Actually, I have not so much to tell about Brooklyn, since we only spend half a day there and could not see all the nice/arty spots. Rather short summary of a place that has so much to offer.

Next time i'll go to New York, i will plan at least 2 days here. At least we saw bits and pieces, so just an inspiration for more to come. It reminded us very much of Stockholms Södermalm, more down-to-earth and less glass facades.

We went downtown Manhattan on Friday morning and of course we walked Brooklyn Bridge from there, although it could have been a great idea to rent a bike on that day instead, due to 35°c and burning sun.

The bridge is actually not that long, but during that heat it felt like a 10k run. When you finally reach Brooklyn there are a few art gallerys and there is one corner where you have the perfect view on Manhattan Bridge.

When we stepped by, there was again a photo shooting, so this set is extremely popular. Furthermore there are some vey nice coffee places and everyone walking around is more in a creative bubble and not as stressed as on 5th avenue. By the water directly under the Bridge is the Bridge Cafe, an extremly fancy place, so we were not proper dressed or rich enough to eat there. Anyway you can enjoy a fantastic view from here and walk to the left side in Brooklyn Bridge Park. If you want to have a cheaper lunch, there is a Shake Shack Burger place nearby, but they just offer typical american fast food.

Well i have a few spots and pictures of places in New York left to show you and do not really know which topic to fit them in. Nevertheless they are worth mentioning, and some we actually just bumped into and never planned to see.

The New York Library

I love, love books and this was one of the most impressive libraries i have ever seen. It's not the amount of endless books, that is impressive, but the construction and layout.

We walked south on our first day just around and suddenly this massive building popped up in front of us. When we entered i directly recognized this space from the first Sex and the City movie. Typical me. I literelly saw Carrie falling down the stairs with her amazing dress, when her wedding was cancelled.

Anyway the library has much more to offer, for people who are not movie maniacs. Huge parts are carved of wood, as the shelfs and the ceiling, combined with beautiful paintings. To reach the huge hall one has to climb above mentioned stairs, which was quite hard after having walked 15km that day already, but it was so worth it.
As a tourist you are only allowed to see the left wing of the big book hall, where hundreds of people sit in silence studying and educating themselves. Really impressive how many people can be as quiet in such a big room. I would love to sit here and get lost in an endless world of books.


Tiffany's
Yet another very famous movie set. If you watched Breakfast at Tiffany's you must stop by at the one and only original store at 5th Avenue. Probably your wallet is not big enough to buy anything except a ballpen, but just stepping inside and having all those sparkling jewels in front of you is impressive.
 This store has 6 Floors in total and they have absolutely everything.
The ceilings are very high which makes this shop even more impressive. Even the air smell brilliant, due to many flowers.
If you change floor, you will use one of the most fancy elevators i have ever been into. It's made of dark marble and there is an assistant who is even pushing the button for you to access the floor of your desire. The people working here are extraordinary friendly without being demanding or pushy.
So we went to the Floor with all the silver and affordable stuff, since we did not dare to go to the very top, where billionaires shop.
Of course you will bump into couples in the elevator, usually the girl dragging her boyfriend to the  engagement ring department. Well, lifegoals.

Flatiron Building
One of the buildings in New York that is known for its unusual shape of architecture is the Flatiron Building, located near Madison Square Park on Fifth Avenue, Broadway and 23rd Street. The building itself is worth for a picture, but as its always really busy in this area, you will have lots of other tourists on your shots as well. During our stay there was a really nice collection of Food Trucks at Worth square nearby, Mad. Sq. Eats.
There was literally everything one could wish for and many culinary suprises, apart from the usual burger and chips you get here. Otherwise you can also hang around in Madison Square Garden, which is a lovely spot to relax after a long walk.

I have tried several recipes for low carb pizzas, but they never taste as good and they are always dry or don't hold together. Especially all the ones without egg never seem to work, because the dough does not stick. So in order to make a more "healthy" pizza than usual i decided to use spelt flour and combine with some high proteine lentils. The dough is more aromatic and saturating than regular ones.

What happens if you do not proper plan your food shopping and come home realising you actually still have a lot of veggies in the fridge? 

You need to use up all of them, because one aspect about fresh ingredients is, that they do not stay fresh that long.  So this happened to me one weekend and i had an idea, how to use up all my veggies at once, but still not have boring gratin/soup or just cooked greens.

Like all big metropolitan cities, New York never sleeps. Even during the weeks, there is always a lot to see and do when the sky turns dark. Of course you can dine and drink every evening, which will cost you a fortune, as usual. There is nonetheless another way to spend a big bunch of money in one evening, by visiting a show on Broadway. I would recommend to buy tickets online in advance, although you can get them quite cheap during your stay if you are lucky.
There is a small ticketshop directly close to the stairs at Times square, where you get tickets for the same day with up to -50% discount. That can save you a lot of money, but is quite risky.

Wicked

I have always been a big fan of the OZ stories and read a few. So i really wanted to go into this musical, that tells the story before. This is one of the most popular musicals on broadway and after seeing it, i know why.

The story is all about the friendship between the good witch of the South Glinda and the wicked witch of the West Elphaba.
Elphaba was born green, which no one knows why. Because of her difference, she is neither accepted by her father the mayor, nor by her classmates at school. Her sister Nessarose is bound to a wheelchair, due to an early birth, which her father blames Elphaba for. The two girls are send to school and during an accident the headmistress discovers Elphabas magical talent. Galinda, a blond, pink-dressed sunshine girl is also attending the same school. Due to different circumstances it happens that Galinda and Elphaba have to share a room. Over the time they become friends and Elphaba is for the first time accepted as she is - green. This peace doesn't last long, since weird things are happening in OZ. Animals stop to talk and the Wizard of Oz wants to see Elphaba. Not enough, both of the girls fall in love with the same handsome prince Fiyero.

If you want to find out how Elphaba became the wicked witch and the truth behind all, better reserve your tickets now. Otherwise you can also spoiler yourself and read the full plot here.

I have to say that the actors were incredible and i laughed until i cried. It was an emotional rollercoaster and the best theatre performance i have ever seen.

Times Square
After attending any musical on Broadway, or even in general you have to come to Times Square at night. During the day it was rather ordinary, i have to say, but at night it's much more impressive. The whole street is bright alight, due to all the flickering screens and once in a while the disco ball is dropping down. You can get the best view on the red plastic stairs directly in the middle of the yard.
Nevertheless i imagined watching numerous gigantic screens with advertisements to be more exciting or thrilling. Maybe the atmosphere is only as celebrative on New Year's eve.

A very swedish thing is the "Knäckebröd" which you can find anywhere, with different grains, flavours. Anyway big selection in every supermarket, but nothing is better than your own homemade chia knäckebröd. I am not good at baking especially not in bread baking, so this is a very easy thing to avoid ruining a dough. Because it's impossible.

For this recipe you can take any size of cup, you do not need a scale. Because it is the relation of all ingredients that matters. Anyway below example makes approx 12 slices of bread.

So while searching around town for some orange flower, i bumped into Tagetes, which is  a very bright coloured slightly lemon tasted sort. You can serve it with salad or dessert, or with an orange sweet potato smoothie bowl.

This bowl is quite saturating/heavy bowl due to the potato. So better be hungry.

The History of American Immigration is so large and one of the actual more interesting topics while graduating at high school. Especially we have been discussing the American Dream a lot, which is symbolised in New York, where all people came with their hopes and fears to the New World in one spot - Ellis Islands. When going to Ellis Island you'll pass by the way the Statue of Liberty, just the biggest and most impressive statue in the world, i would guess.

 

So on Tuesday during our little city trip we went to see the Financial District and Lower Manhattan. After going to ground zero and hanging around a bit on Wall Street, we went further south to take the Ferry to Ellis Island. This was by far the most tourist crowded area we have seen. We bought some tickets for a ferry ride (18$), unfortunately the tickets to go up the statue of liberty were already gone.

Since they have only a limited number of tickets every day, one has to be really early, if you like to do that.

There was a massive queue to reach the ferry, which is guarded and protected with security on airport level. So we stood in the burning sun for almost 1h, (felt like 3) to finally get onto the ferry which can carry around 600 people. Just saying it was super busy!

There are different rides with the ferry so one can hop on and off a few times, we just took the normal route New York - Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island. One can indeed go to New Jersey as well.

The boat ride does not take long, you will always see the Statue on your way, nevertheless it's quite far away and one needs a professional camera to shoot the Lady at her best.

If you can't get a ticket up the statue it is not really enjoyable to get off that island, since there is nothing else to do and queues for next ferries are very long, so it can be that you wait for another hour just to get further to Ellis Island.

Ellis Island is a lovely small Island with the huge Immigration Building/Hall directly by the Harbour. You can read a lot about Immigration History and see the lists and books of ancient times. Then there are several movies shown in theatres on 2nd floor next to the famous registration Hall. We did not see any of them though.

Nevertheless it is quite impressive to see the island of tears, where the fate of millions of people was decided within a couple of minutes.

When you walk around Ellis Island you will have a fantastic view on Manhattans Skyline, furthermore there are some other small houses in same style as the immigration building, which are used for administration.

Well in Sweden prices for food are insanely high, compared to Germany. Nevertheless almond butter is also not really cheap there either. When i checked ingredients it always just said 100% almonds and was not sure how that could be possible. There had to be a secret very expensive ingredient to make it that smooth, maybe some exotic oil or whatever. Rubbish!

Almond butter does indeed only consist of almonds and there is a secret trick and most precious ingredient: PATIENCE

Not exactly my strongest trait. Actually i could be called "miss impatient" but making this butter teached me a lesson.

Many people just go to New York for shopping and movies like Sex and the City encourage you to believe this is the perfect location to get an allover new look. Nevertheless we were quite busy with seeing all the typical must-see touristic spots, so our shopping was not as successfull as we thought. My friend had even booked extra luggage on our way back, because we expected huge sales. But you have to consider that in the city you can not make as good deals. If you want to shop cheap and get greatest offers, you have to leave town and go to some outlets, further out. Anyway, there are some amazing spots in the city, where a shopper's heart skips a beat.

Nike Town

This sounds maybe weird and it's not typical girly shopping paradise, but for us it was heaven! The nike town is located 67th E 57th Street, close to 5th Avenue and the biggest Nike store i have ever seen. It spreads over 5 floors with any possible sports equipment/gear, uncountable shoes and just everything nike has to offer. On ground floor there is a print station, where you can design your personal nike tee, which we could not resist to do. Since we are both very into sports, we have been visiting this shop several times, just for inspiration. Still it was so tempting to shop everything there was. Unfortunately everything is normal price.

Macy's Shoe Outlet

We did not plan to go to Macy's but while searching for Empire State Building (yes it is hard to find if you are only between high rise blocks), we bumped into it and could not resist of having a look around. Macy's is build like the Gallerie Lafayette in Paris, but with mostly american brands. So when we entered, we were first a bit disappointed, because there was no big sale or anything nice price. But the best about Macy's is the shoe floor, or the shoe sale, where hundreds of women go crazy. Since it is american size, we had a hard time to figure out our size first, but between the rags of up to 70%discount on label shoes, dreams come true!

Victoria's Secret

I am not a big fan, but my friend is. So we have been hunting for this one big victoria secret shop for ages, it was actually quite funny since we went crazy about it. When we finally found it, (i can't even remember, if one of us bought anything) it was not as impressive at all. Still there are shops all over town, we realized afterwards. So if you need new panties, you will find them here.

As already mentioned we divided the days in different Districts of Manhattan, to make sure we see as much as possible of New York. On the second day, which was a Tuesday, we went to see the Financial District, where following Points were on our list to see.

New York City Hall

Walking south from the metro to your right side you will see a very nice building, fenced with a lot of security guards. This is New York City Hall, which is one of the oldest, actually used ones in the US. One can therefore not visit or see it from the inside. Close by you can find a nice green park with a fountain. Around this square there are at least 4 Starbucks. So one can grab a very deserved ice latte, which you get used to quite fast in summer in NY.

One world Memorial/Ground Zero

This is one of the youngest attractions to see and was by far the most modern part of New York we visited. Due to the terror attack on 11th September, the Twin Towers disappeared and where they once rose up high in the sky are left two huge holes, filled with water. It is a really touching place and i could not imagine a better solution to honor the victims. One can either visit the ground by yourself, or the museum beside. Additional it is also possible to get a guided tour, which we did not do. This place is hard to capture in words, so better experience for yourself.

Charging Bull/Wall Street

Walking from Ground Zero towards the south and ferry point to Ellis Island, you won't get around this. Located on Wall Street is a huge bronze statue of a Bull, that is by far the most attractive sight, especially for asian tourists. It was literally impossible to get a picture without them, so i let it be. A walk down wall street will end in Bowling Green Park, which is such a nice sight after all those high rise blocks. There is a big fountain and behind you can find the National Museum of the American Indian, which is worth a picture as well.

Since when is everyone fussing so much about acai? I can only remember having my first bowl on Bali and since then i've been longing to have one at home as well. Acai powder is actually quite expensive here, but luckily their taste is very intense, so you do not need so much and it's so worth it.

The greenest and most adorable spots in the buzzing city of New York can be found in Central Park. I directly fell in love with the endless slopes and uncountable tiny path through different gardens and forests.

People call Central Park huge and I have to admit, it is indeed quite big, but if you are a good walker, it appears quite ordinary size. As beeing now used to a lot of nature in Sweden, i admired Central Park even more, since i really missed some fresh air in between the skylines of Manhattan.

While walking around Central Park there is always a fresh breeze, especially during hot summer days you can stroll by one of the lakes and enjoy nature. The high rise blocks of upper east and west side will either be in your back or front. Unfortunately one can therefore not forget being in a very big city, but one feels a bit further apart from the everyday stress in town.

We have walked through Central Park several times, but could not see all bits and pieces, but a lot of different areas. Since we lived in East Harlem, we always entered and exit Central Park from the east side.

Here's a small guide to some of the spots (north to south)

Harlem Meer
On our first day we were so excited to finally see Central Park, that we spontaniously walked over to the north east corner and made our way downtown. The Harlem Meer was the first lovely lake we saw when entering the slopes. Close by the water is build a tiny cute "witch house" and during summer lots of people will sit by the water and have a picknick or read a book. The shore is surrounded by high grasses and trees and you will spot people fishing here as well.

Conservatory Gardens

Walking by the lake south you will find the Conservatory Gardens which are themed by different countries, which you will directly see the influence from. There are lots of beautiful calm spots, nice fountains and alleys. These gardens are really neat and structured and so worth to see.

Jacqueline Kennedy Reservoir

This lake/pool is indeed huge. Walking around is approx 6km i guess, at least thats what my friends running watch said. She used to run around it, which is indeed a very nice track. You are always close to the water, due to its artificial origin, it is fenced and the path is directly around it. From east and west side of the water you'll have a fantastic view, either on Upper East Side or Upper West, while the first one is indeed nicer to be honest.

If you continue further south you'll find the Metropolitan Museum of Art to your lefthand side.

Belvedere Castle and Lake

In the center of the park, on same block level as the MET you will find Belvedere Castle, which is a tiny cute castle built on a high rock. From here you have a fantastic view on Belvedere Lake and closer surroundings. I just bumped into it accidently, since i lost my way in Central Park once, but if you are nearby you should definitely stop here.

The Boathouse
One of the most idyllic Cafés in New York is the Boathouse in Central Park. You will have seen it also in a lot of movies and it is a must to have a small drink/snack break here. You can either sit inside or outside with a view on the lake, where all romantic couples are going for a little boat ride. So cliché, but stunning. The prices in the Boathouse are quite okay, although i thought it must be incredibly expensive. Around the corner nearby the lake you can find the famous white "kissing bridge", which we unfortunately missed, since we did not see it was there.

Further south you can find the Zoo, which we did not visit either. But it already looked amazing from the outside, so when i am back, i'll try to see it.

Of course we have seen some other nice must-see spots in central park, but these are saved for one of my absolute favourite story of NY. TO BE CONTINUED...

Recently i came across all these flower decorations for food and had some little research about eatable ones. Since then i've been making my way around town and collecting some to decorate my weekend smoothie bowls. Since the green bowl does sometimes maybe not look exactly tasty, these pensés give it an extra kick. Also they are quite sweet in taste.

Level: EASY

What you need:

SMOOTHIE

- 2 frozen bananas

- fresh (baby) spinach

- 1 apple

- Soyjoghurt (natural)

- lemon juice

- 2 tsp green spirulina powder

- small slice ginger (optional)

TOPPING

- flowers

- fresh mint

- coconut flakes

- grapes

- almonds

Process all ingredients for the smoothie in a blender. If you like your smoothie more spicy you can add ginger, but it tastes more sweet without. Very important is to have the bananas frozen, you can put the slices in the freezer one day before. Otherwise the smoothie gets to flouid and your topping will just sink to the ground of the bowl. Decorate with topping as you like and ENJOY!