The first time I went to NYC it was a blur of sleep depreciation, anxiety and middle school drama. It was my 8th grade DC trip (we were the cool school in the district who got to go to the big apple). We see the Wall Street bull and touched its balls (very memorable for 13 year old me), walked around Central Park (where Enchanted was filmed don’t cha know), admired Times Square and went to the Statue of Liberty. This time I didn't even catch a glimpse of the her. Sorry girl.
When I got back from the 8th grade trip I swore to hate the city forever and never dream of going back (once again I was running on 4 hours of sleep every night and many tears) but over the years, the dozens of rom coms set in NYC, social media and friends have helped me compile a list of places I actually wanted to go to., and flights were cheap in January, because why would you visit in the coldest time of the year with barely any sunlight, so I set off to rewrite my negative perception of the city.
By the time I made it to my hostel on the Upper West Side Wednesday night I was exhausted from waking up at 3am to catch my flight (the cheapest option of course), I was starving. So I set forth to get my first New York slice, which I ended up eating too fast and got a cramp from. But I didn't let that get in my way and set forth to the first of many ooey gooey Levain cookies I had on my trip, naturally it's my life's mission to go to all of the Levain bakery locations. Then I headed back to the hostel to perfect my itinerary, which consisted of a scattered list of bakeriess, bookstores and filming locations.
The hostel was fine, it was my first time staying in one in the US, and since the hostels in Europe were so great I had low expectations for the Americans, but it was nice. Right by the park, had a seemingly random exercise room, that I should've used to stretch, because after a week of walking 10 miles a day I needed it, and it was the only hostel U've ever stayed in (over 20 at this point) with more than one water bottle refill station, which was so nice to see after months of being borderline dehydrated in Europe. However, I had never encountered such bad hostel etiquette from other guests. Everyone knows the golden rule of hostels is to never turn on the overhead light past midnight at the latest, duh right? It was on more than it was off, and I had to deal with a lot of phone calls at 3am. Just writing this now is getting me angry. Luckily I came prepared and brought an eye mask, and they provided free ear plugs!
My first full day I had some homework to get done so I headed to the Blue Bottle coffee right by Columbia University's campus and attempted to blend in as an Ivy League student. I think I did pretty well. At this study time it is important to note that I had attempted to get SNL standby tickets for that weekend's show but failed miserably, so instead I booked a NBC studios tour to make up for my disappointment, (I later learned that the show starts at 11pm so it was a blessing in disguise). After that I strolled through campus before heading to 5th Ave, via Central Park, for a day of embracing the tourist in me and checking out Rockefeller center, St Patrick's Cathedral, Empire state building and more.
A highlight form this day was The Plaza, like Eloise in the Plaza not Home Alone the Plaza. I walked around in circles, getting a bagel in between and making my way to Flatiron district being very aware to not dare venture further into SoHo, that's reserved for another day. I spent at least an hour in the Strand bookstore, which was high up on my list, picking out the perfect book to read on the subway and taking full advantage of their public restrooms.
Eventually it was show time, The Six musical at the Lena Thorne Theater to be exact. I was very excited for the show, but I must shamefully admit that the last time I saw a Broadway (off Broadway but who’s counting) I fell asleep during it, King Kong the musical. And thanks to all my walking and jet lag of it all I was exhausted and terrified to repeat my nap mid show. Nevertheless I did not fall asleep, which wasn't hard since the show was so incredible. A great way to end the first day.
The next day was the day of the NBC studios tour. But, I was running late, so I didn't get to go to my trendy bakery I saved the day before, which turned out to be perfectly fine since I stumbled into Breads Bakery right next door, which was such a gem despite its corporate ambiance. I got a coffee and their cinnamon roll, which may have been the best pastry I had on the trip, which is saying a lot.
There were strictly no photos on the tour but still a highlight of the trip. We got to sit in on the SNL sets being made for the upcoming show and peek into the Jimmy Fallon set as well. After the tour I got a hot bowl of ramen from touristy Ichiran ramen.
Now it was time to venture into SoHo for my highly anticipated soho shopping day, which was honestly a fail. I checked out Glossier and bought a keychain (another goal of mine is to go to all the glossier locations btw), the baggu store, and went in and out of another half dozen stores. But I realized I don't need winter clothes, or even autumnal clothes so I didn't a thing.
Saturday morning, after my commute, I explored Brooklyn. Starting in Cobble Hill, getting one of the last chocolate croissants from La Biciclette bakery and checked out stationary and vintage stores down Court Street. Then caught the subway back up to Greenpoint, said hello to Hannah Horvath's apartment and made my way to Williamsburg. Stopping in stores on Nassau Ave, like Beacon's Closet, and got lunch at Forma Pasta factory. Checked out more stores in Bedford, but was honestly very underwhelmed when shopping this entire trip. Stopped by Glossier Brooklyn, which ranks low on my list of all glossier stores (this was number 5 so far, a blog post work in progress). Went back to the hostel and got a shake shack for dinner, expecting it to taste better than my usual Thousand Oaks shack burger but was just as good.
Sunday I enjoyed the slow morning, enjoying my bacon, egg and cheese and strolling through the Grand Bazaar flea market before setting forth to check off my “swifties guide to NYC'' list which practically consisted of the West Village; electric lady studios and Cornelia Street. Stood with the other tourists and took photos of the Friend's apartment building. Enjoyed the Village before making my way to Chelsea and wasting time in Fabrique Bakery before my Sunday matinee; Gutenberg!
A two man show of Josh Gad and Andrew Rannels at James Earl Jones theater, a last minute addition to my itinerary, but knew I would never forgive myself if I missed out on this show. So I bought “obstructed view” ticket that was just fine and had a blast. Shoutout to the family I house sat the week before, without you no shows would be possible!
I went back to the West Village for pizza and cake after, but not just any cake, the best chocolate cake in the country from Little Cupcake Bake Shop, which held up to its title.
My last day was consisted of bunch of random sights to see spread throughout the entire city with no correlation to each other; Van Gogh's Starry Night at the MoMa (which I did shed tears over), the Highline (which was closed so I just walked underneath it the whole time, visualizing it), village square pizza, another levain bakery checked off the list and The Met from afar.
It's safe to say my perception of New York City has changed for the better, maybe it was the 8 hours of sleep each night, lack of middle school boys or the solo travel of it all but I really enjoyed myself and would love to go back.
Things I missed on this trip; Chinatown, 9/11 memorial, Wicked, Coney Island, waving to the Statue of Liberty, New Jersey (I've never been), spotting any D list celebrities and Dumbo.
Read more about all the food mentioned in my; NYC favorite eats blog post!
Youtube vlog of this trip link.
Sounds fun! I stayed in a hostel on the upper west side there once; I wonder if it was the same one? I stayed at Hosteling International on Amsterdam Ave. If you ever want to do another cheap trip but don't want a shared room, I would recommend the Flushing YMCA in Queens. They have single rooms (still shared bathrooms) for not much more than a shared hostel room, and definitely still less than an NYC hotel room, and it is still in easy walking distance to the subway so you can get everywhere pretty easily. https://ymcanyc.org/locations/flushing-ymca/guest-rooms My other best budget tip for NYC is if you like to see Broadway shows and aren't too picky about which ones, you can often get half-price same day tickets at the TKTS booths, but DON'T go to the Times Square one. The lines are way too long and they open late in the afternoon so you end up spending too much prime day time standing in line. If you go to one of the other locations that open earlier, you can do it right after waking up / breakfast, stand in a shorter line, and then still have time to do stuff for the rest of the day after before the show that night.