By: akane
Travels, ,

NYC, you’re beautiful.

New York has a certain je ne sais quoi that appeals to me. I felt that even the first time I was there. 

There’s some sort of magic in the air that pulls you towards the hustle and bustle, even if you’re not the kind of person that likes that sort of thing. Maybe it was all those episodes of Sex and the City, Seinfeld or the Ninja Turtles, and so on that give you that funny feeling “oh this feels happy!”, whenever you pass by a certain street, or you see a certain corner of the city. Maybe it’s the smell of overpriced coffee! Or the bagels, or the one dollar pizza… Or maybe it’s just the smell of rotting garbage out on the streets – trust me, it is very unique.

I dunno what it is, but since that day, back in January, when the streets were covered in snow, and the overpriced warm coffee actually felt nice in my hands, I felt like New York City is one of those places were I could be able to live for a while… But only for a little while. 

Here are a few more shots of the streets of NYC with the iPhone. 

The squirrels were a surprise for me. Last time I saw nothing but snow in Central Park, so there were certainly no squirrels around. But these little guys are so nice and nosy! They sure like to have people around. 

You can imagine what people said when we decided to take a one year old across the ocean. Eight hours on a plane, jet-lag, such a big busy city, what the hell were we thinking, right? Well, if there was one thing we promised to ourselves when we found out we were having a baby, was that we were not going to change the way we live our lives (much). And traveling was definitely one of those things. There will definitely come a day when we are traveling as a couple, and she will stay with her grandparents, but that’s a different story. 

She behaved like a champ. No crying in the plane ever, no fits during the whole trip. Actually, I have to say she was the star of our ensemble.  

Nearly everybody who passed by her smiled at her, and we heard more “oh what a cutie!!” than we can count with hour hands. Also, Aaron Paul smiled his most handsome smile at her (and both of us, as if saying “good job!”) while walking around Bleecker Street and Alice Cooper waved her hello, also with a smile on his face. 

We’re fans of Eddie Huang so we paid a visit to his restaurant Baohaus. Besides the delicious baos, the whole place is impregnated with his personality, with little notes here and there, that definitely give a very Huang touch to the whole thing. 

Thank you Baohaus for the tweet with my photo! 

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The Brooklyn bridge is something else. It’s an architectural beauty, and it offers a really nice stroll, with views of Brooklyn on one side, and Manhattan on the other, always overviewing the Hudson. Even though it’s crowded with tourists, it’s still a very nice walk, specially because it was the end of the day, with a beautiful setting sun.

This neighborhood will forever be part of our memories of NYC. From here you can see the river and just wander around the park, and it’s incredibly relaxing, specially after you’ve been walking all around the city. It was here that we listened to part of the game between Portugal and France for the Euro cup, after trying to stay at a bar that was just too noisy. After the second half was over we walked to a shopping center close by, where, by chance, we found a restaurant that had the game on. It was here that we saw Portugal’s goal, and it was here that we celebrated (quite by ourselves) Portugal becoming the European champion. People were smiling at us and frowning at us (we were causing a stir) but we did not care: Portugal WON! We called home and were greeted by shouts of pure joy and happiness, and it felt a little bittersweet to be away from home. Brookfield Place will forever be a special place – we should plan to go back and actually have a meal at the restaurant. 

It was a great great great week for us, and I can’t help but have a smile on my face while I’m writing this. 

Expect more photos from the Sony RX1 in a few days time. 

All the photos were edited on the iPhone using RNI Films and VSCO.