Notebook and Pen

Another mild hangover led to another lazy day in the park, but what else is summer supposed to be for? Plus we had to save our energy for another party tonight, where our friend's hostel owner from Queens was taking us before we moved over there tomorrow.

A few hours sunbathing later and we made our now semi-regular trip over to Cazzamia, the Spanish, family run hostel Ali & Matt were staying at. Without having much info about tonight's party, other than it was going to be held on a rooftop (reason enough to go) we turned up at the hostel a couple of hours early before going back on ourselves slightly as we made the lengthy journey back to Manhattan, to Alphabet City.

The one significant thing about the party is that it was being held to raise money for charity, and therefore the host was charging everyone $20 entry. The four travelers of us decided this was ridiculously steep within milliseconds, but having already agreed to go we reluctantly said goodbye to $80 we'd never see again (though we did actually unsuccesfully look for it later on when no evidence of any charity became apparent).

The rooftop part of the party was definitely the highlight, and after quickly drawing attention to ourselves after establishing our small group as the 'fun group', we had a small gathering of people keen to learn some English drinking games. With drinking games comes getting drunk, and with getting drunk comes the urge to climb onto the next part of the roof, closed in by a small wall with enough room for 5 or 6 people to hide out for a while and get a better view of the skyline in the distance.

Here we met Pete, a young professional who had found a rental bargain through a friend and was living in one of the nicest parts of Manhattan almost for free. For this Ali decided he deserved some punishment, and inflicted another game involved crushing an empty beer can using only your forehead, ending only when everyone in the group gave in, and/or made their head bleed. Americans are such wimps.

Another early morning trip on the subway and we arrived back at the hostel just in time to pack the bags and check out. Turns out we got our $20 worth after all.