Goodbye, New York!

Ok, we had a budget and we made it.

No (extra) credit cards cashed out, no micro loans applied for and NO street- singing for cash.

If you can blog it here...

We did in reality not spend more than $100 a day. But we also realized that it would be to pushing it to call this living on a budget.

Food- happy is the best happy!

By realizing this we also realized that New York is so much more than shopping. By ignoring all the lovely shoes, dresses, purses, make up, jewelry, under wear, yeah, you get the point, we saw a hole different city than just the inside of stores.

As we have already mentioned $100 a day is a fortune in food and drinks. Of course you can’t indulge in fine dining and champagne, but in a city like no other city, New York, that would just be boring!One of the best meals we hade was the dim sum for only $20. Even the pizza for $4.99 was a feast for the taste buds.

Weird little things in life...

Everywhere you look there are hidden gems, small restaurants with real passion for food. Not like in Texas where food equals tons of lard, cheese and salt. Everything tastes the same, and it’s really sad.

Momofuku Noodle bar

We saw a sign in Manhattan that said:

“Remember, if you move out of the city you have to live in America. “

New York is like an oasis of food, people and experiences. Nothing like the rest of the US.

Not that the rest of the US is bad, don’t get us wrong and come and shoot us down, Texans. It’s just something special with New York.

The moment we left New York driving in to New Jersey towards Newark, the scenery changed dramatically. Just 10 min away from Manhattan the most crowded place ever, there are green fields and only industrial buildings. We wonder how many years this is going to last? Especially with the new hit show Jersey Shore, every one surely will want to move to Jersey! (?)

So the lessons we learned by doing this blog. A $100 a day really isn’t a budget, but that New York is a fantastic city even if you don’t do any shopping.

We’ll leave you with these few tips:

Don’t be afraid to try fun looking food, even if you find it some place weird.

And most important of all (don’t!) start your own New York blog….

The small things...

Signing out,

LA&H

Wonderland and Flying Pigs

We started our morning at Alice’s Tea Cup, with a humongous breakfast.

The Mad Hatter three-tier Breakfast plate

You might ask how this could be budget-conscious? It’s because its big enough for breakfast, brunch, lunch & dinner.

Ready to go Mad Hatter on our breakfast

Then we hopped on the:

The Staten Island Ferry

Beeing tourist-y on the ferry

To see:

The Eiffel Tower

And also to see:

Manhattan Skyline (Obviously)

Then we had lunch:

Cookies for lunch (leftovers from breakfast)

And then it was time to go to:

Guess where!

Where the doors are colorful! (And they sell puppy-leather??)

We had tickets to the amazing:

The legendary Apollo Theatre

And the just as legendary:

Amateur Night - Where stars are born (at least that's what they told us..)

After the show (which was awesome), we had a quick pitstop at The White Horse again.

Again..?

@LivArnica @JanickeEckbo @Brutusb @JesperJacobsen At The White Horse

Before going to the fantastic Spotted Pig for dinner.

A flying (spotted) pig

Apparently the Spotted Pig is co-owned by Jay-Z. We didn’t meet Jay -Z, but we’ll tell everyone we did! (Shhh!)

The Uh-mazing Duck Fat Potatoes

Skirt Steak (Yes, with beets Janicke!)

We recomend The Spotted Pig to everyone who likes food, or beer, or pigs. Just go, you won’t be sorry! (It’s not very expensive either.)

The rest of the evening is unfortunately to be kept confidential. But we had a great taxi-ride home, and went to bed semi-early.

PS: We obviously haven’t been clear on what type of challenges we are accepting.. To all our friends and family who suggested we sing for money on the street; We love you, but you missed the point. We are here to spend (just not to much), not make money. (And come on, be more creative. All of our (two) recieved challenges asked us to sing on the street..)

H & LA

A city within the city

Today we went to Asia. Seeing as we both love everything Chinese, it’s pretty obvious where we had to go.

Chinatown!

We had Dim-Sum for brunch at a Michelin recommended Dim-Sum place. Ok, maybe it was next door to a Michelin recommended Dim-Sum place. Cause that’s how we roll when on a budget.

Something crab, something shrimp, something pork, or something...

Complimentary tea is very budget-conscious!

Yum!

H needed a haircut. And in the spirit of doing all the stuff we normally do but on a budget, the natural choice is to find the shadiest looking hairdresser in Chinatown.

(Alright, the second shadiest looking one)

We just don't want to know what's going on down there...

Looks New Fabolous, called New Fabolus must make New Fabolous!

While H got her hair cut LA got a pedicure, which may or may not lead to a life-threatening infection. Or ebola. Or hopefully nothing.

The hairdresser unfortunately sneezed while cutting. (Kidding. It’s even, we promise!)

Before...

...and after!

All in all we recommend getting your beauty-services in Chinatown for less than half the price. (Unless the ebola kicks in. We’ll keep you posted on that one.)

Next up a quick de-tour to Europe; Little Italy.

(We brought some Asia with us to Italy, in the form of a tasty bubble-tea!)

After a lot of walking, and a lot of rain, we went home for a nap. After all it’s tiring to travel across the world and back again in just a few hours.

We finished up our Asian tour of the day with a quick dinner visit in India.

But we did get the dinner delivered to our “home”. So even though we enjoyed our day in Asia, it could seem like the old saying is true; “there’s no place like home”.

LA & H

Your loving dog Yoffi

A love story on a park bench...

Such a perfect Monday. Walking in Central Park for hours.

LA & Guest Star David happy in the park

Walking for hours in Gramercy, Greenwich, & West Village…

Tři oříšky pro Popelku? (H's pre-lunch)

H discovered a “Three acorns for Cinderella”-scene, and had an early lunch on the curb…

NY-style lunch (on the cheap)

Told you it was on the cheap! (We shared it.)

Tartine in Greenwich

French dinner including Escargots, Artichoke-salad & Moules Frites. (Cheap because the wonderfull Janicke brought us Rosè wine.) We recomend Tartine whole-heartedly to all francophiles, (but bring your own wine). (LA’s saving-tip of the day: order two starters; two courses for the price of one!)

Dessert at Magnolia Bakery

Cupcake-Happy at Magnolia Bakery

We ended the night with cheap beers at Janickes local pub, The White Horse.

NY is pretty good, even on less than a 100 dollars a day, wich really is a fortune in food and drinks. Yeah.

H & LA

Day Zero

We arrived in NY late, and our first night went well.

H at JFK last night, showcasing why we're broke

We only spent about $15 for dinner and show! The dinner: greasy late-night Diner-food. The show: overhearing a gangster in the next booth make death-threats. (Don’t worry, he wasn’t making death-threats towards us.)

The perfect Diner for Dinner & a Death-threat

This guy and his friend seems to have been left behind on Manhattan by a third guy (who’s probably been unfriended by now), with no money, and a cell phone running out of power. Quote from the gangster-guy on his dying cell phone:

“After I’m through with you, you’ll be so fucked up you’ll be a mystery even to Doctor House!”.

Shortly after, the guys on the next table wearing clown-paint and bandanas lent the gangster-guy one of their phones and told him to: “Just mail it to me” before they left. So it seems that even if people in NY make death threats, they’re mostly nice to each other.

Insane Clown Posse make-up, more or less the same as seen on our diner-friends

We think Thomas the receptionist at our hotel was right;

“Even though were tough, were nice. Never met someone who’s tough and nice before? Welcome to New York!”

LA & H

New York On (kind of) a Budget

We’re broke. We’re Norwegian. We’re going to New York. The Mission: two shop-a-holics trapped in New York for five days with 500 dollars each. Can we do it?

 

After three months in Houston Texas with Gründerskolen, we’ve grown accustomed to fast cars, guns and champagne.

Champagne on H's birthday

H & a fast car

After this, were obviously broke, but we still have our plane tickets telling us we need to spend five days in New York.

So we know we’re not really broke. After all, 500-dollars can feed you for a short or long time.

Our mission is to show you that it’s possible to be a tourist in The City without spending the equivalent of a small national budget.

The Back-story:

We (Helene & Liv Arnica) just finished our stay in Houston as interns and exchange students. During our stay we had tons of fun, and (un)expectedly we spent all our money. (Un)fortunately  we booked our plane tickets back home in the warm and pleasant comfort of newly acquired student-loans.

We love shopping, eating great food, and having fun in general. So we’re not about to spend five days in the greatest city in the world locked up in our hotel room, eating ramen noodles.

So now were stuck with you for five days, New York. You have everything, we have a thousand dollars combined.

Game On!