Girls begins with Hannah Horvath (Lena Dunham) working out how much longer she can remain in New York now that her parents have cut her off. "I calculated I can survive … for the next three days," she reasons. "Maybe seven, even, if I don't eat lunch." Spoiler alert – she manages to hold out for a bit longer than a week, which is fortunate, because New York becomes as much a part of Girls as the self-obsession and awkward sex.
The comedy-drama, about a group of twentysomethings, looks set to follow in the stilettoed footsteps of Sex and the City. A canny tourism company is already planning a bus trip around significant sites. But while Carrie and friends frolicked in Manhattan, Hannah lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in a shared flat that resembles ones my friends live in. The walls are thin, the fridge has seen better days and there's not a designer bag in sight. The girls of Girls love New York for what it is: grimy, expensive, absurdly fun and bursting with potential.
I am in Greenpoint, on the steps of the block on India Street that acts as the apartment's exterior, having my photograph taken. People walking past look bemused. In the first episode of season two, Hannah locks her new flatmate's boyfriend out of the party after he gets a little tired and emotional, and they sit on this very stoop. Greenpoint is also home to Cafe Grumpy (193 Meserole Avenue, cafegrumpy.com), the coffee shop Hannah briefly works in. It's a couple of blocks away and, inside, well-dressed twentysomethings are silently tapping at their matching MacBooks. It is easy to imagine that they, too, are emailing their parents, begging for money to allow them to finish their certain-to-be-brilliant first novel.
These nascent masterpieces will doubtless end up being sold in bookshops a few minutes south of Greenpoint in Williamsburg, the Shoreditch of New York, a one-time hipster epicentre that now boasts a fancy hotel and a Duane Reed chain store. That's not to say it's been obliterated by the march of the MacBooks; there's plenty of oddball shopping to be had and it's worth spending at least a day exploring Bedford Avenue and its surroundings.
Dunham's character is a writer, so it stands to reason she'd spend time leafing through the volumes on sale here. There's Book Thug Nation (100 North 3rd Street, bookthugnation.com), a secondhand emporium far more welcoming than it sounds, which stocks local fanzines and an impeccably curated selection of yellowing paperbacks. Round the corner is Spoonbill & Sugartown (218 Bedford Avenue, spoonbillbooks.com), one of my favourite bookshops anywhere, which even gets some screen time in season two, as Hannah and Sandy – her ex-boyfriend, played by Donald Glover – chat over the arty journals. It's a haven for people who bristle at the thought of a Kindle. The in-house cat snoozes on top of the stock. The friendly clerk is happy to talk favourites and recommendations.
A few blocks away, an ad for Girls adorns the side of the building that houses Beacon's Closet (88 North 11th Street, beaconscloset.com) in the form of a giant mural of Dunham's face. A scene was also filmed in this renowned vintage clothes store, though it didn't make the final cut. It's worth rolling your sleeves up for a few hours of dedicated rummaging. Not only is it enormous but it's a gleeful jumble, with designer gladrags squashed onto racks bursting with $5 band T-shirts and battered leather jackets. In honour of Dunham's honourable dedication to no-frills nudity, I look for a neon string vest – so flattering on the bare breast – but I am, sadly, out of luck.
The string vest incident is one of the series' finest moments. I love those near-slapstick episodes in which a party goes terribly, hysterically haywire, so it made sense to have a stab at a Girls' night out on this trip. We begin in Bushwick, home of the "crackcident" warehouse rave in which Shoshanna gets high, accidentally, and runs off down the street without her bottoms on.
We keep an eye out for pantless revellers, but there is little blow-out partying to be seen, perhaps because it's January, freezing cold, and you'd have to be very high indeed to run down these streets semi-clothed. We eat at Roberta's (261 Moore Street, robertaspizza.com), a pizza place behind a discreet black curtain. The food is excellent and well worth the inevitable queuing for tables as, naturally, you can't book. This may be Brooklyn, but it's still New York. Plus, it offers pizzas called Parsnip Enterprise and Erryday I'm Brusselin', a sprouty affair. I always fall for a good pun, but Roberta's more than justifies that love.
For a post-grub chaser, we head to Bushwick Country Club (618 Grand Street, bushwickcountryclub.com), a rough-hewn dive bar ironically embracing the grandeur of its name, to try its infamous pickleback concoction. This is not for the wary. It's a shot of whiskey, followed by a shot of pickle juice, washed down with a cool can of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer – and a sore head guaranteed. There is no dancing here, however, so we trot back up to Williamsburg and the Brooklyn Bowl (61 Wythe Avenue, brooklynbowl.com), a huge warehouse-cum-bowling-alley that has DJs, video DJs (a completely baffling phenomenon) and live music, and serves hefty measures way into the night. I blurrily pick out the Jessas and Marnies and Adams and Charlies in the crowd.
When Hannah leaves her adopted home for an episode and heads back to Michigan, she gives herself a pep talk before facing her old friends: "You are from New York, therefore you are naturally interesting." None of this is true, obviously. She isn't from New York, nor does it make her interesting.
But of course it is this vast, lively, bar-soaked city she summons to make her feel stronger and bigger than she really is. Girls' New York doesn't suit a bus tour, to be honest – looking at facades and coffee shops makes a strange pilgrimage – but the spirit of it is entirely within reach, and neon string vests are, thankfully, optional.
• HBO provided flights with Virgin Atlantic (virginatlantic.com), which flies from Heathrow to JFK from £410 return. Accommodation was provided by the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg (+1 718 460 8000, wythehotel.com); doubles/twins from around $200. Girls: The Complete First Season is out on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download from Monday 4 February from HBO Home Entertainment
