NYC (and some Seattle too)
MAN. New York was awesome. I loved my vacation to New York and I’m really glad I got to see it while I was still young. Being stuck in Vancouver has really limited my perspective on other cultures. Just the fashion alone in NYC was a treat. Favorite part? Williamsburg hands down. Williamsburg girls are like a perfect blend of the trendy girls in yaletown and the hipster chicks in main street / broadway. Best parts of both. Food was super amazing as well. I loved how I could walk a few blocks and encounter a really cool new spot that seemed fairly unexplored. That was the thing about NYC, it felt like a city meant to be explored because it was so massive.
Here’s what happened during my trip!
Saturday, January 19th
Drove to Seattle and stayed at Jon’s place. We went bar hopping to a few places, it was really fun and nice. The area we were in was pretty hipster so I definitely loved that (lol). I would love to come here again and just bar hop with my buds.
Sunday, January 20th
Full day of travelling that started with waking up at 5 am. We took the taxi to SeaTac and flew to Charlotte, North Carolina. The flight was around ~4 hours and I slept through most of it. There was alot of black people in Charlotte. Being in Vancouver, you’re surrounded by asians. I know very few black people and see very few black people. However, in Charlotte (and NYC) there were alot! It was a definite culture shock to see how asianized we are in Vancouver.
Flew from Charlotte and landed in JFK, took the train to near our hostel and took a while to find it. Did I mention it was like 12 am and really cold? It was cool though, a nice adventure. We dropped our stuff off at the hostel and ate at “Manhattan diner”. Food was great, but maybe that’s because we were starving (not even close to true, alot of NYC food is amazing).
I got an Argentinian style wrap with waffle fries. Yum.
This is what our place looked like. It was really small.
Monday, January 21st
Woke up at around ~10 and decided to eat at a place called Green Cafe. This became our go to stop for breakfast for most days. That day I had chicken curry salad sandwich with chicken noodle. I got the soup because I felt like I was starting to get sick so I was trying to nurse my self to 100%. We decided to shop around quickly to grab water and a tracphone to get in touch with Elaine, a friend of friend of mine. After grabbing those items, we decided to hit up SoHo for our 2pm haircuts. Our haircuts were our only solid plans for NYC, everything else we decided we’d just figure out on the spot.
We were early so we decided to walk around and found a nice place called Continuum.
Best americano I’ve ever had. Really really good. After hanging out for a bit, we walked back to the Blind Barber to get our hair cut.
I grabbed a whiskey on the rocks for my weapon of choice while getting my buzz. Oh, did I mention it’s a barber AND a bar? There’s a bar in the back and apparently it gets pretty bumpin at night (while people get their haircuts too, how cool!).
After our haircuts, we walked around some more in SoHo, grabbed a slize of Ray’s Pizza. GOOD PIZZA. It was delish. We decided to walk towards the shopping area and hit up Uniqlo. We don’t have a Uniqlo in Canada so it was pretty sweet to get to shop there. I copped 3 shirts (2 OCBD’s and a floral shirt) for <$90. Crazy right?
Elaine invited us to join her and her church friends for dinner at her place. Her place, shared with two other roommates, was really spacious compared to other areas in NYC and looked amazing. She had a modern design with wooden textures added. There was a sliding ladder for her book collections and trinkets and she had a real fireplace that used wood. Super awesome.
After having a great dinner with her friends (and many stories shared), we headed home. By the end of Monday, I started getting a cold rash on my thighs that were really painful to walk around in if I stayed out in the cold too long.
Tuesday, January 22nd
It felt like the coldest day so far. We came during the coldest week of New York, and towards the end we found out it was the coldest week in 17 years. However, it was pretty awesome seeing all the winter fashion that people were sporting.
Ate at the Green Cafe again, this time I had pancakes, bacon, and eggs. It was again, really good. After breakfast, we hit up NYC’s China town. To be honest it kind of looked like ours but it was more massive. Same kind of stores, fish markets, chinese herbs and shit being sold. China town was near “Little Italy” which was a very concentrated Italian place with many restaurants and little shops paying tribute to Italy.
While walking around, I tried my hardest looking for double monk strap shoes but.. to no avail, nothing came out of it. We went to grab lunch at a place called Wo Hop recommended by Kurtis’ barber.
YO THAT SHIT WAS GOOD MAN. I had lo mein roasted duck, THAT WAS THE BEST EVER. SO GOOD.
Some cool stuff in Wo Hop
After that delicious lunch, we decided to go to Williamsburg.
YO everything Donald Glover said about Williamsburg was true. The girls there are fuckin golden. SO stylish and pretty. Damn, I’m moving there. On the way to Williamsburg, we stopped by a place called Bedford Baking Studio. I got myself a Vanilla Rooibos tea, it helped in the cold weather.
For dinner, we ate at Ramen Yebisu. I ordered a spicy aruba soba and it was really good.
Had a beer and then walked back towards the train with Kurtis and hit up times square.
Times square was super bright and really nice. It was kinda touristy but it was nice.
We grabbed desert at Europa cafe and I ate a strawberry cheesecake.
Nom, it was good.
Wednesday, January 23rd
For breakfast we decided to go to Broadway Bagel across the street.
I ordered a chipotle chicken on a sesame bagel, delicious NYC food as always.
Wednesday was -9 degrees, the coldest weather I’ve ever been in and I needed gloves badly.
Afterwards we went to the garment district for some shopping. I bought a pair of dark grey jeans from levi’s and a pair of gloves elsewhere at Macy’s. Nothing much else here so we decided to go to Grand Central Station. On the way there we passed by Bryant Park and a fountain was frozen.
It was pretty cool and was featured on the news next day. There was also a outdoor skating rink (there seemed to be quite a few in NYC).
Grand Central Station was pretty nice and had a beautiful ceiling. It was cool being in a place that they filmed alot of movies and physically being in the biggest train station in the world.
Afterwards, we decided to go to the MET museum.
Holy was there a lot of stuff to see!
Entrance pin:
The sections we visited were Greek/Roman, Modern, Photo & Print, Various Paintings of Christian/Catholic scenes, and Spanish Decorative. Here are some pictures from there:
We decided to go back towards SoHo for dinner. Along the way we passed by a bar called Continental. Kurtis saw the banner 5 Shots for $10. I asked are you serious?
After visiting a few places, we decided on Dallas BBQ. Feeling a bit buzzed, we ordered a bulldog to drink and a BBQ special for dinner. The BBQ special included 1/4 rotisserie chicken, sirloin steak, and baby back ribs. THAT’S 3 ANIMALS. The bulldog itself was a regular margarita with a 7 oz corona ontop and an additional tequila shot.
That meal was intense and guess who fucking finished it all? BEAST.
We had a super FABULOUSSSS waiter who loved to talk about his friend Trisha helford (the one from Vancouver). He recommended us to go on the High Line and the “meat packing district” (lol from a gay waiter hahaha).
At the end of the night, we bought tickets to Zomboy while we were drunk lolol.
Thursday, January 24th
Ate at the green cafe again in the morning. This time we met and chatted up two cute french girls named Charlotte and Laura (no pics sry). They were really cool and we exchanged the places we’ve been to and the places we recommend going (you bet I told em to go to Williamsburg).
After parting from them, we went to the High Line in the meat packing district.
It was pretty barren since it was winter.. but I can see it being a really dope spot in spring/summer. That was the thing about New York too, there were so many cool spots to explore. It really felt like a massive city that you could go exploring in and find some gems in remote locations (i know so hipster of me). Even my barber told me he’s been in NYC for 7 years and still feels like he’s got so much to see.
After the High Line we went to Chelsea Market. Lots of food to eat but I was still so full so I only got a nutella coconut crepe. Good stuff.
From Chelsea Market we headed towards the Rockefeller Centre and to visit Elaine at her office. She told us she had a nice view of the rink and surrounding buildings so we decided to check it out.
Afterwards, we shopped around and went to Magnolia’s for some cupcakes. GOOD SHIT.
Went back home, dropped off our stuff and went to Metro Diner for a burger and fries. Nothing special but still good.
After dinner we went to Gramercy Theatre and kind of reminded me a bit of celebs/biltmore cabaret combined.
The crowd was mega young, like 16-18 year olds. It was an all ages event. Felt kinda weird.
I don’t know who went on for the first act but he played alot of sick trap music, which was awesome.
the second act was a producer named The Protector. Think deadmau5 + dubstep together.. Progressive/indie dubstep? I wasn’t really a fan of it.
Lastly, Zomboy. Zomboy killed it and played a really good set. However he didn’t played City 2 City unfortunately. Still had a blast though. A fight randomly broke out and a bunch of highschoolers had to get escorted out. That’s when you know it’s highschool. That and when they tell you they have to go to school the next day.
After the concert, grabbed pizza and ate my cupcake, it was delicious. It was so cold that I spilt some water on my jacket from drinking and it froze in like 10 seconds. Wack.
Friday, January 25th
On the last day we grabbed food from the usual green Cafe. I picked up souvenirs and grabbed an americano from a place called Everyman’s Espresso. It was 4 bucks and was the most expensive yet, it was okay. I still preferred Continuum’s though, that americano was best.
At the airport we ate at soho bistro, had a steak burger which wasnt too bad.
Took a long ass flight to seattle and drove home.
Real talk, NYC was a real blast and it’s a shame I only got to stay for such a brief period of time. I definitely wanna go back. I’m really going to miss the culture there as I feel that the NYC environment promotes more outgoing/social behaviour than compared to Vancouver. In Vancouver it feels like every hangout/plan is a big investment of time/travel while in NYC you can train anywhere. The train system was really efficient and I really hope to explore Vancouver to find some sick spots like me and my cousin did in NYC.
I’m going to miss the NYC girls (especially Williamsburg) for sure, they were so fly.
Now I have to look at uggs err where in Vancouver.
Out.
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