The Most Americanest* Day

*I'm not sure that 'Americanest' is a word, but apparently 'most winningest' (as in 'Manchester United are the most winningest team in Premier League history') is acceptable over here so it seems you can do what you like with the English language this side of the Atlantic.

One of the biggest culture shocks of moving to the US has, surprisingly, been the food. Naively, I presumed that they would eat similarly to us Brits, just with larger portions and the healthier foods harder to find. That was okay by me - I've had my fair share of microwaveable all-day breakfasts in my time and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

But what I did not vouch for was the complete lack of orange squash in New York City. I'm not saying I expected Robinsons to have lit up the New York Stock Exchange, but it was pretty tough to hear that they didn't even know what squash was over here. I guess it's true what Westlife once sang about never missing the water until it's gone.

Nevertheless, I was looking forward to giving a staple of American cuisine a go on Saturday morning when we went to IHOP (the International House of Pancakes, apparently) for breakfast food. Besides, NBC's Parks and Recreation has only good things to say about it:

Maybe Leslie Knope likes peculiar blends of salt and sugar and pancakes that taste solely of bicarbonate of soda but it's not for me. I draw the line at those microwaveable all-day breakfasts.

I found out the hard way that the lump of what looks like ice cream on the pancake was actually butter.

Thankfully, it wasn't a case of 'start as you mean to go on' as the day was rescued by a trip to SoHo and the Brooklyn Bridge.

SoHo is basically Oxford Street but instead of having Hyde Park at one end, it is overlooked by the stunning Chrysler Building. In terms of three guys going shopping, I feel like we nailed it - one of us bought a grey polo shirt whilst the other two grunted their approval.

We continued the American theme of the day with a trip to a pop-up replica of the Central Perk cafe from Friends, but a queue that carried on for blocks didn't sound like our ideal Saturday so we settled for some photos of the exterior:

We made our way to the Brooklyn Bridge via Chinatown and although we only passed through, Chinatown was one the most peculiar places I've ever been and somewhere I'll definitely have to go back and explore later on. It seemed to be one massive cliche, with launderettes on every corner and dodgy-looking food being sold outside dodgy-looking shops.

After a bit of a struggle getting access to the Bridge (turns out the logic 'head for the waterfront' wasn't as sound as we first thought), we found our way onto the wooden pathway that overhangs the carriageways.

Thankfully the decent weather meant you could see everything Manhattan had to offer, from the Statue of Liberty and World Trade Center to the Empire State Building. I won't attempt to describe it fully because if I was able to do justice to the views then I'd be working for Lonely Planet instead of writing this. But it is definitely one of my favourite experiences of NYC so far, and that's saying something.

By the time we'd got off the Bridge my feet had had enough of walking and my stomach was still moaning about the IHOP, so we played it safe and called it a day.