Vilo, you are a beautiful pig!

Yesterday was Sunday and we took it pretty easy on account of the hangover. Got some sleep, went out for pizza at an authentic Italian restaurant. It was great – the menu has exactly four pizzas, and expressly forbids any alterations of any kind. It’s a bit of a gourmet spot, and was very good. The pizza does not come in slices, is only vaguely circular in shape, and is extremely hot, thin and enormously tasty. It’s very much a classic, old-fashioned Italian pizza in every way, not the greasy fare one gets at just about every other pizza place here. Still, at $22 a pizza, it’s not cheap, and part of me balked at paying nearly R200 for a pizza, but heck, such is life. New York is expensive.

We were supposed to catch a movie later that evening, but both Tom and I fell asleep at the apartment and woke up too late, so we chilled and relaxed. It was nice.

This morning we were refreshed and ready to tackle the city. We walked for what seemed like an eternity today. We started out in St Marks, headed to Astor Plaza and then made a beeline for the west side of the island. Along the way, we did some shopping on Prince Street, one of the main shopping hotspots for fashionistas. We stopped off at Kidrobot, this ubertrendy Japanese-influenced toystore ($3000 and up collectibles lining the storefront windows) where I bought Vilo, the mustachioed rabbit. He joined us our journey and saw many amazing sights with us.

From there, we got onto West Street and headed south along the Hudson. The view of New Jersey from the west bank of Manhattan is amazing. Shortly after Canal Street, the area really started getting very swank – we were heading towards the financial heartland of the island.


View from across the Hudson, looking out at New Jersey.


The leafy walkway that lines the Hudson. That's the statue of Liberty way in the background.

We saw some amazing stuff today – almost too much to list. A few of the highlights include street entertainers in Battery Park, the Korean War monument, walking down Wall Street, the bull in the financial district and some amazing buildings.


Vilo at the Korean War monument.

We also stopped off at Majestic Pizza for a slice, which was fantastic. Vilo approves.


Vilo like pizza!

We hit up Century 21 where we did some shopping, before heading home. We walked everywhere today, and as a result, I’m wrecked. We’re going to sit outside on the fire escape later this evening and drink beer. The sun only goes down here at like 20:30, so we’ve got some time to chill and relax.