NEW YORK: PART 2

Yooooo part two!

Ok so one day I split up from the other guys and did some shopping on the lower Eastside. I got the subway too far up and ended up in Harlem for a few blocks, it looked soooo different to Manhattan haha. There were some guys racing remote controlled cars up the street, people were betting on them. Either way, I walked back along the side of central park and saw this guy. I can't remember his name, but look at that fucking outfit.

I found the flagship Ralph Lauren store. Fuck me, it was ridiculous. 5 fucking floors, open fire places, cabinets with polo awards, big leather sofas everywhere. I got offered a drink when I walked in. Some guy in the lift with white gloves asked me what floor. Upstairs there was a bloke swanning about with a little dog with a Ralph Lauren coat on. Jesus. 

Dan holding stuff from the bodega part 1: A Colt 45 40oz.

The bodegas were so so sick. They sold everything you'd want, like a pure good selection of drinks, booze and sweets but then each one had a sandwich bar inside. On the right you can see piles of different meats swamped in sauces. You tell them what you want, on what bread and with what cheese and 5 minutes later it's $4.

I had a chicken pesto sandwich on a hero (a long soft roll) with mozzarella and jalapeños. I think it's easily the thing I ate that I'm thinking about the most since I got home.

We went to ground zero, to the 9/11 memorial museum. I was off school on that day, and I watched the second plane go in live. I've always been completely fascinated by the whole thing.

They'd built the museum on the actual grounds of the World Trade Centres. Parts were still intact. Like you'd walk down and there would be a rusted steel foundation towering 60ft next to you, and then at the bottom it was all twisted and ripped apart. This staircase was still in tact, but covered in dust and concrete from the collapse. Thousand of people escaped via this staircase on the day.

This flag was patched together with bits of other flags from all over the country to replace the one from the towers that got lost in rubble while they were clearing up the site.

There was a little part of the museum that was dedicated to peoples tattoos. This one was pretty mental.

'No day shall erase you from the memory of time' kind of a sick quote. Behind this wall were all the unidentified parts of bodies and bodies that belonged to people who died that day.

The museum was by far the most comprehensive and interesting museum I've ever been to. They had this one room where you couldn't take photos and little A5 photos lined the walls top to bottom. Photos of everyone who died in the towers. Next to this room was a dark room with two benches, facing projectors that one by one remembered the people who died. Someone would come on, they'd show you where they were from, their job and then it would say, for example 'Meredith Jenkinson, remembered by her widower, John' and then John would tell a funny little story that painted a picture of her as a slideshow of photos of her played. It was such a nice touch, very personable. It really got me.

One massive room had loads of vehicles and stuff that was on the ground that was half ok, half completely fucked. suspended in mid air was one of the engine turbines from the plane. How incredible is that!

My favourite part of the museum was this one bit with TVs showing you footage from around the world of when the story broke that the first plane had gone in. Obviously, initially everyone thought it was an accident. Then you turned the corner, they had the same TVs in the same order but with footage of the second plane hitting, and obviously various news anchors and presenters realising it was an attack rather than a freak accident.

This is the new World Trade Centre building. 

Even the basic food like paninis from some anything shop looked unreal.

Tom only drinks Fiji water now. Basic water makes him nervous.

More roadman squirrels.

I saw a couple men who definitely slapped a woman to snap her out of a state of hysteria during the wild cocaine 70s in New York.

We turned this corner, I'm not sure of the area, maybe like near East Village and it was so cool. It suddenly looked a lot more like the New York from movies and shit. People playing handball.

Mandatory WL roadkill.

This pizza place was pure famous apparently. The wall was covered in photos of A list stars (like Leo DiCaprio level of celebrity) who had visited. Didn't want a photo of Kurly Hypa though... very interesting.

Bit weird isn't it.

LOOK AT THE FUCKING BEAUTIFUL NEAT SELECTION DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS FUCKING SHIT

Dan holding stuff part 2: a 20 deck of Newport menthols.

Dogshit photo but a few road signs were giving me pure mixed signals. The roads were hard enough to cross anyway, I don't need this shit to contend with.

That's part 2 done! I'll be back tomorrow with my third and final part!