A Big Bite of the Big Apple - New York, NY

How can I profess my love of New York city without sounding incredibly cheesy? This was my third visit to what a lot of people (myself included) consider the BEST city on earth. It's the kind of city that makes you feel alive.

• DAY 1
  • Park Slope, Brooklyn
    • We stayed in an Airbnb in this Brooklyn neighborhood for a couple days. It was nice. I think the word "nice" best describes the area. It has a reputation for being a "yuppie" haven. Just a picturesque, fairly quiet neighborhood.
  • Dumbo, Brooklyn
    • Tons of amazing street art to check out in Dumbo. Highly recommend walking around and scoping out all the wall eye candy.
  • Manhattan Bridge
    • I was so in awe of this bridge. Photographs can't capture how awe-inspiring it really is, but I still made attempts to capture even just a fraction of it.
  • Juliana's (for pizza)
    • I find myself waiting in a lot of lines for food when traveling. Sometimes there's a huge let down, but in this case it was worth it. I LOVED the pizza at Juliana's and will one day hop a plane solely to get another slice. I've been to Grimaldi's on a previous trip (2012) and would say they are fairly similar. Next time around, you'll find yours truly in line for both.

• DAY 2
  • Staten Island Ferry
    • A free way to see the Statue of Liberty and views of the city skyline. We didn't step foot on Staten Island, so can't share any thoughts on that borough. All I can say is the ferry gave me 70s vibes and I liked it.
  • 9/11 Memorial
    • Heartbreaking, but important stop.
  • Black Seed Bagels (for bagels, lox bagel is my jam)

  • Greenwich Village, Manhattan
    • The "bohemian capital" of NYC, a must-visit for artsy fartsy types far and wide.
  • High Line
    • Hip, cool elevated park. Lovely place for an afternoon stroll.
  • East Village, Manhattan
  • Baohaus (for bao sandwiches) - Permanently closed October 2020. Bummer
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• DAY 3
  • Bushwick, Brooklyn
    • We switched Airbnbs by this point in the trip and made our way to the neighborhood of Bushwick. Since we were just renting out a private room (vs the entire place), we didn't want to overstay at one single place and also switching up our homebase was a good change of scenery. Bushwick is gritty and covered in graffiti. It was the polar opposite of Park Slope.
  • TASTE OF CHINATOWNS. This was the MOST MEMORABLE DAY during our NYC trip! Did you know that NYC has not 1, not 2, but 9 Chinatowns?! So we didn't exactly hit up all of them, but we did check out 3 because...why not??
  • Sunset Park, Brooklyn
  • Kai Feng Fu Dumpling House (for dumplings)
    • It was cheap (1 buckaroonie) and delicious, that's all that needs to be said. Afterward we walked around the block and popped into a bakery that I don't know the name of. It was just the begining of the day, so we didn't go too overboard since there was more feasting yet to come.
  • Flushing, Queens
  • White Bear (for spicy wontons)
    • It was a treck to get here, but the dumplings were calling us.
  • New Flushing Bakery (for egg tarts)
  • Chinatown,Manhattan
  • Doyers Street
  • 10Below Ice Cream (for thai-style rolled icecream)
  • Brooklyn Bridge

• DAY 4
  • Russ & Daughters Cafe (for bagels)
  • Central Park
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
    • Mandatory art lover stop. The building itself is a work of art.
      
  • American Museum of Natural History
  • Mid-Manhattan Library
  • Roosevelt Island Tramway
  • Grand Central Terminal
  • Roberta's (for Pizza)
    
    • It was okay. I wasn't the biggest fan. I can't say precisely why, but I just felt meh about it. Maybe it was my tastebuds that night? 

• DAY 5
  • The Bushwick Collective Street Art
  • Williamsburg, Brooklyn
  • Black Brick Coffee (for coffee and pastries)
  • Rough Trade for record shopping!
  • Joe's Pizza - Bedford Ave location (for pizza)
    
    • Yay for spontaneous slices of pizza!  It was our second to last day of our trip and our pizza desires weren't satiated, so we split a slice (even though we weren't that hungry). It was perfection. Yet another motivation to return back to NYC one day. Brooklyn pizza truly deserves an entire library of poetry books written about it.
  • Mari Vanna (for Russian fare)
  • Times Square