Night 7 - Cupcakes, Marc Jacobs and Booze. Oh my!

Flying high from my rencontre with Johnny Fontane and escaping the Italian-American charm with all my decency and honour intact I continued the journey to seek out the Magnolia Bakery for a decent calorie-packed snack. Renowned for having the 'best cupcakes in New York', according to the ever-so accurate Carrie Bradshaw, I knew I could not leave the Big Apple without taking a big bite out of those tempting little icing-topped devils. Already having memorised most of the New York Subway system I hopped aboard the 1 Uptown train to Bleecker Street.



Bleecker Street, I would say is probably one of the more trendier areas of New York. Whilst the Upper East Side is impeccably clean (by city standards of course), the Bleecker Street area was a little more rough around the edges. Not rough like Harlem or anything, but let's just say the Shoreditch of New York sans the frame-wearing twats. After slipping in and out of Bleecker Street's many boutiques and vintage shops I finally found the Magnolia Bakery. Having had sunk my teeth into pastry heaven, my day was perfected by looking up and seeing a Marc Jacobs across the road. Of course being a student and being very very bad at managing my finances I had to pry myself away from the Marc Jacobs boutique and visit Bookmarc across the road. This shop is a perfect place to get presents for female friends or family because it's Marc Jacob's merchandise for decent prices. By decent prices I mean you won't have to shell out 100 bucks for a pair of tights or something. Bookmarc mainly holds books, hence the name, for aspiring photographers, designers and others in the fashion or media biz, but it also stocks cute little bags, rucksacks and Marc Jacobs stationary and stuff. If that wasn't enough to convince you to check out the store, maybe the insanely handsome shop keepers will.

Now onwards to the more interesting part of the day/night - Manhattan Thursdays. After cabbing it back to my homegirl's Manhattan loft in John and Broadway, I quickly dumped my shopping and popped open a few bottles of wine with the ladies for some pre-Piano's drinks. Now you'll have to excuse me for the many references to Sex and the City, but living in a loft with 4 other New Yorker women just resonates SATC in my mind over and over. After conversing about our various love lives over a few glasses of Pinot Grigio it was time to slip on our dancing shoes for a proper Manhattan night out in Piano's Bar on Ludlow Street.




We may have not left the house till midnight but the party was in full swing till the early hours of the morning. The drinks were cheap, the music was cheesy, and the company was great and unlike the cheap club-life of London there was a distinct lack of street fights and vomit. Brilliant. To add the cherry on the sundae, the girls and I were promptly joined by a Ferragamo model and his mates followed swiftly by the beautiful Marc Jacobs shopkeeper/models. In deep conversation with one of the Marc Jacobs party I was pleasantly surprised to realise that this man was not only gorgeous and stylish but ridiculously clever as well.
LET'S HEAR IT FOR NEW YORK.

Day 4 - Nightlife is raging on Ludlow St.

'Everything seemed so wrong to me this morning but I know things will be brighter later tonight, on Ludlow Street.' - Julian Casablancas





How right he was. Nothing contrasts a day in the Upper East Side more than a night out on Ludlow Street. After experiencing where the upper class dwell, I could not be happier that my good friend Genia decided to take me for a drink in Ludlow Street in the Lower East Side, where the likes of the Strokes began their careers. Instead of suits, expect hip cool kids. And no not the types that hang about in London's East London scene. LES and West Village hipsters are genuinely hip and not bored little rich kids who are enticed by the propagated image of a 'trendy'. What is the difference you ask? Say you enter a bar in Dalston or something looking like an actual human being (i.e. not wearing a Victorian dress or kooky glasses). They stare… disapprovingly. In the LES and WV people don't care if you don't look the part, which is pretty relaxing.

One of the first bars we hit was Spritzers near Ludlow Street and then headed to a more quiet pub a block away… perhaps it was called Piano's? Well in any case that's of no importance. Ludlow St. has enough bars to satisfy anyone's taste… should you crave classy cocktails, good beer (yes America does have good beer actually!) or a place with a dancing scene. Anyway after a really long-needed catch-up between me and my good friends Nick and Genia, we decided to call it a night and head home and so Genia and I hailed a cab.

'John and Broadway please.'

Since Genia and I have not seen each other for 3 years we were engaged in deep conversation and so it took us a while to glance at the meter.

'Excuse me. Why the hell are we at Union Square?'

Apparently it's not just the nightlife that's raging. NY cab drivers are pretty enraging as well. The cheeky man had taken us a little uptown before driving downtown to her flat. In simpler terms - he was driving in circles and thought he could get away with it. Wrong.

Cabbie: 'You guys didn't tell me where you were going.'
'Yes we did. We said John and Broadway.'
Cabbie: 'No you didn't.'
'You could've asked us instead of driving in circles.
Cabbie: 'I asked 3 times.'
'No you didn't. This is what's happening: you're driving us home and we'll pay you the amount we'd usually pay.'

If I were the cabbie I wouldn't have turned this offer down. The fool did however. What then? What else? We left the cab and started walking down the street.

'Wait! If you don't pay I'll call the cops.'
'Ok fine. Call the cops. We'd like them to very much hear our story.'

So what did he do? He stood there dumbfounded while we hailed another cab and drove home.
And the moral of this story? Beware of New York cab drivers. Another scary anecdote to follow this one:


My Aunt Mona's friend, Tito Ago, once said that he was waiting to cross the street when he saw an old tourist couple hail a cab and asked the cabbie how much it would cost to get to their hotel. Unbeknowst to them, their hotel was located conveniently a few blocks down.
'20 dollars' the Cabbie replied. Unable to just stand and watch helplessly, Tito Ago walked up to the couple and told them 20 dollars is not worth a 10-minute walk down the road and after a death stare from the Cabbie and a 'thank you' from the couple, he was glad he helped another escape the trickeries of the taxi drivers.

So what have we learned ladies and gentlemen? When in Manhattan, keep your eyes on the meter and on the GPS screen located in front of you, and if you can be, be specific with your directions (e.g. 'John and Broadway please but go down Broadway and not the FDR because it's always in a traffic jam.') Abide by these tips and they are more likely to not get away with duping you.