way back towards a subway station we ended up walking through Chinatown (Mott Street) which was a true blast. This was not the tourist’s Chinatown, this was Chinese Chinatown. Brimful of little shops with fruit and vegetables, weird spices, and fish markets, this is the place where the NY Chinese live and go grocery shopping. No common letters around. Only Chinese script. What a sight! We have been wandering around getting amazed at every corner on the streets.

With a small loot of cherries we headed to 34th in the neighbourhood of our beloved Empire State Building to eat those and enjoy being there. Eventually, we ended up doing some more shopping and buying as spending money on clothes is something all travellers to NY seem to do, we were definitely not an exception. 🙂

Heading back to the hotel, we figured we didn’t want to go far to grab a bite which meant we were going to eat at the restaurant directly adjacent to the hotel. Also serving Italian food, it was good but not too much. And at 23 degrees it was really nice to have dinner at a table outside.
Our last trip of the day included riding the 6 and the 5 all the way down to Fulton Street tosee the Brooklyn Bridge at night. Just lovely!

Unfortunately, we are destined to leave New York tomorrow. We have come to really like this city and the bustling atmosphere. We however disliked the smell. If only this could be dealt with. It’ll probably not be why we’re not going again! 🙂