New York - part 4

Every morning in New York I wake up before M and I go out to get coffee for the two of us. Every morning I return to our room only to bang my head hard in the ceiling. The reason I do that has to do with the history of Brooklyn. How can my newfound desire, to consume an increasing amount of painkillers have anything to do with that you might ask? Well, our hostess Susana explained that before the gentrifaction of Brooklyn, different parts where populated mainly by certain etnicities. The area around Bedford ave was populated by mostly polacks and the area around Consolyea street where we are staying was poulated by the Italians. So back to the reason I keep knocking myself half unconcious every morning. Susanas house was built by Italians that probably didn't take in account that a 5'9 Swede would be staying in it's basement one day resulting in that I cant stand upright in any part of our room.

We got up surprisingly early considering the night before. Another day of shopping lay ahead of us. Some of you might wonder about the lack of sightseing. Well that's because this is our third time in New York together and we've pretty much seen what we want to. A real good one is coming up though. But not in this post. We went back into union square, a ride that takes about five minutes. Again we did the whole Broadway with surroundings. Enough shopping to last us a lifetime. I'll spare you the details of that since it's not that interesting and also because i'm right now writing this sitting in the bath tub of a motel room, the only place the wifi works.

We had plans to meet up with old friends for dinner so we headed home to regroup. After a powernap we took to Union pool for a beer and an appetizer. M and Mikael had grilled corn with cheese from the taco wagon. After awhile we got the call from Kalle & Brandon who wanted us to meet up with them in Prospect Heights,yet another area in Brooklyn. We caught a train to get there and now i started to realize how great Brooklyn is in size. A long walk later we arrived on a rather busy street with loads of bars and restaurants. I noticed on the way over here that some parts where not really shady looking but a bit more worn down. Kalle and Brandon explained this with that Prospect Heights was not long ago a poor area, predominantly inhabited by groups of african-americans and chassidic jews. There used to be huge riots between the two groups but as gentrification set in even here, the middleclass with its money made the area safer and cleaner with the downside that a lot of the people who lived there could not afford to stay there.

On a less serious note, we had dinner at a Mexican Restaurant called something like Chevale. I might come back and revise that. Food was absolutely amazing and I curse that Sweden has still not one single mexican restaurant that is not a horrible take on tex-mex. I ate grilled peppers stuffed with mexican cheese that reminded me of mozzarella. It was covered by a spicy tomato sauce and served with a side of rice and black beans. As the kids say OMG! Dinner went down with plenty of conversation and a few pitchers of Margarita. It was just one of those perfect nights where everyone is enjoying themselves. We continued with drinks on a bar until we finally had to say our good byes, and took a cab back home intoxicated with these new experiences.