Friends in the City!

Last Thursday two of my best friends arrived just five minutes before I did in my apartment building and from that moment their Power Trip to NYC had begun. I'm still exhausted while writing...
After a refreshing shower for Heiko and Luc, we started pretty simple with a nice lunch at Union Square, while a thunderstorm flew right over the city and people got soaking wet in no time. When things started to get better we did some first shopping, something that would be a pretty dominant theme during the 3,5 days of the visit.
Friday was for "Shopping@Fifth" after which we headed for a great diner at Sushi Samba in the West Village, we had some good conversations! After that the Buddakan bar and restaurant was the perfect place to have some cocktails among the hip and good looking Meatpacking crowd.
Saturday was another shopping day for the guys, now they had aimed for a premium outlet center an hour drive outside the city: Woodbury Common Premium Outlet Center... At first, I was against going there for cheap shopping. But once we arrived, I arrived some hours later as I had a small hangover, it was a nice somewhat overwhelming experience. Literally a small village in the hills north of NYC with only premium brand outlet shops. Unbelievable!

That night we had another very nice diner planned in Spice Market, one of my favorite restaurants as some of you must have noticed. Atmosphere, service and decor are great, the food is very good. Again I wasn't disappointed at all and we enjoyed every aspect of this Asian Latin fusion concept... After diner we headed to the Soho Play House where we saw a comedy show, a mix of stand-up comedy and improvisation theater. Obviously, American humor is not the same as Dutch humor. Simple jokes and, at some point in time, a naked comedian on stage were not the ingredients for a successful show to my opinion.
Gansevoort Hotel rooftop bar was next. Outside you can see the West Village, Hudson river, New Jersey and Meatpacking district, inside we enjoyed a nice view on some celebs like Dennis Rodman, a former top NBA player (who once was married to Carmen Electra for no more than a month) and Yfke Sturm, the Dutch super model. It was a super evening!

Sunday was a nice sunny day, taking a water taxi from the west side to the east side (Brooklyn Bridge) was a great opportunity to see the skyline of this impressive island called Manhattan.
It was an intensive but highly enjoyable weekend, guys. Come back soon!

Unemployment Olympics, Auto show and more...

New Yorkers are resilient people, in times of terrorist attacks as we know and in times of economic downturn. A funny example I read about are the Unemployment Olympics organised to bring a smile on the face of the many unemployed in this city.
The Unemployment Olympics are a four-event competition — Telephone toss, Payday piñata, Pin-the-Blame-on-the-Boss and the "You're Fired!" race — exclusively for the unemployed New Yorkers. Unemployment Olympians must show proof of their unemployment in the form of a New York State unemployment card, a termination letter or whatever evidence of job loss. With the city easing its way into spring, being outdoors under a blue sky is almost as refreshing as the chance to toss an old office phone with all the unemployment frustration you have inside.

Another example of persistence is the NY International Auto Show that was held despite all misery that the car industry is going through. Being kind of a car freak and full of expectations I took off to the Jacob Javits center in Midtown West. After a promising start with 3 or 4 pimped sports cars I got more and more disappointed. This wasn't getting close to the Amsterdam Auto Show I used to visit every 2 years!
Premium (sports) car brands like Lamborghini, Rolls Royce and Ferrari were lacking...no big US collection of V8 thunder cruisers, women in bikinis to demonstrate the latest models or futuristic concept cars...the best I could find were 3 Bentley's.

Anyway, spring has moved itself into the city this weekend, drawing an overwhelming and diverse crowd into Central Park. Riding a bike, hosting a picnic or just enjoying a stroll under the blossoming trees. It gave me a lot of fresh energy to start a new week of NY life!