West Village

Today I took a tour of the village radicals tour with the assistance of my bible aka the Lonely Planet NYC. It contains a mapped out walk of each New York neighbourhood highlighting historical landmarks, events and people.

The reputation of The Village traces back to the 20th Century when artists and writers moved to the neighbourhood. In the 40s it became the gay crowd go to neighbourhood. The Stonewall Inn was the local hangout and the place of the historical Stonewall Inn raid in 1969 which led to the beginning of the equal rights movement and the famous Stonewall Riots showing the city the lesbian & gay community wouldn't accept being treated like second rate human beings.

Cafe Wha? est. 1950s

Corner of MacDougal St & Minetta Lane

Where Bob Dylan found his first audience & Jimi Hendrix use to frequent in 1960s

Washington Square Park

Renowned place for radicals hosting anti war, pro-marijuana and dyke pride demonstrations amongst other things and of course the famous Stanford White Arch dubbed the Washington Square Arch standing 72 ft tall originally designed in wood in 1889 to celebrate the centennial of George Washington inauguration proving to be such a popular monument 6 years later it was replaced with beaming white dover marble and statues of the general in war and peace.

NYU (New York University) is located across from the park so it is a local hangout for students especially when the fountain is empty.

For those who watched Hamish & Andy's gap year this is where they performed the illusion trick in order to get Andy a girls number, ahh good times.

Gay St 

Oscar Wilde's bookstore was located on the corner of Gay St and Christopher St.

Selling "queer books and periodicals since 1967" due to the GFC it had to close in 2009.

To conclude the adventure for today I was lured in by this pizzeria and their sign reading "best pizza in New York" by the food network.

The base was different to what I expected it was a thin layer of crisp bread and then then a thin layer of soft dough. It was pretty good but I want one that soft enough to fold in half thats my idea of NYC pizza so I continue to eat every slice I can get my hands on!

~JBomb