I don’t know about you but I have a list of cities I’d like to visit in my lifetime. For some reason, NYC has always been on top of the list and finally, last month, we got a chance to visit it! It was everything I was expecting it to be; nothing less and nothing more. We landed at La Guardia and it was a rainy evening. In fact, our flight was delayed by 3 hours and we spent that time at Dallas Forth Worth where a crazy lady walked into my toilet stall, don’t even ask!
At about 11 pm we were in Manhattan, trying to ignore the humidity and heading to our hotel called the Thirty Thirty hotel (at 30 east and 30th street) which was being remodeled during our stay. First impression was, “this hotel room is super small.” We are used to huge California hotel rooms :) It was very cute though and somehow different than anything else. I felt like I was in a room designed by Ikea! and I loved the shower with a huge shower head. I hate to admit to this but our first NYC meal was actually across the street at McDonald’s. This McDonald’s was pretty cute though and even though it was midnight, it was packed with people and also people studying (on a Friday night in Manhattan?!) After one full day of travel (almost felt like I was flying back to Poland) we were pretty tired and went to sleep.
Since this was nearly 2 months ago, to be honest with you, I don’t remember the order of things nor do I know which restaurants we went to. I forgot their names already. All I know is that we ate out at least 3 times a day and visited 2 Italian restaurants ( simply because they happened to be there at the time we needed to eat), a pub, several cafes, Korean restaurant, sushi bar at Times Square, hot dog stand, 10 different Starbucks shops, etc. I def won’t list all the names because 1. What a waste of time ( how can you possibly even recommend a place to eat in Manhattan, “oh yeah there are thousands of restaurants here but THIS one is the best.” give me a break! lol) 2. I don’t want to bore you to death. I did snap some photos of food in Keiko cafe , a little Tunisian place that we went to and really enjoyed. Plus, it was a few steps away from the hotel!
We sort of went “light” that day and had a lovely smoked salmon salad and I ordered a Greek salad:
I also took a picture of the the latte that I ordered simply because I have never seen a latte being served like this. I think of food presentation as a form of art, many different restaurants do it differently and its the small differences that make it all a unique experience.
I couldn’t believe how unfriendly New Yorkers are. Coming from California where everyone is constantly greeting you everywhere (fake or not..), NYC attitude was a bit of slap in the face! New Yorkers seem very busy, straight to the point, don’t ask me how I am, etc. Very different. People in Manhattan are also very well taken care of, in shape (I have not seen anyone with extra junk in their trunk there!) and they dress very well. I mean, shapely women in heals and skirts everywhere? If you live in Cali then you can understand how that can be a bit shocking to the eyes.
Here is 5th street where we always seemed to be…
If I was to pick my favorite place in NYC, I’d probably go for Central Park and the picture below fails to demonstrate how amazing this park is, go and see for yourself ;). We took a little carriage ride through the park. If I lived in Manhattan, I’d join the rest of the athletic crew that jogs there, probably on a daily basis.
Another favorite: view from the Empire State building, very powerful, makes me think of, “the world is your oyster.”
We wanted the experience of riding a subway and so our last day, we moved around mainly through subways. I kept asking myself, “how do these people do this every day?” Hanging out in the subway station feels like being baked in an oven. At least it did back in September.
Speaking of subway stations. As I exited the Grand Central terminal, I ran into this lovely “cup cake land” called Baked by Melissa where I experienced the most amazing cup cakes! (this comes from a person who thought she hates cup cakes but I guess I simply just haven’t had a good cup cake before this!) If I was to recommend anything in NYC, I’d recommend this bakery. Best part? They ship nationally!!! I know, right? Check out their web site.
One night we visited Times Square. We took a shady, black taxi there. We decided to walk back to the hotel which wasn’t that far away for someone who lives in Manhattan, for someone from Sacramento , WAYS away. I don’t know how long we walked for but I am guessing about 20-25 minutes and I have counted 7 Starbucks coffee shops along the way! Here is a picture of the nicest one I ran across at Times Square…
This one wasn’t bad either…
What are some of your favorite places in the world? The second city on my “to visit” list is London. I might need a break from cities though and visit a tropical island first!
Thanks for reading!
