Posts tagged #Dive Bars

In The Rearview Mirror 2020 pt. 1

Flashback Friday

Memories

First-quarter of 2020

2020 turned out to be one of the best and worst years in history for us. Right before getting on the plane to go to Sweden (to celebrate my dads 70th birthday) Winslow got a phone call and a job offer. We did two trips before Covid19 took its grip of our world. Sweden, and a week or so after I came back from there we went to Colorado to meet up with a bunch of friends. By March Covid19 in NYC was a fact and we started our weekly walk to Central Park. By mid March things started to shut down and I said bye to my lab for a couple of months.

January

We celebrated Christmas and New Years in Bozeman again. Just like many other NYE celebrations we cheered early and went to bed. The next day we got up at 6am and ventured out in the snow. W and his dad put on back-country skis and I came with them for part of it on my snow shoes. I Couldn’t have started the new year in any better way, I was in heaven. We did another outing around Bozeman before getting back to the big city. Once back in NYC we got some crazy warm weather. We took advantage of it and went to our favorite local bar for a beer. W and I and my brother and his partner surprised my dad in Sweden for his birthday. But before that we had some time to explore my old stomping grounds. We arrived at Operakällarn and boy was my dad surprised. After that followed some cold but beautiful days in Stockholm. We walked around everywhere, as we tend to do now when we visit. Winslow flew back to NYC earlier than me and I had some more time with my dad. I walked by the old fruit/candy store where we always used to go when I was in high school. And many trips to the beautiful Hedvig Eleonora church, where I got baptized, mom and dad got married, and moms funeral was held and where her memorial is. I blinked and then that trip and January was all over.

February

Spring started to appear already early February. Maybe mother earth knew we needed something bright and light in our lives? We went up to Poughkeepsie and Millbrook to check out the area where we would move if W accepted the job offer. our first trip to Canoe Hill, and the Wassaic Art Project. We even went to the local diner in Millbrook. Back in the city we did our monthly trip to chinatown and the obligatory seafood dinner at home. We went to mermaid in for oysters, and also went to one of our favorite dive bar in the East Village, the Library. Then we flew to Denver, went to the grocery store and bought 6 dozen oysters before we drove to Estes Park where we had rented an AirBnB. We got a beautiful hike in at Rocky Mountain National Park, and before we knew it the trip and February was over.

March

March 2020, a month that felt like a year, and therefore there are a few more photos to share. We greeted spring in Central Park, and continued to greet it the whole month during our weekly walks. If there was one thing to be excited about it was the blooming of flowers and trees. We knew things were getting bad, we heard silent rumors about a potential shutdown, and on March 16th I went to the lab to shut it down, for the foreseeable future. The rest of the city followed in the coming weeks. It was a spring that came and then got cancelled. I don’t think any of us could have imagined what the next months could possibly bring, and boy were we in for a surprise.

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In the rearview mirror 2019:

In The Rearview Mirror 2019 pt. 4

In The Rearview Mirror 2019 pt. 3

In The Rearview Mirror 2019 pt. 2

In The Rearview Mirror 2019 pt. 1

Posted on January 1, 2021 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Flashback Friday, Rearview Mirror, Life in New York and tagged rearviewmirror Spring NYC Big City Life snow turtle flowers Central Park Dive Bars Bars Baking Life in NYC rearviewmirror2020 2021 Colorado Sweden travels When the Pandemic Came Pandemic Covid19.

In The Rearview Mirror 2019 pt. 1

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Flashback Friday

Memories

First-quarter of 2019

2020 and a new decade. How crazy is it that I have spent a decade in this country now? We have now lived in NYC for more than a year, which also feels crazy. But here is what happened that last year of the decade, 2019. I spent the first quarter of 2019 searching for a specific job. There are a lot of jobs in NYC, but unfortunately, I am picky. Dad was still visiting in January, he had come for Christmas 2018. In February nothing new really happened, I got some short term job opportunities that carried over into March and later April.

January

We celebrated our first Christmas and New Year in NYC together with my dad who was visiting for almost a month. Back in the day when my brother did spend a year in the US for high school, we had all visited and also spent some time in New York, so it wasn’t my dad’s first trip here. The lack of snow was pretty obvious, and for us who used to have a lot of snow, it was pretty miserable. This was the first winter I didn’t do any cross country skiing since I moved to the US. My dad and I went to Brooklyn Bridge and walked around along the shoreline before we headed back to Manhattan. Another day the three of us went out to Cold Spring with Metro-North and walked through the old foundry. Today all that is left are the old brick houses and some leftover iron slag here and there. My dad and i also took advantage of the free admission to the 9/11 museum, which they have on Thursdays. I was actually surprised how much that visit affected me. It is definitely worth going there if you are ever in NYC. After my dad left W and I ventured out to Chinatown for an outing.

February

We went to H-Mart, a Korean market that sells sushi-grade salmon and tuna so that we could make sushi. I went north to Van Cortland Park to meet another Swede who lives in NYC. Another day I went down towards the Battery Park to meet another Swedish friend. W and I went on many walks in Central Park, which has also become a favorite spot for us here in NYC. We got some light snow dustings, that did not last long. Another weekend we also went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We only spent a couple of hours, and probably only saw about 10% of the whole place. But, as NYC residents you can pay what you wish in admission, so it’s not too expensive to come back.

March

In March I went out to Coney Island because I had an interview at the New York Aquarium. I also made another batch of my favorite no-knead bread. W and I ventured out to various neighborhoods and bars in March. By the end of March, you could definitely tell that Spring was on its way. Daffodils in Morningside Park and pretty flowers in Central Park. In March it also finally struck me that if I can make it in NYC, I can make it anywhere. March Went by so fast and before we knew it April had arrived.

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In the rearview mirror 2018:

In The Rearview Mirror 2018 pt. 4

In The Rearview Mirror 2018 pt. 3

In The Rearview Mirror 2018 pt. 2

In The Rearview Mirror 2018 pt. 1

Posted on January 3, 2020 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Flashback Friday, Rearview Mirror and tagged rearviewmirror Spring rearviewmirror2019 2020 NYC Cold Spring Big City Life snow turtle flowers Central Park Dive Bars Bars Baking Life in NYC.

Things to Do on a Friday in New York City

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A Friday Evening in March

The weeks are passing alarmingly fast now and we are slowly approaching spring. These past few day, or rather weeks have been cold, well, relatively cold. At Christmas we got a gift card to a famous restaurant called Momofuku. We have been cooking recipes from their cookbook for a few years now, so it seemed suiting to actually go there now that we live in New York. We were celebrating something else this day and decided to finally use the gift card. We left the apartment just before 5, even though we planned to leave at 4, I guess that is how it goes nowadays. Riding the subway on a Friday during rush hour is always interesting, and can probably seem like a nightmare. You get packed into the subway carts amongst a thousand other people who are switching places for the evening, but it is also a perfect time for people watching if you are into that. During our slow (even though we were on the express line) ride three interesting groups of people went through the subway cart. On the ride to the first stop we had three people entertaining us, one person was playing a guitar, another one singing and a third rapping a beautiful tune. Quite impressive though to play guitar and ride the subway at the same time. When they left a thin woman wearing a poster hanging on her front and back entered our subway cart. W had seen her riding a bike a few days before, banging on car windows and yelling her message. She was praising veganism and thought that everyone should become vegan. When she left a man came in and wanted to sell postcard photos, he had a funny way of presenting his art. It was unclear if it actually was his art or not, since there was no information about the art or him on the actual cards.

We finally got off at 14th street and East Village. If you are looking for dive bars there seem to be quite a few around east village. We are not made of money and while it’s probably super awesome to grab a cocktail or two while you are in NYC you probably already spend 20 dollars before you even found a place to eat. You’ll probably spend close to that amount in other cities too, but NYC rents are out of this world so we hang on tight to every lite penny we have above that :) Many places do have really great Happy Hour deals, which is a life saver for you wallet. Most of the time you can find their happy hour specials on their websites or by reading peoples comments on google maps. We walked down towards 7th street to get to a dive bar W had looked up earlier, Blue & Gold Tavern. I was surprised by how few people were there, but I liked the vibe. It had a pool table, a jukebox and a friendly vibe, and a pretty decent Happy Hour. Seems like a lot of the locals go to this bar. After that we went to Momofuku which is located between 10th and 11th street on 1st Avenue. We thought the wait would be long but it turned out that they get people in and out pretty quick here. A tip is to make sure that people who are standing in line are actually standing in line. You have to put your name on the list to get a table, but there isn’t that much space to stand, other than the line, after that. We got a tiger beer while waiting and before long we were seated by the bar right by the kitchen. I love seats where you are able to see what all the people in the kitchen are doing. We ordered the pork buns, chicken wings and the pork Ramen. So tasty, just like we expected :) Our plan was to continue the night but we went to one other bar and realized that we were both so full after dinner and decided to call it a night. We were home before 10, I guess we are getting old.