huzzah, new york, new york. i haven't been here in years and had no idea what to expect. it has been crazy, crazy, crazy.

by the graciousness of a friend from santa cruz, we've been staying in williamsburg (brooklyn) in em's amazing loft space right off bedford ave while she is back in california. we arrived wednesday evening after an awesome breakfast by shea back in DC followed by a day of stressful, trafficked driving. we went out to free pbr hour (yes, it exists!) at a bar on s 6th and moved on to matches. pretty awesome to come into a town cold and meet so many new people.

yesterday we explored manhattan: amazing vegan food, strand books, central park, bleeker st, seinfeld restaurant facade, 5th ave at 5pm and cupcakes at babycakes. riding in traffic here is ultimately death-defying though. while exhilarating and skillful, also requires so much just to manuver one end of the city to another. a total trip though. after arriving back in brooklyn, chris led us out to queens for (cheap!) beer on jake's roof with a hammock (and fireworks?) and much talk of current rap and crystal-ly people.

today, the explorations took us farther south into brooklyn. sheesh, even brookyln is 4379348x larger than san francisco. &i had no idea it got so posh. prospect park was beautiful though, perfect for riding and reading and napping. finally made it over to food swings for disgustingly tasty vegan fast food. headed into manhattan to meet up with some kids at old towne bar. despite being insanely worried re: locking bikes in thief-ridden downtown, our bikes made it out whole. i just had a lot of fun riding with people who know the city well after too much map staring. we all rode back over the williamsburg bridge to visit the "peel sessions," (trick time under the bridge!) and then went along to finally visit the levvy, a much disputed bar. quite busy and loud, but still super laid back and had good vibe. chatted with even more new people, including one dude who ultra-reminded me of crossett. good times.

two more days in nyc, hopefully we'll see nate before heading out on saturday!