Almost everything we’re doing in these last weekes & days are last things. The last time we eat at this restaurant, the last time we get a coffee here, the last time we cycle by this corner, etc. etc. It feels strange.

Last weekend we had our last guests. Mark & Chiara arrived on Thursday for a long weekend. We started off by walking around our neighborhood and having dinner at Mole, our favorite Mexican restaurant. We’ve been here often enough to be recognized and welcomed by the owner and some of the waiters (Saskia has a secret crush on one of them).

By the end of dinner, both our guests were almost falling asleep, so we took them to their apartment. The next day, I had to work and so did Saskia, but we met up with them after work. Actually, I met up with Dawn, another ex-colleague from Amsterdam at the end of the day, who also happened to be in New York. Then Mark and Chiara joined us, after which I went back to the office with Mark to introduce him to Angela. Who knows, User Intelligence might be able to help her in the future. We went out for dinner (pizza!) and called it a day!

On Saturday, we slept quite long, and then went to get some breakfast and run some errands. We found a new, large bag, and Mark & Chiara had offered to bring some of our stuff back! That will save us at least one excess bag on our trip back…

For dinner, we decided to check out the meatpacking district. Strolling around was not an option, as it was pouring with rain. So we just ran out of the taxi and into Spice Market. A big restaurant with an Asian theme. It looked very nice, but we might have to wait for an hour. We found a place at the bar to drink cocktails, order starters and wait for our table. After about 45 minutes a table was available, and we had a wonderful dinner. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food!

After that, it was dry outside, and Mark & Chiara were up for some drinks, so we took a taxi to the East Village. We first tried Angel Share, another speakeasy. No mention is made of the bar outside, but instead you need to go into a japanese restaurant. There is an inconspicuous door within th erestaurant that leads to the bar. However, the bar turned out quite full, and not lively enough for our guests, so we decided to find another place. The next choice was a lively bar, where we had some drinks. I think we could have been parents to most of the other people there, but the music was definitely more from our time than from theirs! After another bar it was time to go home.

On Sunday I sold my bike! Nicole, a colleague, decided to buy it and came to the city to pick it up. After that, we rolled our extra suitcase to Mark & Chiara’s apartment, and then had a last drink with them at the German beergarden. After we said our goodbyes, we had to run to be in time for “Arias with a twist”, a show at the HERE theatre, that Saskia wanted to see. It really was an amazing show, I’m sure Saskia will write about it at some point…

After that show, we had a quick dinner at a Cuban place in SoHo, after which we walked to Bleecker Street. Just off of Bleecker, in MacDougal Street, we found “The Rabbit Club”. This is where Julia Haltigan would be playing an acoustic set. The place did not look like a live music venue, and it wasn’t. According to the owner/barman, this would be the first live music in his bar. Julia arrived with her Dad, sat at the bar and started playing.

Her voice is amazing, and with dad playing mandoline and blues harp, the performance was quite an experience. There were about 10 people at the bar, watching the show. After the show, we bought her CD and went home.

That was our last weekend! This Friday, we’ll be leaving New York. <sigh>

Sorry. Again. We’re running way behind with the full updates, although we did have some time to write some shorter blog posts. But I’ve figured out why we didn’t write a big update. We’re running out of time. In three weeks, we’re back in Amsterdam. And before then, we want to do as many of the things we haven’t done yet. So somehow, writing the blog gets pushed back.

But, here I am, doing an update. I have a feeling we need at least three updates, but let’s start with this one.

On Thursday afternoon, two weeks ago, Marco and Margreet arrived in New York. I met them at their apartment (The Eldridge apartment that we used for Yvonne and Saskia’s mother too), and then went for coffee. Saskia was working until 6:30, so we walked around Chinatown Little Italy for a bit. We met Saskia and found our way to a nice wine bar where we did some catching up. It was not going to be a late night, so after some tapas, we called it a night. Too bad it had started raining a little.

The rest of the weekend would have more rain, a real pity, especially for our visitors. Lots of indoor activities were called for. Which basically meant quite a bit of shopping (both Marco and I bought awesome shirts), cofees, food and music. The music requires and deserves its own blog entry. On Sunday night, we actually made it out to a small club after dinner. It was called The Sapphire Lounge, and we had a drink there, and did our first bit of dancing in New York!

Anyway, it was a lot of fun to show Marco and Margreet where we’ve been spending our time here in New York, especially since this whole idea of going to New York started with the trip two years ago, together with them to the Big Apple. And I think they’d like to try this for themselves as well!

We only had a couple of days to recuperate, because on Friday, my mum and dad would arrive. They’d already spent almost two weeks in the States, a little further north. They rented a car there and drove around Massachusetts, Maine and New England. Their plane flew in to Newark airport, and Saskia was there to pick them up. 

They were staying at the same apartment in Eldridge street, and after they’d brought their luggage there, Saskia took them to the office where I saw them. I needed to finish some stuff at work, so Saskia took them out to lunch and after work, I joined them for coffees at my Starbucks. We walked back to our place, so they could see where we’ve been living for the past 4 months. After a little rest, we had dinner at Mole. We’d been there once before with Ap, and the food tonitgh was really very very good. It’s a Mexican restaurant, but they have some really interesting dishes on their menu. I especially liked the fresh guacamole (not very original, but they make it fresh at your table, to your specifications, and it really was one of the best I’ve had), and the ceviche. This is a dish made with raw fish that is ‘cooked’ in lime juice. This version had squid, shrimp and some sort of white fish, with tomatoes and a real chili kick. Very good indeed! The Margaritas were also very tasty and potent.

After dinner, we decided to go to Banjo Jim’s. We could all use a bit of fresh air so we walked there and had a fun evening with live country music (see next blog entry for more info).

Mom and dad hadn’t been in New York before. Well, dad had, but that was over thirty years ago. And they were only here for three days. So we needed to be efficient in showing them some of the highlights of the city. So, after breakfast, we traveled to TImes Square. Looked around a bit (Korean Day Parade), and then bought tickets for one of the bus tours. We hadn’t done this yet, and it actually was quite interesting. 

The tour guide told us a lot of things we didn’t know, so we really enjoyed it, and so did my parents. In Greenwich Village we got out of the bus (it’s a hop-on, hop-off system) and walked around the area for a bit. We visited our first apartment in the West Village and enjoyed the beautiful weather with a coffee on the Hudson. We then did the second part of the tour, which took us further down to the southern tip of Manhattan, and then up again, through Chinatown and past the United Nations headquarters all teh way to Central Park. By this time all of us were having serious bladder overload issues, so we got out just before the end of the tour at a Starbucks and stood in line to use the bathroom. It had also become quite cold up in that doubledecker buss, so we had some hot chocolate. Yummie!

From there, we went home, has some rest and then went out for dinner at Macelleria, the restaurant we celebrated Saskia’s birthday at. Another fine dinner, with great wines. I belive we called it a night after dinner.

On Sunday, we had breakfast at Prince, and then got in a cab to South Street Seaport, where we took the boat tour around Lower Manhattan and past the Statue of Liberty. Boat trips are always fun, and it is another great way of seeing the city. After that trip, we walked around the Financial District for a bit, seeing Wall Street and Ground Zero, and an exhibition in St Pauls Church on the rescue workers that used it as a base during the rescue operation after 9/11. 

It was time for (a late) lunch, and we ended up in a Malaysian place, for a very nice and affordable lunch. We went home again for some rest (we actually really enjoyed these little rests!). One last major touristy thing to do was of course to get on the top of some tall building to see the city. So we went to our favourite: The Top of the Rock. No lines whatsoever, so we were up there in no time, and got a great nighttime view of the city. Spent some time up there, took in the views and then went down and nearly got lost in the underground mall that they have there.

A taxi took us back to downtown, but the restaurant we had thought of turned out to be almost empty (it was Sunday night, 9:45pm). We dedcided to look for a place with a few more people and ended up at a really nice Italian place where we basically ordered a couple of starters and some pasta. But we did go through two pottles of wine again, and really enjoyed the food and the wine. And the whole restaurant was a very nice place.

We walked back to our neighborhood and I said goodbye to my parents, as I would be back to the office the next morning. Well, we’ll be back in Amsterdam next month, so I’m sure I’ll see them before too long.

Saskia had breakfast with them, and then they had to go back to the apartment, pack and catch a cab to take them back to the airport and to the Netherlands!

Two visits in two weeks. It was a lot of fun, and somewhat exhausting at the same time. And we now really feel that our six-month adventure is slowly coming to an end. So we’re counting down. Please excuse us if we don’t update the blog regularly (have we ever?), but now we’ve got one extra, very good reason for it. We’re making the best of every last hour and minute that we’re here. I know that we’ll miss this place when we’re back…

Last week my mother visited us and I’m going to try to remember what we did.

She arrived on Friday night (12th) at JFK and after a few good hugs we took a taxi to the city. It is so nice to see people’s faces when they see NY’s skyline for the first time! Although it is still breathtaking I will never forget the first time I saw it.  We arrived at her home for a week and after she left her bags in the room we met Jacco downstairs and went for dinner at a French restaurant in The Lower East Side. Again we had to make our way through film crew shooting one of their many series but it immediately gave her a sense of New York.

The next day we had breakfast at Orchard (one of our two breakfast places) and afterwards we walked towards Mulberry Street where there was a street festival honoring St. Gennaro. Those Italians have a lot of Saints celebrations and it involves mainly one thing: FOOD. And lots of it. We tried our luck at a shooting game and walked some more in this neighborhood. Because we had an evening program planned we went home in the afternoon for an hour rest and met again for dinner at the noodle bar, a nice little restaurant in LES where you can have good noodles and other Asian dishes. After dinner we took the train to Brooklyn to find the location of the Rooftop Film Festival. The first time we went there was with Yvon and that time it wasn’t on a roof but in a large garden. This time it was on a roof, the roof of a can factory. The setting was beautiful but also a bit too ‘clean’. It didn’t have the cosy feeling of the garden but it was nevertheless a special place. Like the first time the evening starts with a music performance. This time the singer was not drunk which was an improvement but all her songs had a dreamy, slow sound that worked as a lullaby for the three of us. Fortunately the crowd shared our opinion and didn’t mind our snoring.Then the films started, the theme was  ‘dark comics’. So no nice sweet films about…well,…for example rabbits but scary, dark and cynical films who where often very funny. The amount of bugs however was not so funny, we were eaten alive. And for the first night in many it got really chilly, but that was a discomfort we embraced because that meant better sleep! After the film there was complimentary wine in the inner court of the building which is not a can factory anymore but houses many little ‘ateliers’. The evening ended with a taxi ride with skyline view.

Then next day we had breakfast at the diner owned by our Greek friend and mum had her first ‘eggs well done’. Then we decided we wanted to go to Governor Island, a little island close to Battery Park which is uninhabited. After the last occupants, the coast guard, left nobody is allowed to live there. New York City doesn’t have money to maintain the facilities on the island and so the whole place is up for sale. In the summer they make an exception and you can take a ferry during the weekend to visit the island. So on the day it would become 90 degrees we escaped the city and took the boat which took only 10 minutes to cross but you had a good view on the Statue of Liberty. Every weekend they have a theme party on the island and this time it was Charleston. On the big lawn was stage with a large band playing music from the twenties and a lot of people had dressed up for the occasion. It really was as if cute Doctor Who had offered as a tour with the Tardis. All around empty houses which tried to look pretty but if you looked close you could see the signs of abandonment. A weird island… But it was a beautiful afternoon and from the west side you again had amazing views of the Statue and Manhattan. Back on Manhattan shore we walked to a cafe, had a drink and took a cab home. Trying really hard to remember where we had dinner. It will come to me…later.

You might have noticed a lack of mentions of work here on the blog lately. Part of that has to do with the fact that I have worked on a number of pitches, so some of that work is classified. But mainly it was just that there wasn’t that much work.

However, it seems as though all the work has come in at the same time, so now it’s suddenly über-busy. Three projects at the same time, all with tight deadlines. You know, fun stuff! I actually really enjoyed working hard for a change. A pity that this always seems to happen when we have visitors though. Anyway, I’ve been keeping busy with several projects for a large bank (one of the ones that still exist after this week!).

Also, this weeks seems like fall has arrived. The weather’s been holding up fine, but it has definitely cooled down a lot. Right now (Saturday, 1:45pm) it is only 66°F (19°C). Saskia is actually wearing a jacket again, basically for the first time since we’ve arrived. Although I’m going to miss the summer, I’m also looking forward to seeing a different season.

Saskia took her mother to the airport yesterday, after her week-long visit. It was great having her over, and I’m sure Saskia will tell you a lot more about that.

Wow, that must have been my shortest blog-post ever. But I have nothing more to tell you. Check out the pictures on Flickr (September or all), and you can always keep up with my twitter feed.

[disclaimer: part of this post was written last week, and I decided to finish this one before posting about our past week. So this post spans Aug 23 - Sep 1]

And we actually had a long weekend, but no chance to keep you up-to-date. Tsk tsk! I think we owe you a write-up of the previous weekend (Aug 23rd), and everything after that. So how about we keep it really short, where possible?

The main thing I remember from that previous weekend is the fire at Saskia’s Fringe location. There was a tiny fire at the first floor, but the fire department showed up with two full trucks. Will upload pictures at some point, we promise! It was also Saskia’s last weekend at the Fringe Festival.

During the week, I guess the most exciting thing that happened was an amazing sunset on Tuesday night (pictures are available on Flickr, see links on the right) and my birthday on Wednesday. Saskia came in to the office and brought doughnuts from the Doughnut Plant for all of us (very yummy!). And all of us was basically just me. Sandra joined us a little later, but it was a quiet night at the office. Oh, I got quite a few birthday cards and e-cards! Thank you all for those!

After work, we went to the West Village, to have dinner at the Spotted Pig. A great place, sort of a normal bar-like place, but with a really good kitchen. We had some great food, and free champagne from the people sitting next to us. They were celebrating the guy’s birthday as well!

And then, on Friday night, Dana and Wayne arrived from DC to spend the weekend in New York. They had found this little Bed & Coffee place (no breakfast, just coffee) on Avenue C. Since their train had arrived an hour late, we were in a little hurry to get going. Saskia had arranged a surprise that night, and so we took a taxi to Brooklyn. The driver took a strange detour, but we got to a very nice restaurant in the end. They did not take any reservations, which meant we had to sit outside and drink wine while we waited for a table.

After about half an hour, we had a table, outside in the ‘barn’. The menu looked really good, and after some hard thinking we all made up our minds. Then the waiter came, and made me change my mind. The main course he suggested was a cold cut of ribeye steak. We also had some straters to share (which included amazing prosciutto or speck), but somehow they couldn;t manage to serve the house special (meatballs) as a starter. That meant that in the end, both Wayne and I had an amazing piece of succulent ribeye steak with a side of meatballs. How carnivorous can we get?

Although dinner took a bit longer than expected, and Saskia was slightly worried that we were going to miss the surprise she had in store, we got in another taxi to take us to the surprise location. It actually wasn;t too easy to find a taxi to take us there. Aparently, we were going to the end of the world. Or at least, the end of Brooklyn. And taxi drivers get a little scared when that happens. 

But we did manage to find an adventurous driver, who we had to give directions from my Blackberry phone. It actually felt like we were leaving civilization behind when he dropped us on some god-forsaken corner in the middle of an industrial area. I would not be surprised if this was a popular location for maffia hits, or where they dropped people with concrete shoes in the East River.

However, there was a little bar a few doors down, and Saskia confidently led us in. It felt like the place suddenly went completely quiet when we walked in. It really didn’t, but quite a few heads did turn and look to see who entered their place. It was obviously a very local bar, and they didn’t get many strangers in there. No people from Manhattan, definitely no people from Washington DC, let alone all the way from Amsterdam. But after the first, slightly uneasy reaction, it did not feel uncomfortable anymore. 

Saskia took us here because of the band that was playing. She met Osei Essed through her work at the Fringe Festival, and he plays in ‘The Woes‘. They play “a soft, rolling acid trip into soul, jazz, americana, and bayou funk”. Hard to describe, but it was a lot of fun. The room they were playing in was packed, but after two songs they took a break. We found ourselves a spot at a little table, had a few drinks and waited for the following set. They played another set, and we thouroughly enjoyed their music and enthousiasm. Osei was suffering from a voice problem, so it was sometimes hard to understand him, but the rest of the band sounded great.

I guess we had a few too many whiskies, and in the taxi home Wayne fell asleep. when Dana and he got back to their Bed and Coffee, he feel asleep right away. The next morning we were scheduled to have brunch somewhere, but Dana called to inform us that Wayne was in no state to join us for that. He was feeling really rough, I guess he’s been out of training for too long

We had breakfast with Dana, and we walked around the East Village for a bit. Then we went to Midtown, where Dana visited the top of the Empire State Building, and we did so[me shopping and reading. After some more walking, we went to meet Wayne, who was now feeling a lot better. We then walked around our old neighbourhood, The West Village for some more and had dinner at Mama Buddha’s.

On Sunday, we walked a lot more, this time around Little Italy, Soho and Chinatown. We had lunch at a place called Joe’s Shanghai, which is famous for it’s soup dumplings. Yup, dumplings filled with soup. Hard to eat! After we learned that you actually place it on a spoon before biting into it, it became a little simpler. Another bit of walking (Brooklyn Bridge), and then we went home to get ready for dinner.

We had reservations at Centro Vinoteca, just off Bleecker Street and 7th Ave. We were going to meet up with Wei-Li and Karen, Wayne’s brother and his wife. Centro Vinoteca is sort of famous for the fact that the chef there is Anne Burrell, who became famous for being the sous-chef for Iron Chef Mario Battali. Oh, Iron Chef. Something we do not have in Europe. It’s a competitve cooking program, with professional chefs. A great show to wacth, and it’ll give you some great inspiration. 

We first had a drink at a bar in the neighbourhood, and then went to the restaurant. We decided we would go ‘family-style’, ordering different things from the menu to share. What happened was that each of us order a couple of dishes (Dana ordered some of the piccolini, small plates to share, Wayne order a couple of starters, I ordered some pastas, Saskia was in charge of main courses and Wei-Li ordered desserts. Oh, and Karen took care of ordering the drinks. 

We had a great time, and some great food! It was a lot of fun, and too soon it was time for Karen en Wei-Li to leave for New Jersey again. The four of us went to our place, where we had a whisky ( an intresting single malt whisky from Virginia!), before we all started crashing and Wayne and Dana got in a cab to their place. 

Monday was Labor Day, an official holiday, and we spent it by having brunch and a quest for cupcakes that ended at the Cake Shop. We then said goodbye to Dana and Wayne. It is so much fun to have friends over, and show them our vision of New York! And of course, it’s great to see Wayne and Dana a lot more regularly than when we live in Amsterdam.

After our goodbyes, we took a subway to Coney Island. It’s an interesting place. I wanted to go there, because the whole weekend they had a rockabilly festival there. We got there and it looked just like the pictures we had seen of it. It’s a weird and interesting place. Sort of out of time. It looks like a Sixties or Seventies fun fair at the beach. Please see the pictures, they describe the place a lot better than I could do in words. 

The rockabilly festival wasn;t as interesting as we would have hoped. We saw the first part of the ‘Miss Pin-Up Coney Island’, and a band that sucked.  We then decided tp leave again, but not after trying the famous Nathan’s Original Hotdog! On our way back to the city, we got off the subway just before gettign to Manhattan again, just to spend a bit of time in our little park between the bridges. I think I got some really nice photos there!

Then it was off to home, and a simple, home-cooked soup and sandwich dinner. A long and full weekend, but we enjoyed it a lot!

There really is live music to be heard very day of the week, without much trouble. When Yvon was visiting, we went to Rockwood Music Hall on Sunday. We walked in, and just like last time we were there, the band stopped playing. That was a pity, as they sounded pretty good (and slightly country). We ordered a drink and waited for the next band to start.

The next act was a singer/songwriter who had a couple of musicians around her. Although her voice was cool, and the songs were kind of nice, it didn’t do it for me. Saskia and Yvonne seemed to enjoy themselves a bit more. After her, a guy took to the stage with just a guitar. He had a strange, high-pitched voice and sang a few songs to an almost empty bar. I liked that gig a little more, but we’ve seen much better!

On Monday night, we were supposed to go and see another night of Kuntry Karaoke. However, we were all a little too tired, and decided to stay on Manhattan. We had dinner at a noddle bar, right across from Arlene’s Grocery. And that is where, every Monday night, they host the Hardrock Karaoke! So, after dinner we really had to go and check it out.

The show had already started when we walked in, and the place was full! The band (same line-up as in Pakhuis Wilhelmina, 2 guitars, bass, drums) was great, and played with ease. Their songlist contains over a 100 songs! The MC was not the most energetic man, but he kept things going. And the performers were all amazingly good, with only one or two exceptions. Definitely NOT a place to just get up and sing. At least, not for me. That will have to happen at Hank’s Saloon at some point, I guess

Th elast bit of live music reporting is about this Saturday., We saw that the River to River festival had an schduled an evening to celebrate the music of Johnny Cash. Since we both like his music a lot, this sounded like something we should check out. It was going to be held at the Winter Garden in the Financial District. We got on our bikes and cycled around the southern tip of Manhattan towards the Financial District. This is a very new area, along the Hudson, and has a nice bike & footpath.

We relaxed for a couple of hours, enjoying the sun and reading a bit. We went in around 19:00, the show would start at 20:00. It was already relatively packed, all chairs were taken so we found ourselves a spot on the marble stairs. And this is when we started worrying. Not only the staircase, but everything (walls, floors) were made out of stone & marble. And the place is covered by glass. This makes for sub-optimal acoustics…

When the show started, it was immediately clear that this venue is not meant for live, amplified music. The sound quality was really poor. We liked some of the performers, and their interpretations of Johnny Cash’s songs. But the quality was so bad (and the stairs so uncomfortable) that after only 45 minutes we decided to leave.

Now it is Monday, July 28th. And we’re about to leave for New Jersey. East Rutherford, to be precise. Giants Stadium at Meadowlands. To see Bruce Springsteen! We’ll have an update soon!

Our fourth guest arrived last Wednesday, my sister! Despite the fact that she is not too fond of flying (understatement) she got on the plain, crossed the ocean and arrived safe and sound at JFK airport. It was very good seeing her come through customs and to be able to hug her again! We took a cab to the Lower East Side where Yvon got to see her apartment for the next week. She was able to rent a room in a apartment of a Swedish girl. This girl has two bedrooms but because she was going on a holiday to Sweden she rented out both of her rooms, one to Yvon, the other to two Austrian girls. The latter departed on Sunday so for the rest of her stay Yvon had the apartment all for herself. After she left her bags in the apartment we walked one block (!) to our home where Jacco was. By that time it was already 22:00 so after a small half hour I took Yvon back to her apartment where she could finally go to sleep.

The next day was the first of a NY heatwave but Yvon seemed to deal with it quite well. She had a good night rest and looked very energetic. I took her to my favorite breakfast cafe and afterwards she had a haircut at my very weird hairdresser. She was already warned through my stories about him so when we entered and he, without saying hello, asked her if she was married, she loudly said ‘Yes I am!’. I stood behind her, wandering if he really said that when I heard him, a little of guard now, asking her again; ‘No,…are you Mary? Hahaha! This seemed more logical but when he told Yvon that Mary was a colleague we lost him again. I think he’s one of the the weirdest men I have ever met but a very good hairdresser. Yvon looked good and much more suited to the hot weather for the next couple of days. We then went walking through Soho, had some lunch on the sidewalk, went to The Strand, a book store that resembles De Slegte and took a subway back. In the evening we met Jacco and went to Lombardi’s, supposedly the oldest pizza place in town, where we shared a mega pizza. We ended the evening with a 23:30 coffee at Think Coffee at Bleecker Street and a stroll home.

Friday started with a subway ride to Brooklyn where Yvon came with me to the Arabic American Family Center where I help women with their understanding of the English language. We were assigned to two girls who were studying for their immigration exams. Amazing to hear how good their English was considering the fact that one of them had arrived 8 months ago (Iman) and the other just 5 months ago (Marocco)! You could tell they were educated girls and they were (again) very motivated to learn. It was nice having Yvon next to me in this class and she had some good teaching tips. Especially about asking if they know certain words they read. This gets you in the difficult situation where you have to explain words like ‘politics’ and the difference between ‘President’, ‘represent’ and ‘House of representatives’. By the time I get back I will know the whole political system in the USA.

After class we bought some lunch and went to Prospect Park, a beautiful big park with large trees that give you plenty of shade. By then it was 95 degrees Fahrenheit so we had to take it slow. At about 16:00 we went home, changed clothes and the three of us went to Brooklyn again. This time to see a film which was part of a festival. Althought they call it the Roof Top Film Festival they arrange spaces out side on whatever level so this Friday it was on a lawn next to a Automotive School. We sat on one of the folding chairs but there were also people picknicking on blankets. The evening started with a band who will probably sound a lot better when they are not drunk. Then the films started. There were about 6 short films about the country side of the US, some of which the writer or director was present. I will take too long to explain them all but they were very entertaining although the last film was mostly gross. It was sort of a documentary about an elderly lady that had a lavatory outside the house and for 10 minutes she only talked about…shitting. The term she used several times was ‘deliver the ashole baby’ while gleeming over her last toilet visit. Very ‘ehw’ but funny. Having seen that we could use a good drink and luckily for us the evening was sponsered by a liqour company called ‘Cabana Cachacha’ so Yvon had her first cocktail at Bar Matchless. A very nice and local evening that ended with a cab ride home over the Willamsburg Bridge.

Saturday started with laundry and breakfast at Olympia, our Greek diner. At midday we went to the Meatpacking District where we showed Yvon the Apple Store, Chelsea Market, some Meatpacking streets and the building of our first NY home. At the beginning of the evening we went to 42 Street where we saw a performance of Studio 52, the project that makes theater with children. The evening was called ‘Act your own age’ and plays were written specifically for each child by a professional actor. Then the performances were rehearsed one on one during a week outside NY and tonight we could see the result. There were eight very funny and crafted plays. Some children were too shy to really act but most of them did a very good job. It certainly served it’s purpose of placing the children in the spotlight. Again a very local evening which we all enjoyed very much. At the end of the plays we took a cab (death ride this time) to the East Village where we had Italian cuisine at Frank’s. Jacco and I had been there the week before and the food was as good as the first time. Another late night stroll home. This is so nice about NY, you walk home at 2:00 and it’s as busy as the same time during the day.

Rest of the week will follow…

It is Restaurant Week in New York CIty. This means that for two weeks (!), a large number of upscale restaurants are offering a three-course dinner for 35 dollars. That’s pretty good, considering that many of these normally would charge anything up to 80 or 100 dollars for a similar dinner! Of course, the menus are probably adapted, portions are a likely to be a little smaller, but it still gives you the chance to sample dinner at a fine restaurant. So for those not up to yet another food post, stop reading here! Although there are some interesting side bits, so maybe just plough on for now…

Because Yvonne was visiting last week, we decided to have a fancy dinner at a restaurant called ‘One if by Land, Two if by Sea‘. Mainly for it’s intriguing name, but also for the positive reviews it got in both Zagat’s and TONY’s Eating an Drinking.The name comes from a famous poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, called “Paul Revere’s Ride“.

Saskia had an instruction session for the upcoming Fringe Festival, so I went to pick up Yvonne and we walked from her place towards Greenwich Village. On our way there, we stopped at a bar and had a drink. Our reservation wasn’t until 9:30 pm, so we decided to make our way to the restaurant, and have another drink right around the corner, waiting for Saskia to show up. We had felt a few drops of rain, but it was clear that there would be a lot more rain to come. When we walked to the restaurant, we could see a lot of lightning high up in the sky.

We were guided to our table in the very posh-looking restaurant by a waitress who had apparently just swallowed some extra-happy pills. Asking about an aperitif, she mentioned the cocktails, and we all liked that idea. Yvonne had her first Cosmopolitan, I had a mango & jalapeño margerita and Saskia choose ‘The Duel’, a concoction with dark and white rum and fruit juice. This is their house cocktail, named after a duel that took place in New York on July 11, 1804, between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, who had owned the building that used to be a carriage house.

Right, back to our dinner. I just spent 20 minutes reading about that duel, it’s very interesting!

The cocktails were great, and we started looking at the menu. There were some interesting choices on it. The girls both selected a starter with rock shrimp, linguini, snap peas and mint. The pasta was flavoured very well, and the combination with the sauteed rock shrimp. My starter (not mentioned on the online menu!) was a sea scallop carpaccio with melon and a chipotle dressing. It was amazing. The salty sweetness of the scallop and the fruity sweetness of the melon was perfectly balanced by the spicy chipotle dressing. This is seriously one of the best starters I have ever had.

As soon as we had finished our starters, the main course showed up. A little too quicly for our liking, and the waitress noticed our surprise. She mentioned something about informing the chef about it. As their mains, Yvonne and Saskia had little choice, as there was only one fish dish on the menu. Cobia fillet (!?) with crushed tomatoes and peach. It was good, but not very special. I had opted for some meat, and the waitress recommended the Bavette Steakwith spring onion Kim Chee and potato chip salad. The Kim Chee was a bit too gingery for me, but the steak was fantastic!

When we told the waitress we’d like to wait a little before our deserts would be served, she told us that would not be a problem. In fact, it suited her fine, as lightning had struck the building, and the kitchen computers had all stopped working! We had noticed the stormy rain, and quite a bit of thunder and lightning. One of those definitely felt like it was close by!

I have to say that I was a little disappointed by the desert. The choices were not spectacular: A watermelon salad with sangria sorbet, a chocolate fondant with coconut mousse and a licorice icecream on a mint granita. We had noticed almost everybody went for the safe chocolat fondant, and so did Yvonne and Saskia. I wanted to be a bit more adventurous and chose the licorice icecream. Adventurous it was, but I did not like it. Ohwell, you should at least try it once, right?

Even though we had chosen the restaurant week menu, with drinks, coffee, after-dinner whiskey and tips we ended up paying $100 each. But I think it was worth it, we had some really good food and wines.

A pity though that the next morning both Saskia and I felt seriously hung over…

As mentioned before, Restaurant Week lasts for two weeks here (only weekdays though). So next week, we have a reservation for Megu in TriBeCa. Check the Restaurant Week menu, I’m open to suggestions. And I have never had Kobe Beef before…

When we started this blog, we have thought about the language in which to write it (Dutch or English). Dutch is our native language, and it would be easiest. However, there are a few reasons to do it in English:

• English-speaking friends
• New friends & colleagues in New York
• Good practice

It turns out that some Dutch people find it a little bit difficult to read the blog in its current language. So we’ve added a new function to our blog: Google Translate! It is located in the top left corner, right next to the admin link (’NL’). On some of the header images, it might be a little hard to spot it, but it’s there. And it will translate any page you’re on into Dutch, using Google’s translation services.

For those who want to read in Dutch, give it a go. And for those who just want to laugh at machine translation, give it a go too! Some of the translation is impressive, some of it is hilarious!

Oh, by the way, you can help make the translations better! If you hover over the translated text, Google shows a popup where you can suggest a better translation. This way, the translation of this blog, and all other sites, will become better over time!

I’m sorry it takes so long for us to write updates… It does take more effort than you expect, and somehow our days are filled to the brim, so it becomes difficult taking time to sit down and write about how full these days are. Anyway, here’s a quick round-up of our weekend in Washington.

We got to Penn Station around 16:00, and our train was scheduled to leave at 16:34 (I know, I’m still using European time notation, it just makes so much more sense). This meant we could do a little shopping for a late lunch in the train. Before going to the station, the day had been kinda hectic, with laundry, camera cleaning, Saskia buying a bike somewhere deep in Queens, etc. So we had not had time for lunch yet. Got some nice sandwich,  Saskia had a stack of cheese with two bits of bagel on either side and we bought our first Krispy Kreme, supposedly the best donut (doughnut?) in the States. Krispy Kreme has only one shop in New York, and that happens to be in Penn Station. There are many more in other parts of the States.

The train departure times are all displayed on a huge board in the station, and only when the departure track is displayed there, are people allowed to make their way to the correct track to get on the train. This makes for a very interesting train boarding experience. You wait in the departure are with all other people, and when the track is announced, everybody starts running for the (very narrow) escalator that takes you down to the tracks. This means that there is a huge pile-up of people at the top of that escalator, as everybody really wants to get on the train as early as possible. I’m just really glad I don’t have to do that every day! And for 200+ dollars worth of train tickets (per person), you’d expect a reserved seat, but no.

After about 3,5 hours, and with a delay of about 20 minutes we got to Washington, DC. The station there is amazing. Really huge and impressive. As a  lot of the buildings are in Washington. We walked out and in the distance you can see the Capitol. But also, lots of green. Wayne picked us up in his car and drove us to his place. It was cool to see that I still recognized quite a bit of the area, having been there before, about a year and a half ago. But is was especially cool to see Wayne and Dana again, of course! Dana had prepared a late supper, with a great mushroom lasagna. Yummie! We talked a lot, and got to bed around 1:30, quite tired.

The next day was Friday, the 4th of July. A big holiday for the Americans, as they celebrate their independence from British rule. We got off to a great start with French Toast and strawberries (try to translate ‘wentelteefjes’ in English - Turning Bitches? Frolicking Bitches?). We walked out (dressed in as much red, white and blue as we could find) and got on a bus to go down to the Mall. This is where the main parade was taking place. We were afraid we would be a little late, but got to see a lot of the parade. This parade consists of many different groups of people that live in the States, and are proud to be part of America. There are highschools, military, bands, ethnic groups, firefighters, etc. A huge mix of people, all dressed up, doing stuff or just walking along. It was fun to see, and lots of pictures were taken.

After that, we went for lunch. We had lunch at Old Ebbitt Grill, just steps from the White House. It is a favourite among politicians and journalists, but on this holiday, I guess there were only tourists. The food was great, and it seems that in general, reastaurants are cheaper in DC than they are in New York. As we walked out of the restaurant, the weather started turning a little. We had had sun all morning, but noew clouds were packing together. We went to the Old Post Office, to see the city from an observation deck in the clock tower. It’s a beautiful view from up there, and you can see all these famous landmarks, like the Capitol, The Washington monument, the White House, etc.

Back down from there, it actually started raining, and we were forced to buy some umbrellas. Of course, on this very special day, we could not pass the opportunity to buy ourselves some patriotic stars ‘n stripes umbrellas! The rain wsn’t too bad, and we just walked around a bit more, seeing if there was a museum open at this time (18:00). The only thing that appeared to be open was the National Archives, where the original copies of Declaration of indepence and the Constitution are on display. A lot of people thought it would be intresting to go and see these documents today, so there was a huge line outside. We decided not to get in that line, and just wlked on and found a spot on the Mall, from where we could watch the fireworks.

We were joined by Dana’s brother Bryant and Erin, and just sat there waiting for the fireworks to start. It was an impressive fireworks show, with the Washington monument as a backdrop for it. I don’t think I’ve seen such a huge fireworks show ever before. We’ve tried to take a few pictures, but without a tripod is is really hard to get some good photos.

It stayed dry during and after the fireworks, so we walked back into town and found a place to have a late dinner (Les Halles, a place made famous by Anthony Bourdain). French Bistro, so I had to go for the boudin with apples and mashed potatoes. Blood sausage! It was great!

We went back with the Metro, as they called it here. The escalator at Dupont Circle, where we got off, is impressive! Very long, and you basically go up through a hole in the ground. (a little video and some pictures). When we got home, we still had to do some preperations for the next day, as Wayne was celebrating his birthday with a barbeque party. So I helped him dry-rub his ribs. Already looking forward to eating those!

We got up quite early on Saturday, and while I mainly busied myself with the music (’It’s your birthday, we’re gonna party’), Dana was busy baking cookies and Wayne started on making hamburgers. Saskia was slicing the watermelon. The weather did not look too promising, so they decided to go to Joe & Janet’s house in Virginia, rather than the park they had plannedn to go initially. We got there around 12:30, with enough food for the whole street, I think. Wayne immediatelty strted cooking, and the other guests arrived. In the end, we were there with Joe & Janet, Kerry & Atul (with their kids Ava and Sean), Bryant & Erin, Wayne & Dana and us two. 10 people, of which two were vegetarians. And three racks of ribs, 16 hamburgers, 8 sausages, bacon, grilled veggies, salads, bread. It was a little too much. But it all was great!

We tried to burn off some calories playing computer games (Wii - so really did burn some calories). While saying goodbye to Janet & Joe, we ended up playing with a little football on their street for a bit, in amazing light (sun was setting, skies looked like it could be a thunderstorm any minute). We decided that we could actually skip dinner altogether!

Back home with Dana and Wayne, we decided we needed some live music to finish off the night, and Wayne’s birthday. So we got into a taxi and drove to a club where live Jazz would be played. We had a couple of drinks and enjoyed the music. After that we were getting a little peckish, and Wayne suggested we really needed to go to Ben’s Chili Bowl, a Washington institution. We had some really greasy food (chili fries and a Bill Cosby’s Original Chili Half-Smoke!). What a place. It’s dirty, unhealthy, busy, and a perfect 2am meal!

With only one day left in the city, Sunday was going to be our tourist day. After breakfast we got all of our stuff, and we drove to the station. From there we started our sightseeing walk around the Mall. We first went to see the Capitol up close (not open for visitors). Then we walked down the Mall to the Museum of the Native American Indian (a beatiful building, check out Saskia’s pictures of it on Flickr). It was a pretty hot day, quite the opposite of what the forecast wanted us to believe. From there we walked down the Mall, past the Washington monument, and all the way to the Lincoln Memorial. Very impressive! We then walked back towards the station past the Vietnam War Memorial and got in a taxi to take us back to the station. Here we had some late lunch/early dinner and then said our goodbyes.

I really hope we get a chance to see Wayne and Dana again while we are here. Either in their hometown, or in New York. And I’m sure that will be arranged! It was a fantastic weekend, and we both fell asleep in the train.