New York was wonderful! I really struggled with how to start this post so I decided to just put it that plain and simple: New York = awesome. I can’t really say I’ve figured the city out after five days, but the trip was for sure a great introduction to a city I’m destined to return to.

The weather was almost entirely comprised of sub-0 temperatures and a lot of snow (which was apparently rather unusual for NYC, seeing how much they struggled with getting rid of the snow and driving/walking in it – the schools and airports were even closed for two days). However impractical, the continous snow did leave the city looking white and lovely.

With regards to plans for the trip, the only thing we knew we were going to do was to attend a recording of The Daily Show (live!), the rest of the time was spent walking around the city, shopping, eating, talking to people and having a great, great time.

(Me on Times Square. Not my favorite place. We spent like five seconds there before deciding to move on to better things)

Since the trip was a gift from Husband I didn’t know where we would be staying, and for once I was glad to have been kept out of the loop because I would most likely have insisted on a hotel in Manhattan or SoHo and such. I’m SO happy that we ended up with the NYC-JC suite because it was absolutely fantastic – in fact, I can’t think of a better place to have had my first New York experience.

The suite was on the 44th floor with floor-to-ceiling windows that gave us an amazing view of the New York skyline, as well as the Statue of liberty (it was strange looking down on it though). The building was just 200 meters from the Jersey City PATH-station (subway), which took us to the World Trade Center-station in Manhattan in less than two minutes. Yes, seriously. The building we stayed in also housed a lot of other apartments, and it was such a nice experience meeting and having random quick conversations in the elevator with the people living permanently in the building.

(Should have taken a better picture from the apartment.. This is the living room, there was also a huge bedroom with a walk-in closet. Gotta love it!)

(The view from our bedroom)

(Camper store, baby!)

Shopping in NYC was fantastic! It’s always fun to visit your favorite brands flagship stores (I picked out some cool stuff from Camper, Dr Martens and Antropologie to name a few), but it’s even more fun to check out all the small boutiqes run by people who really loves their shop, what they sell and what they do. Anyway, here are a few of my new favorite shops in the world:

Enz’s - Vintage reproduction clothing, handmade accessories and pretty much everything else for the modern pin-up. I spent at least an hour trying on most of the dresses in the shop and ended up with two dresses and a hat! Mariann Marlowe – the owner of the store – was incredibly helpful and great fun to talk to. (125 2nd Ave New York, NY 10079)

Village style – small thrift store. Not very trendy or hip at all, and quite inexpensive. I found a lovely wool coat for $40!

CoCo de mer is always worth a visit, both in London and NYC. Lingerie and designer sex toys in a very female friendly atmosphere.

Azaleas is a small lingerie-boutiqe in the east village, where I finally found my favorite brand, Maison Close! I’m so happy I could spit (to quote Bill Hicks). Ended up with half of MC’s collection. Azaleas also have a number of other small lingerie brands and I would highly recommend a visit!

Amarcord – high-end vintage fashion. Fun store, excellent service and lot’s of nice quality vintage pieces. A bit expensive, as most of the vintage shops in Manhattan seems to be.

Lisa Shaub – milliner. Oh my, what can I say.. this was my idea of hat-heaven, and I had huge troubles leaving this store with only one hat (Husband put his foot down). When we entered the store, the proprietor Lisa was there, and Joni Mitchell was playing on the stereo. Lisa patiently helped me try on half a dozen or so hats, and after an hour of going back and forth I ended up with a fantastic black one that will be featured as the hat of the week pretty soon. (232 Mulberry Street, New York, NY 10012)

(Me trying on hats at Lisa Shaub.. Didn’t get this one :()

Thank you sweet new yorkers, I’ll see you soon!