NYDiscovery

Weekend Getaway in Montauk

A really cool thing with living in New York City is the proximity to some of the most beautiful places in the world. For example, it takes just around $30 for a train to Montauk and back. There you find a small fishing village, beautiful beaches and excellent restaurants. For sure, hotels know this and claim much of the money you saved with the cheap train ride, but all in all it's worth it.

Here are our favorite places:

The Ocean Beach Resort is located directly at the beach. Most of the rooms have ocean view and this means that you see nothing but the ocean and a little bit of beach. For all it's beauty the place doesn't cultivate much hospitality, but after our seventh stay there (and bringing in an increasing number of friends) we got finally a smile from the manager. Maybe five, ten times more and we're greeted with our names.

Shagwong Tavern, a simple fishermen's pub as pricey as a Manhattan destination restaurant. But the food is good, really good: we love the fresh fish and the excellent pasta.

No visit to Montauk without dinner at East by Northeast, which offers excellent Pan-Asian cuisine and great steaks. At the right time, one can enjoy the sunset over the lake. Don't miss the Peking Duck Tacos.

Nick's is the closest to a beach bar you can get in Montauk (and in a way in the entire US, at least the part we know). The bar itself faces  the street, but there's a deck with ocean view. Decent food makes it our favorite place for lunch.

There's more on the harbor side, which is difficult to reach without a car. I'll cover this the next time.

On Vacation in NYC

We love having visitors from Germany, especially those who haven't been in the city before. And as anybody knows, there's a lot to show in New York (it's the third most popular US city with tourists, after Vegas and Orlando, both built solely for the purpose of tourism). So here's how we tried to entertain our guests:

The Standard
That's what you have to do when you're in the city for the first time: take the subway to 42nd St, walk along 5th Avenue up to Central Park, then back to times Square via 7th Avenue. We recommend a stop at P.J. Carney's on 57th St. for drinks and/or a snack in order to make sure that you reach Times Square at dusk.

The Lower West Side
This is one of our favorite walks: from the Lower East Side (F or JMZ to Delancey/Essex Street), walk Rivington Street to the West. On Bowery switch over to Prince Street or Spring Street. From there go straight on, through Soho, passing many nice shops, for example my favorite Apple Store at Prince and Greene Streets. You can walk until the Hudson and then maybe have dinner at one of the nice places around Greenwich and Spring Streets.

A Downtown Sunday
On Sunday the Financial District belongs to the tourists, who look sort of lost in the empty canyons that resemble one of the countless post-apocalyptic movies taking place in NYC. But this is more than set off by Ulysses on Stone Street, an Irish pub that offers an all-you-can-eat brunch for incredible $20 including one drink. a fantastic way to start off a Sunday, before walking down to the Battery and then up Broadway to the WTC site and maybe a little shopping at J&R.

Walking the Bridge
This is a new one, we did last Saturday: take the subway to downtown Brooklyn (Jay St or Bergen St. station) and then walk over Montague Street over the Promenade to the Brooklyn Bridge. Crossing the bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan is actually somewhat nicer as the more impressive skyline is in front of you. We paired this walk with a harbor cruise on the South Street Seaport Museum's historic schooner Pioneer.

The Highline
The Highline will be a major attraction a couple of years from now, but even now the Meatpacking District and Chelsea are two neighborhoods that are worth a stroll. We took the subway to W 4th Street and walked up Greenwich Avenue up to 9th Avenue. There we passed a bunch of famous restaurants, such as the Spice Market or Pastis, the Highline itself, another Apple Store and the Chelsea Market. Lunch break at the Half King on 23rd and 10th Avenue.

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Your own personal DJ?

Apart from the announcement of magic update that fixes hopefully all of the iPhone 3G problems the most interesting news from the Apple event on Tuesday was the one about the iTunes Genius. Apart from the fact that "Genius" is quite an odd term for an electronic DJ that matches songs based on a database, it's quite a useful feature - especially for the two of us who frequently engage in a discussion what music should be put on.
So far, so good: the first test with Death Cab's "I will possess your heart", yielded an almost perfect playlist with songs that don't deviate too much from the anchor song, but still offer a nice range. The final review is still outstanding, but this could be really fun.

Five Reasons Why We Love The US Open

Generally watching live sports is not especially our cup of coffee, but for tennis we make a big exception - for the following reasons:

1. The Game

As opposed to other spectator sports, there are no boring tennis matches The scoring systems guarantees that finishes quickly, once it gets boring. Also, usually the superior player gets sloppy at one time and lets the opponent come into play.

2. The Players

With a little luck you get close enough to actually see and recognize the players. You can feel their joy and pain. And they, the women in particular, are dressed nicely, not just in plain team jerseys. Also, you can get really close to them, if a match is scheduled in Armstrong Stadium or the Grandstand.

3. The Selection

For one ticket you get to see multiple matches. A day pass admits to a bunch of courts and two stadiums, so you can go see whatever your mood strikes. Only the big one, Arthur Ashe, requires a special ticket (and of course that's where the big games take place).

4. The Party

All that happens on private ground, so the rules are pretty relaxed. There are bars everywhere and you can take your drinks everywhere. And if the narrow seats in the stadiums begin to hurt, you can hang out for a drink or two and watch the games on the mini TV that American Express gives out for free.

5. The Crowd

This one is a matter of preference but we enjoy the somewhat more sophisticated audience that is drawn to tennis over the one that can be found at other sports events.