Friends

Nicolas in Chipmunk Hollow /  by Liesl Pfeffer

Nicolas, Chipmunk Hollow, NY
December 2014

Nicolas and I went on a photo walk around the house we were staying for the office christmas party. He took my portrait with his twin lens reflex and I worried I was going to waste his expensive film. I accidentally took the top portrait of Nicolas as a double exposure; magic.

Topsham, Maine /  by Liesl Pfeffer

Topsham, Maine
November 2014

The thanksgiving holidays were spent in a beautiful family home on a farm in southern Maine. We drove overnight to get there from Baltimore/New York, and arrived around 6am. The snow started to fall late morning, and by the end of the first day the snow was up to our shins. It then continued to snow on and off for days. One day we went for a walk just before sunset to look at the freezing river. We heard gun shots in the distance because this is hunting country.  

More tacos, this time in Bushwick /  by Liesl Pfeffer

Bushwick NY
October 2014

Our second Taquistadores taco tour took us across to Bushwick. Since it's my old neighborhood I mapped our journey based on a mixture of old haunts, recommendations and positive Yelp reviews. We tried tacos at five different spots:

Tortilleria Mexicana Los Hermanos
Taqueria Sofia 
Taqueria El Paisa (both locations)
Taquerias Izucar Inc

The El Paisa on Myrtle Ave was hands down the best, with their amazing condiments and little extras like fried onions (see the top photo in this post). 

Playing pool in a dive bar in Sunset park /  by Liesl Pfeffer

Sunset Park, NY
September 2014

After eating five tacos at five different taco spots on a very sunny day in late summer, we needed a beer. We stopped at this old Irish bar where we were encouraged to take over the back room, presumably because our youth was killing the old man vibe out front. We proceeded to play some of the worst quality pool of our lives as we crashed off our taco high and felt the heat stroke start to kick in.

 

Eating tacos in Sunset Park /  by Liesl Pfeffer

Sunset Park, NY
September 2014

Our taco club walked a route of Sunset Park to eat tacos this summer. It was Mexican independence day and Fifth ave was dense with people, corn grills and stalls. 

Don Pepe Tortas & Jugos (This place gets top marks for ambience - it's crazy in there. Great al pastor tacos and candy selection, as well as an extensive and amazing juice menu).

Taqueria El Maguey (Pictured above. This place has seating for about 10 people and is really home style and great. Excellent al pastor tacos here).

Tacos El Bronco (This is a food truck at the moment because the restaurant caught fire a while back. I had the vege taco here - it was so so, but the condiments were good). 

Tacos Matamoros (This is a sit down restaurant with a huge menu. Great chorizo taco here and the back room has awesome wall murals). 

Ricos Tacos (The music here is loud loud loud, and the al pastor taco was probably my least favorite. My friends ordered the pork skin taco and it was seriously blubbery).

Swimming /  by Liesl Pfeffer

Outside Baltimore, MA
July 2014

When winter finally ended this year I made a resolution to swim as much as I could once the weather warmed. Coming from a city in Australia with a subtropical climate, where I had a backyard pool as a kid and escaped to the beach with my sister many weekends, winters in the northeastern USA have not been easy. I never appreciated how lucky we were that in winter we would sometimes need to slip on a light sweater or a thin scarf at night.  

So this year, I managed a few trips to the Rockaways, and some creek swims in the Hudson Valley, and this very cold swim with some very good people outside Baltimore in late July. 

 

The Big Duck /  by Liesl Pfeffer

The Big Duck
Long Island, NY
May 2014

I was chatting to a new friend recently and she happened to notice that the lock screen on my phone was a picture of the Big Duck. She got so excited. The Big Duck is on her list of places to go, she said. She told me some facts about the Big Duck that I did not know (which I already forgot).

It's when you meet someone new and they get excited about a Big Duck, that you realize you are really lucky you met this person and you need them in your life.

This post is dedicated to everyone who puts things like roadside ducks on their list of places to go. Stay golden you guys. 

Joy and Dan /  by Liesl Pfeffer

Joy and Dan
Sunny’s, Red Hook, NY
October 2013

I have been friends with these two since I was 17, when I was in my first year of university. We met because we were equally obsessed with British bands, and we were equally socially isolated in the suburbs of Brisbane. They had been dating for about a year. Throughout the years since we met we have never gone more than a couple of weeks without emailing or calling or hanging out. Our friendship is the longest relationship of my life. I love them with all my heart. 

Cape Schank /  by Liesl Pfeffer

Cape Schanck, Victoria
Australia
January 2014

My friends drove us to this beautiful promontory on the south coast of  Victoria. We climbed across black rocks crusted with life. We dared each other to swim in the ice cold rock pools that were constantly refilled with fresh seawater. It felt like what holidays are supposed to feel like. I remembered what I had forgotten. That Australia can be new and surprising, even after living there all my life. That I can forget daily life, easily. That those things I obsess over and which seem to be constantly on my mind, don’t need to be. I wish I could always be the holiday version of my self. 

Germantown /  by Liesl Pfeffer

Germantown, Philadelphia
September 2013

There was something about this third floor apartment in an old house in Germantown that was a little bit creepy. Maybe it was the tiny doors that lead between all the rooms. Maybe it was the costumes and skeleton mask stored in the space between two rooms. Maybe it was the huge dolls house or the painting of bodies on a boat. Whatever it was, we decided that it probably wasn’t a good idea to sleep alone. 

Easter /  by Liesl Pfeffer

Brooklyn, NY
March, 2013

This was Easter in New York. I made pancakes and my roommates and I sat on the roof with champagne and looked at Manhattan. All of us are not from here, all of us temporary, some more so than others. We come from Australia, Canada and South Africa. We feel lighter when we look at Manhattan from this far away. Pepper is tiny, so Monique lifted her up so she could see the city.