Meeting FB friends in real life, The Intrepid Air and Space Museum and The Highline

Some of the best times we had in New York was meeting up with friends. From meeting Facebook friends in real life to hanging out with a childhood friend who now lives in the UK, and happened to be in NY at the same time as us!

So I met one of my CF/transplant Facebook friends who lives in New York, Alison! She has had her transplant 14 years ago! Chris and I had a wonderful brunch with her at Columbus Circle. It's amazing how having been through similar experiences can instantly connect people!

Another Facebook friend we met is Kathleen, a pianist who has been involved in the performance of Brian's "Breathe" composition. What a lovely lady! Also on the below pic is Brian! If you want to listen to his piece that he wrote featuring moi, click here.

We got to spend some time with James as well... he is the friend since forever who happened to be in NYC at the same time as us! Some great unexpected catching up!

On Sunday the 5th of Aug, we went to the Intrepid Air and Space Museum. It was pretty cool! And EXTREMELY warm... The whole museum is based on/around an old US Aircraft Carrier built during WW2. It was all pretty interesting, especially going on board the USS Growler, a submarine that in on display at the museum as well. I would NEVER have coped being underwater in a submarine!!! Quite a claustrophobic feeling!

On the Monday morning we did a walking tour of the Highline and Chelsea Market. This was also one of the best tours we did... I can definitely say that our walking tours (Central Park and this one), were the best tours we did. The Chelsea food market was AAMMMAAZING!!! Had freaking yummy doughnuts there and later for lunch, burgers. The Highline was also fantastic. Super inspiring to see what was done with an eyesore. The whole area really gives me hope for some parts of the inner city here in Joburg. Maybe one day we'll have a similarly awesome redeveloped area in what used to be a horrible district.

New York City... Brooklyn

We've been here for a week now, and this is the first chance I've had to blog. It's been absolutely amazing. We arrived here last Saturday afternoon, and took a yellow cab from the airport to our Airbnb apartment in Upper East Side... a pretty fancy and beautiful area, although I'm yet to see anything here that ISN'T beautiful and amazing. Unfortunately I lost my phone somewhere between the airport and the apartment... what a bummer. And pretty stressful, trying to get hold of the cab driver, logging a lost phone through the right channels... so far it hasn't been successful, so I ended up buying a new phone. I was planning on getting a new one later this year anyway, as the old one was 3.5 years old, but it was still working well :-( So I can at least do social media if there is wifi again. Below is the view from our apartment. We're on the 27th floor.

On Sunday we went to visit our friend Brian, who composed that piece featuring moi, at his apartment in Brooklyn. And met his cute kitty Bexley!!! He made us french toast for breakfast, which was amazing, and after that showed us some of the neighborhood. We went to some rooftops, went to the Brooklyn Bridge, Prospect Park etc. See pics below. It all amounted to a LOT of walking, for which I was not prepared... wearing my sandals!

We had a fab lunch in Dumbo, and a nice chat with the restaurant owner, who has been to Cape Town and was just a very interesting person! I had pickled herring on some sort of bread (can't remember) and it was perfect. It was also our first day in figuring out the subway, which takes a bit getting used to! Think we're doing pretty well though, it's been harder to figure out exactly where to go once you're ABOVE ground LOL!