It ended up being something of a late night after the comedy club, and so as not to break with tradition, we didn't end up getting a start on the next day until a bit later in the morning. We started off by heading down to Greenwich Village to get some highly anticipated peanut butter sandwiches at Peanut Butter and Co, who do all manner of specialty or straight-up takes on the sandwich. Myra had an Elvis Presley and I had a Jerry Seinfeld, both of which were good but we both wanted them to be better. Maybe we had just expected too much from lowly peanut butter.

Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side have a nice community feel to them. Like the kind of place where you'd see familiar faces and stop to have a chat. A little slower pace to them than Midtown. A bit cozier if any of New York can really be described as such. We only spent a couple of hours there, so it's not based on much, plus that night the place was to be overtaken by millions (literally) of halloween revelers, so it's highly possible that laid back is just how Greenwich Village is during the late morning on a weekday. Anyway, I liked it.

We walked through the East Village and further south to the Lower East Side, past Katz's Delicatessen, and over to Alife Rivington Club to check out their wares. Purveyors of rare and exclusive trainers in one small room with a rotating selection, no signage on the building and you have to buzz to get in. Nice. There wasn't loads to my taste at that particular time, and it's expansive anyway, but if you're into your sneaks, it's well worth a visit.



We made for the subway before jumping on the train stopped to check out a small crew displaying their dance skills in the main concourse, but mostly it was just the main guy hyping the crowd and trying to get them to cough up some coin, then headed back to Midtown for Myra to hunt down some jumpers (sweaters) for herself. We ended up in Macy's and came out with limited success, then headed up over to MoMA.

The Museum of Modern Art had a Van Gogh exhibition on, so the place was more packed than usual (I think), and the exhibition was sold out for the night, but there was more than enough to take in regardless. Particular highlights were Rothko, Mondrian, Jasper Johns, Pollock, De Kooning, Lee Krasner, Lichtenstein, Miro amd a fabulous but dark photo exhibition by Mikhael Subotzky. There were, of course, some slightly abstract pieces, some good fun ones, and some rather disturbing works, but almost all were enjoyed.

There was one particular exhibition that made it's way throughout the museum which I didn't particularly have any appreciation for. There were three girls who appeared to have just emerged from a Tim Burton movie, clothes sourced from second-hand retro-type stores, red/orange hair all sprayed straight back behind them a good two feet, like they had been in a wind tunnel, and very clearly art students of some description. All this is just to provide some context within which they were amusing some people but annoying most. They seemed to fancy that they were the pieces of art, going around completely oblivious to anyone else' desire to enjoy the museum's exhibitions. They were snapping pictures of themselves in artsy poses, nearly knocking Myra and others in the face with their ridiculous hair and being generally but thoroughly annoying. I think what made it most unpalatable was that they thought they were extraordinary. It wasn't a few girls having a bit of fun, but a few girls who had no regard for those around them and thought they were the bees knees, and that we were supposed to think so too. Nope. Just irritating.

So, on our way out the crowd was thinning, so we slipped into the Van Gogh exhibition and took in as much as we could. After another day on our feet and hours put in in the gallery, we made our way back out into New York and searched out some dinner.

We fancied some mexican, so headed for El Centro (www.elcentro-nyc.com). It was packed with costumed peoples who gave the already vibrant place a bit more of a unique feel. Good food, but the guy who was serving our food was low-ridding his pants like the kids do these days (how old am I?!?) and wasn't too fussed about the lack of underware showing off his butt crack. A little unappetizing, it must be said.

We were starting to feel the fact that we were tourists on our feet all day, so we just made our way back to our hotel after dinner. We walked back up through Time Square, which. like the rest of the city, was jam packed full of people either already partying or on their way to one.
A fine selection of costumes were on display, a few of which were pretty typical, clearly just bought off the shelf, but most were extremely well conceived home-made costumes. The one that put the biggest smile on my face was perhaps the simplest. A guy brushed past us in nothing but a white button-up shirt, white socks and tighty-whities, and danced his way through the crowd, fully in the character of Tom Cruise in Risky Business. Not really a fantastic scene/movie, but this guy was fully committed and and you had to love it.

We had to stop at the Hershey store to gaze at the giant wall of Peanut Butter Cups (I resisted, as I had previously bought a giant bag of peanut butter M&M's, which I only just got through a couple of weeks ago), and then battled our way to and on the subway before emerging in Chelsea, which was equally as packed and crazy. Much of it spilled into our hotel, but, as mentioned, we didn't hear peep all night with the 4ft thick walls in that place.

Our last full day in New York. In the morning we would start in Harlem and work out way back down to Penn Station in Midtown. Still loads to see.

Stay tuned.