NEW YORK LAYOVER

New York. All my life I've been hearing about how awesome NY is, how cool, how inspiring, how diverse. The city had a lot to live up to, in my eyes. I was very excited about this trip, as was Jarv, who had lived and worked on Wall Street for a year and was one of the first to tell me that I had to go. But with only 24 hours in the city before flying on to our next destination, we wondered how we could cram everything we wanted to do, see and eat into one day without missing out. Well, of course we would miss out, you just can't do New York in one day - but I have to say, I think we took a pretty good run at it.

This is how we spent just under 24 hours in New York:

Sleep: the Andaz hotel on Wall Street. It's young, hip and convenient, plus the room we had was fantastic. There was so much space, a 360 degree rotating cabinet, a massive walk in shower, and free snacks and soft drinks from the minibar plus one alcoholic drink (we chose the largest bottle - the vodka - and had two of our local friends come over before dinner for drinks). They also always serve complimentary coffee and cookies in the lobby.

Eat: For dinner, we ate at Jean-Georges' ABC Kitchen, an organic food lover's dream. They do tend to go on about where your produce comes from (anyone watch Portlandia? "Is the chicken local? Did it get to play with other chickens?"). Food was pretty good. Drinks were strong. Setting was lovely.

For lunch the next day, Katz's Deli. You know the one, from the infamous When Harry Met Sally scene where Meg Ryan fakes an orgasm and the man at the next table says, "I'll have what she's having!" Well, oh. My. God. It was the best pastrami sandwich I've ever had.

Il Laboratorio del Gelato, right opposite the street from Katz's, also does the most fantastic gelato in enticing flavours such as avocado, blood orange, lychee, dulce de leche and so many more.

See: we didn't get around to much sightseeing, but we did walk from our hotel to the 9/11 memorial site, which was eerily beautiful, framed by snow dusted trees and skyscraper giants.

Drink: We missed our reservation at PDT and Raines Law Room was too busy for walk-ins; instead we ambled down a few blocks towards a very different type of drinking hole where live (rock, usually) music is often played on stage. The name eludes me right now but if I find out, I'll make sure to add it.

Shop: Century 21 has myriad designer discounts and bargains - we spent a little too much of our time here! TJ Maxx (or TK Maxx as we know it in the UK) of course is also worth a look, but didn't hold quite as many good brands as Century 21.