Nature is the only thing I sometimes feel that I miss in the city and though I love going to Central Park and Prospect Park it’s still a bit of a hike for everyday life. Thankfully there’s a ton of small gardens and parks all around the city and in the summer some of them turns in to secluded hideouts. My favorite is cramped in between 6th avenue, a playground and another street but it still feels like (almost) being in a little forest when sitting there.

A museum and sculpture garden in the Long Island City section of Queens, New York City, designed and created by the Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi.

This is the place where I ate my first burger just 2 hours after I arrived in 'tha hood' I loved the place immediately because of the supersweet employees. And the fact that they have al this vintage machines in the place: like an old COKE machine and a cigarette machine as well as a jukebox from the sixties. The fact that they serve ALL DAY LONG BREAKFAST really made me happy, probably because I lived in Berlin before I moved here and there people are endlessly chilling and having breakfast the whole day long anyway! On wednesdays Wally organizes film evenings with funny nineties classics and on thursday evening you can eat a 5 dollar burger menu. While eating your inexpensive burger think of Wall.E.

I made my decision to move to New York when biking over the pink bridge one afternoon in early fall 2010. I feel like it’s the perfect bridge – with it’s view over Manhattan its great for walks, either visitors coming for the first time, old friends and first dates. I also love exercising running over it – and as a bonus looking at all the graffiti and writings and people passing by.

For brunch, the classic dish to get is the Feijoada, but the benny is also solid (and i don't recommend a benny lightly)—you can also ask for ham and spinach together (my favorite). For dinner you can also get the same thing, or the Moqueca (shrimp stew) is incredible. Pro-tip: if you're there for breakfast on a weekday, ask for a egg and cheese (add bacon or ham or avocado) on a croissant. Not on the menu—sounds basic, tastes amazing.