Downtown and Staten Island Ferry fun

New York Day 2 (Monday)

We had drunkenly planned for H to come over to our hotel around 12pm and we would then take a wander right downtown and of course do a bit of a pub crawl!

The boys had been offered a once in a lifetime opportunity to get a tour of Conde Naste in the WTC (Richard is friends with someone that works there) so they were doing that around 3pm.

That said, we did have a terrible mis-communication problem and they headed downtown midday-ish and were then waiting for us to cab it there and meet them as that was what they thought was agreed!
However, we didn't think that we were meeting the until after Conde Naste so we were just walking down as slow as anything and popping in places as we found them!  Of course we soon sorted it out and arranged to meet them after their tour was over so H, Dan and said that we would make sure we were fairly near them and settled somewhere so they could easily find us.
We mainly walked down Broadway but it's not the nicest of roads to perambulate to be honest so we were cutting down side streets too and taking roads that were parallel to Broadway.
We had a really pleasant walk (it is also very hot here) and a few nice drinks.  We went to the WTC and got to see the area all around there and then headed to Wall St. I've always fancied walking down there as I didn't do it last time. I kind of wanted it to be like it is in the films with lots of Gordon Gekko / 'Wolf of wall street' characters there! ha.. yeah, that wasn't the case, there were more tourists than anything.

 

We then wandered around to Stone Street which is a place I had found during all my research. Sarah that we met in Haight was quite dismissive of it as she said it would just be full of arrogant 'shirt sleeved' men and people who thought they were living a bit of Europe!
Given we were from Europe she didn't think it worth us bothering with... but we were right around the corner, starving, H WANTED to see shirt sleeved men (arrogant or not) and it was ideal for J & Ilya to find us too so we headed there. Its a cobbled street that is full of bars and food places and has the road filled with tables for each place and therefore no cars! (hence the Europe feel as that is not the norm in NYC or many places in USA I think)

It was really cool there and we were happy straightaway especially as we found a place called 'The Growler'!  Food ordered and inhaled and we settled into our beers!  (Dan was getting H into beers on our walk!)

The street was fairly busy but not over the top. I can imagine it can get ridiculous in summer or at the weekend. And you get table service too.. and good service at that AND you can smoke at the table! What's not to love!

As we were sat there having a cig, a man approached us to ask if he could buy a cig for a dollar which we refused and gave him a cig and a light. Straightaway he said that we must be visitors as someone from New York would have asked for 2 dollars and 40cents for the light!  Hilarious and a great opener to get chatting. He was GREEN with envy that H had just come back from Bordeaux! He was also impressed with us staying at Washington Sq hotel and said it was just quite simply an iconic building.. yay!

Anyway we chatted with him (Lenny) for a while and he told us how he had moved over here from Canada as he was in a show and stayed from there (30 years ago) as the job opportunities were much better (for his life in showbusiness!)  H absolutely loved him.  The boys joined us at Stone St and their tour sounded amazing. They were on the 41st floor of WTC!  They got lots of magazines and then after there they went to Hermes to get something and as it was a brand new store they just filled up J's arms's with all sorts of freebies!!  Amazing.

Lenny wandered by again later (he was now working in the bar next to The Growler) and we offered him another cig and he sat with us again chatting. This time though he was telling lots more about his life and the stories were amazing. He'd met so many legends and he used to go to Studio 54 which J was so jealous of!  Apparently he knew the special cocktail name too that got him into the basement where he would party with the stars. He also told us about time working for the mob - basically he was a bartender to support his training etc and he got asked to work a party at midnight. He was there and only about a dozen people turned up - all men in suits with briefcases. He was really confused and couldn't understand what sort of a party this was! They just did lots of paperwork and then left after about an hour!  He was then told that he was getting a ride home and that they knew where he lived.. it started to click into place then and he was quite worried that he was never going to make it home, rather end up in the river! They did, obviously, take him home and then he was handed a brown envelope with $300 dollars in it!  At this time his rent was $60 dollars so it sorted him out for a few months as well as his dancing and speech lessons!!  He continued 'working' for them for a couple of years then.  

H and I are now friends with him on fb!

After Stone St we headed over to get the Staten Island ferry as we were literally over the road and that was fab. The view was stunning and we were like a bunch of over excited kids on there.. Mainly due to alcohol I am sure! That said one of the other people on the ferry did ask us if it was our first time on it so I think we were being a bit giddy on there! I still can't believe it is free and I can't get my head around the fact that this view that we were going mental over is something that commuters and locals see day after day to and from work.. do they ever get bored of it and maybe don't even notice it anymore??  Can't imagine it .... 

From there we got a cab back to Bleecker St and went to Risotteria (somewhere J and Ilya had been before) Lovely meal in there and then we wandered to the little bar that we had been in the night before where we sat outside. Just had a couple in there and then we all headed back.... Another fabulous day..