The sun was shining when we woke up on Saturday and it was a beautiful hot day with blue skies. After breakfast we took our bicycles and cycled over Williamsburg bridge to Bushwick, which in one of the Brooklyn boroughs. Before doing that we quickly stopped at Domino Park at the East River to enjoy the sun for a bit.
Over there, we met Franzi’s friend Lisa and joined a Bushwick Graffiti & Street Art Walking Tour. These tours, also with other themes, exist all over New York City and the great thing is that they are free – but it’s only fair to tip the guide at the end. Our guide did a great job and we learned a lot about the history of graffiti and contemporary street art. If you get a chance, visit the Bushwick collective, an initiative which brings together street artists from around the world. The art is all temporary and replaced regularly, especially before the annual Bushwick Collective Block Party early June.
After the tour we stopped at Roberta’s to have some pizza, a refreshing beer and wine and to enjoy the sun.
On our way back home, we stumbled over the after party of the annual East Village Dance Parade in Tompkins Square Park – a bunch of folks were showing off their best steps, celebrating life.
Back at our apartment Franzi’s friend surprised us with a bottle of sparkling wine and some Crack Pie (named like this because of its addictive taste) from the Milk Bar to celebrate her awesome grade in her law exam (double digits!!) For the evening we went to a concert by Bear’s Den in Irving Plaza, which was great. We knew the band from a couple of years ago when the were performing in Berlin as opening band for Kings of Leon. The band sang one song (Blankets of Sorrow) basically in the middle of the audience, right in front of us – goosebumps!
Sunday was a day to relax – we had a slow start at home and then read our books in the park. Franzi went to a Ballet class at Peridance and we met at Spiegel for a snack afterwards, where Alex went before to read his book and have a Cappuccino after relaxing in Tomkins Square Park.
In the evening we had to go through another step to maybe some day get our NY license – a 5 hour pre-licensing course in Midtown.
