Spotted at 86th Street Metro Station – a flying pig in the tiles!

Yesterday I wrote about the first day of our 3 day 2 night NYC adventure, and here’s what we got up to on day two… On day two we popped over to Jimmy’s Diner in Brooklyn for breakfast, where we nursed our hangovers with tea (proper tea! hurrah!) and breakfast bowls stuffed with deliciousness. (Of course, I picked the breakfast bowl with heaps of veggies in hopes it’d kick my hangover faster.)

Knowing we wanted to come back to Brooklyn for dinner, we decided to have a nosey about while it was still daylight and the shops were opened – and stumbled upon this adorable little book shop. I think we spent about an hour in here just admiring all the books, note pads, and quirky little items that bookshops carry before heading on over to The High Line.

These sun loungers on The High Line would be great in the summer!

Now, the idea was to walk along The High Line after breakfast, dropping in on Chelsea Market along the way. However, after we’d only been on The High Line for about fifteen minutes when it started hammering it down with rain. So we backtracked and practically ran to Chelsea Market where we killed a couple of hours wandering and warming up with hot herbal teas.

My favourite part of Chelsea Market was the Artists and Fleas section, where I bought myself a small souvenir: a silver plated bracelet with a letter K vintage typewriter key by Churoncalla. I love how it looks with my Whistle & Bango N1 bangle!

Now, this being my first ‘proper’ trip to NYC (I’d only ever been for the day before with school field trips and a shopping trip with a friend in high school), I demanded that we visit the museums, and we each got to pick one.

For my choice of museum, we went to The Guggenheim Museum (I absolutely loved the museum’s architecture!) where they currently have a modern art exhibition focussing on Zero, the German artist group from the 1950s-60s. If you’re in the area, I do recommend a visit.

For dinner, it was back to Brooklyn – the same metro stop as before, but this time turning in the opposite direction out of the station and towards the Rabbithole. Quiet and a little tucked away, this place is an absolute gem! The decor is lovely and the food is fantastic (so are the prices!) and our server was friendly, helpful, and never rushed us to clear our table.

We left the Rabbithole feeling happy and full, so chose to walk to Beauty & Essex, where we’d booked a table for cocktails. After all, it was just on the other side of the Williamsburg Bridge and only a thirty minute walk away from the Rabbithole – how could we not?! Just for this view alone, the walk was totally worth it.

Now, Beauty & Essex was recommended to me by several friends, and when I posted the picture above to Instagram I received even more comments from other friends saying they’d been there and liked it, too! Always a good sign.

Like Bathtub Gin we’d visited the night before, Beauty & Essex was also behind a false door – this time inside a pawn shop where everything was for sale, not just for show. But the real glitz and glamour was inside where the venue was filled with plush couches and the ceilings covered with draped beads.

Out of all the cocktails I drank in NYC (and I had quite a few!), the ones at Beauty & Essex were by far my favourite; not too strong (if I wanted my spirits neat I’d order them that way) and not too sweet (if I wanted fruit juice and sugar I’d ask for that, too).

We lingered at our table for [insert guess at number of rounds here – it was quite a few and the drinks were really good!] before finding a taxi and making our way back to the hotel.

Stay tuned for the Day 3 in NYC travel diary, which will be posted tomorrow!