Zoocap

After our previous tries to visit the Brooklyn Bridge, we decided to give it one more try, because today the sun was out and the forecast was showing that the it would stay sunny for the entire day. Before we took the subway, we wanted to see if there were any interesting restaurants in New York that might be near the bridge. Then we were off, we took the subway over to Brooklyn and headed to one of the restaurants listed on-line. But, before we could make it to the restaurant, we came upon one of the ubiquitous hot dog vendors, we couldn’t help ourselves, we ate 3 hot dogs each! So, much for a nice sit down lunch in a great restaurant. 
 
We made our way across the bridge end to end, which was back to the Manhattan side. We are tremendous fans of bridges, the elegant structure of Brooklyn Bridge did not disappoint. We wandered around the rest of the day to just experience New York. We landed in Chinatown first, then onto Little Italy and we enjoyed the party atmosphere there, we think maybe it was because New Years was coming up in a few days, but who knows, maybe Little Italy just likes to party all the time. We didn’t blame them, it was a lovely area and we had tons of restaurants to choose from, but we headed back to Chinatown for Chinese food and had a feast, followed by Tsingtao, Chinese beer!
 
Afterwards, we took a walk through Tribeca and to Soho, where there was a mass of crazy street vendors trying every which way to get us to buy knock-off handbags, sunglasses, watches or perfumes! Instead of Soho, it should be called Knock-off. We found a coffee shop and ordered mass quantities of coffee in order to revive us from all the walking we’ve done today. While there, we talked to a local woman who was a delight! She’s not the only local person we’ve met, everyone we’ve struck up conversations with has been friendly and helpful — far from the stereotypical rude New Yorker!  We chatted for a long while and then headed back to our lodgings and a good night’s sleep.