Thursday, June 29th – Tuesday, July 4th, 2017

New York City, commonly referred to as “the greatest city in the world,” has always taken a life of its own inside my mind. Having often romanticized the glamour of living here someday, it was my due diligence to knock the mental image down a few pegs closer to reality, while holding onto my optimism that it could really be everything I hoped for. This trip was something like a date with the city. Do I see a future with NYC in it? Could I tolerate its quirks? Is the subway as glorious as I’ve heard it is and could I deal with its oppressive summer heat?

That said, we did NYC our way, following the familiar rhythm of our usual trips, the way you would definitely not see on any “Perfect 4 days in New York City” suggested itinerary. We never wandered around Times Square or watched any Broadway shows, and the most we saw of the Statue of Liberty was its miniature figure in the distance. What we planned instead was a good amount of neighborhood-hopping, catching up with friends, and pizza. There was an abundance of pizza.

Thursday

We arrived on a Thursday morning via red-eye flight. A nap at the Hyatt then off to Ippudo we go. Expectations were quite lofty for this 4.5-star-9K-Yelp-reviews-2-hour-wait ramen, but when I opened my eyes and didn’t see myself sitting atop of a cloud in heaven, I reluctantly had to say it was good but I don’t see they hype. Maybe it was because we went to the 4-star-only-2.5K-reviews Ippudo Westside location and didn’t have to wait for it. Or maybe my ramen taste buds are too shamefully unrefined. But for FOMO’s sake, I’m glad I was taken there.

Time to walk off lunch at SOHO, but how do we have fun in SOHO without any desire to buy things? Easy. Spot a lululemon store and attempt to verify common rumors that their leggings are the most comfortable things ever. Seek answers to important questions like, “What the hell do men wear leggings for?”, “Are they supposed to drag his leg back down whenever he lifts up a knee?”, “On a scale of wearing clothes to not wearing clothes, how naked do I really feel right now in their ‘Naked Sensation’ leggings?”. We left with more questions than we came in with.

Took the train into DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), or really, the neighborhood that doesn’t understand that SoDoSoPa (South of Downtown South Park) was supposed to be a joke. As if to prove my point, there was a random series of contemporary dance acts under the bridge, all completely incomprehensible to us. Like in one of them, this guy was breathing life into the girl he made from the earth, but once she was brought to life, they knew neither how to live with nor without each other. No? You mean that definitely was not what was happening? Okay ._.

Aside from food, which is too OP, my favorite part of this trip might’ve been walking across the Brooklyn Bridge from Brooklyn back into Manhattan. Seriously, exceeded expectations. The pretty clouds! The breeze! The skyline, water, oh look- I spot a tiny Statue of Liberty in the distance! At the end of the bridge, they sold fidget spinners. After all this time of being proud non-participants of this silly fad, we finally gave in and bought the damn thing. It was only $2, how could we resist? Now we own a $2 fidget spinner of shame. Then came dinner at Fishmarket Restaurant– broken window, practically a bar.. what do you know, the food was delicious, and we got to catch up with an old friend. Thanks for your tasty food suggestions this trip. Can’t go wrong with a Yelp Elite on your side.

Friday

We wanted Korean food, but such options.. @_@ After extensive but indecisive research leading up to this trip, we gave up and settled on BCD Tofu house despite it being a chain. Soft and yummy tofu. While an odd choice for a hot day, they crank up the AC so you couldn’t care less what it was actually like outside.

Today was Central Park day. In the blasting heat of a summer in NYC! It was here where I realized that sometimes we can possibly be too much of planners. With face glued to smartphone and us mimicking the little arrow on Google maps to lead us to all the stops in Central Park we were supposed to see, we hit them all up one by one: The Ramble, Bethesda Terrace, The Lake… it was nice seeing The Pond with all the toy sailboats we vaguely recall from movie backgrounds. While I don’t regret seeing everything we should’ve, perhaps less research next time and more just wandering for places like this to allow for more serendipitous discovery.

That night, we watched “The Stepfather, ” and the UCB Theater improv comedy group killed it. Something something Running of the Bulls and creeps in Spain, that’s all you need to know. Nighttime snack at NY Pizza Suprema.. and for those keeping track, this is NY pizza appearance number 1! With another old friend, it was great seeing you this trip 🙂

Cafe China dinner time, a tasty yet inexpensive Michelin star restaurant with more friends! Our all now grown up friends it turned out :’) After dinner we needed to kill time until the comedy show, so we took a brisk pass through Chelsea Market then a leisurely walk on the High Line. They were planned for another day but we wouldn’t have had it any other way. The beautiful pink and purple sky colored by the sun setting behind the buildings, the heat of the day relenting into a cool summer breeze, I felt so at peace, a feeling I never dared imagine to find in such a busy city. Good job NY, a pleasant surprise.

Saturday

Plenty of puzzles from our Sherlock puzzle book on the 40min subway ride to Flushing. There we had the best food you will find in any food court at New World Mall. The lamb noodle soup reminded me of a place my family used to eat at before it closed down, and I hadn’t been able to find those flavors anywhere since until now. After lunch number 1 came lunch number 2 at Shanghai You Garden for xiao long bao and shen jian bao, how embarrassing we were there for just those two things, with one of them turning out to be free. Lunch number 3 was at.. jk, we surrendered and couldn’t hit up the dumpling place ambitious fatty, I mean foodie boyfriend planned. Stuffed was an understatement.

To give ourselves time to digest before dinner, it was Korean spaaa time. Gotta say I really didn’t know what I was doing 80% of the time: So I’m just supposed to sit in this pool for 2 hours? Should I go upstairs or is it going to be a bunch of naked dudes? Oops sorry, this was your chair? Confusion aside, it could be relaxing at times but if nothing else, I am smoother now! (Hehe).

Dinner was at a no frills restaurant, the type with Chinese menus and large tables of gregarious customers yelling their Chinese because they’ve had too much to drink. But have no fear- quality of environment at restaurants like these is usually inversely proportional to tastiness of food, and there was no exception here. Shout on, my fellow drunk Chinese diners. At the end of the evening we had to rush on over to Top of the Rock because of course we had to see the NYC skyline. Woohoo we made it. Meh. Expensive…

Sunday

What a mess, this day. Started it off with some Halal Guys because Victor wanted to reminisce. To our slight dismay, they’ve streamlined the whole process. Put sauce in packets now. It wasn’t as good as either of us remembered. Made a stop at Levain Bakery for cookies where we lined up in the hot, hot sun. Their cookies are these gigantic clumps of guilt that glisten with butter when you break them open. And now moar pizza, Di Fara Pizza, this time in Brooklyn, as recommended by boyfriend’s fav YouTube food vloggers. But it was a mistake. Maybe 3 hours for 2 slices of pizza later, we had no time left for our plans. At least the olive oil and basil additions to their pizza were definitely on point. It inspired us to do the same in our homemade pizza sessions following the trip.

We did manage to squeeze in some time to walk along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, just in time for sunset, and did I say Brooklyn Bridge was my favorite this trip? I dunno man, this walk is actually a strong contender too. What a nice, happy stroll here. Maybe I just really like Brooklyn, aside from this walk but also those beautiful tree-lined, quiet streets and the brick-red buildings, but anyways, I digress. Then MOAR pizza, at Joe’s Pizza because gotta try ‘em all! Super fast. If you want NY pizza, you get NY pizza here. But for us, NY Pizza Suprema was the winner this trip. We split up for me to grab tacos for the train ride and him to pick up luggage because time was running out, super stressful. By then I still hadn’t fully deciphered the subway system yet, despite my best efforts all weekend. Minus points NY, I eagerly wanted to rave about your transportation. So I asked some unenthused strangers, made the split-second decision to jump on that train, crossed my fingers and hoped my train was going to Penn Station cuz a few min in the wrong direction could’ve cost us our way to Jersey that night.

Monday

A day at Six Flags Great Adventure, the amusement park that no other amusement park has ever lived up to, according to him. A visit to his childhood. A place that I had better enjoy or there would be serious concerns. Lol.

A brief summary of some highlights:

• Kingda Ka: Whaa.. we’re shooting all the way up that thing?? How do we know when it’s ready to– AHHH okay we did it, we’re at the top alread– AHHH and now we’re plummeting down wow this thing goes so fast, WHEW, we’re done.
• El Toro: Ooh wooden roller coasters are my favorite! They’re usually not as scar– AHHH since when did wooden roller coasters have drops like this… okay, okay.. wheeee this is getting kind of fun– AHHH.. wheee!.. AHHH… very smooth ride for a wooden roller coaster.
• Nitro: WHYY is this safety bar so loose on me? Omg I’m going to die. OMG I’m flying out of my seat a little bit. heh.. heheh.. this is kinda fun actually wheee…
• Zumanjaro Drop of Doom: heehee I am the lesser scared one on this ride
• (Not-highlight) Log fume: Me: ooh log fume!!! It’s hot let’s do log fume! After: … well in my defense I remember them being a lot funner.

Other notable moments include blacking out a few times (yay -_-), and watching a famous basketball player block off a ride for his party twice in a row.
Glad I finally got to experience this place!

Verdict on NY? Inconclusive. Will have to visit again 😉 Verdict on Six Flags? I’ll give it to you, it was a pretty solid park.

A Google Maps of our trip!