Say goodbye to the Windy Chicago, next we are heading to the wonder city--the city that We have seen thousand times on the screens. We have planned to stay in NYC for 11 days after our road trip on Route 66 and visited the national parks. Initially we thought that could be pretty long enough time to explore around, until the last few days we knew we will definitely come back again.
Day1- Brooklyn will be our home for the next 11 days
Yup, if you want to cut cost for your accommodation in NYC, I guess Brooklyn is the place that you will consider for sure. We took the subway from airport back to our destination. It still took us some walking distance to reach our apartment which we booked from airbnb. To be honest, the 10 minutes walking distance really made us anxious as we were the only two Asians walking at the street among the neighbourhood full of African-American friends.
After settled down in our apartment, did some laundry(you won't believe that laundry has became one of my favoutire thing to do in US haha), we decided to have a good dinner and explored around the neighbourhood. We found a decent Italian Pizza restaurant to settle our dinner, love the atmosphere, enjoy the food there, we really want to introduce this place to you, but sorry guys, we forgot the name of the restaurant:(
After dinner, we went to a deli shop to buy some groceries for our breakfast next morning then we headed back to our apartment.
The first day has came to the end. Good night NYC.
Day2- Be a shopaholic when you in SOHO District
Yes, we have missed home-cook food sooooo much, so we decided to make ourselves a heavy brunch before our first day of exploration in New York. I guess you all heard about the subway in New York is really bad and not so nice. You can really spot the rats party around the tracks while you were waiting for the subway. Well, We tried to ignore this fact as subway will be our main transportation for the next 10 days.
I have to say New York is really a Hip-pop culture paradise. You can easily see people wearing all kind of cool sneakers, playing loud hip-pop music although they were wearing the headphone you can still hear what song they were playing. The first day of itinerary will be at SOHO district. For sneaker lovers, you will get crazy over here! There are really tones of sneakers shops here, but you will see pretty much almost the same things over each shop as well.
Other than visiting sneaker shops, we have visited some other lifestyle & concept shops along Broadway.
1. NYU Bookshop (Picture 1&2)
2. Urban Outfitters (Picture 6)
This is one of my favourite shop in NYC, from fashion to lifestyle, they carry really nice stuffs here.
3. The Evolution Store ( Picture 3&4)
The store is known as a premier retail shop for science and natural history collectibles, artifacts, gifts, and home furnishings. It offers a museum quality atmosphere creating a unique and intimate shopping experience. It's pretty cool to explore.
4. DEAN & DELUCA (Picture 5)
After a few hours of non-stop walking, DEAN & DELUCA is a good place to rest your feet, try their cheese cake, it's one of the best.
5. MOMA Design Store
MOMA design store is a must visit too. We spent nearly 2 hours in the shop. This is also a famous gift shop for tourists to buy some cool souvenirs.
6.Dylan's Candy Bar( Picture7&8)
Normally You will plan your first day schedule as pack as possible. So do we. We spent the whole day non-stop walking, shopping & window shopping, also Vogue-ing along the street(AKA photo-taking). It was really a well-spent day explore around the SOHO district, but our legs were complaining too.
Day3- Hey, Chelsea.
Although we have planned ahead what we will do everyday, but somehow the plan changed depends on our mood. Our initial plan was to explore around Chelsea, visit interesting lifestyle and concept shops.
We walked pass by Wall Street, it was a Sunday so the street was pretty quiet. Until we walked to the Charging Bull sculptor, you will see tourists surrounded around the sculptor and took pictures. Those who didn't manage to take photo from the front will end up have a photo taken with the Charging Bull's BALLS!
Chelsea is known as one of the centers of the city's art world, with over 200 galleries in the neighbourhood. We have visited the High Line Park, seeing lots of people reading and sun-tanning under the sun, having a picnic gathering, pretty relaxing scene. Of course, our mission was exploring some cool shops around the area.
Here are some of the shops that we will recommend:
1. CW Pencil Enterprise (Picture 1)
Thanks to alight at the wrong station, so we happened to visit this nice concept shop which selling all kinds of pencil. You will be amazed by the variety of pencils they are selling.
We walked quite a distance to find this shop. They are selling millions of edgy, unique and incredibly fun dishes and glasses.
After you have spent some time over Fishs Eddy, cross the road, you will see ABC Carpet & Home. A high-end furniture shop sells artistic furnitures and home-decor pieces.
4. Monocle Shop
Just because it's Monocle Shop, so we will definitely want to pay a visit. But the shop is pretty small and selling some designer products and books. It only took us about 10 minutes to visit. We felt a bit disappointed because we have really walked some distances in order to see it.
To be honest, we felt really exhausted after 2 days of non-stop walking in the city. But this just a warm-up, 8 more days are awaiting for us.
Day 4&5 - Be a tourist, see the NYC
We spent day 4 & 5 to sightseeing the NYC. The touristic schedule included taking a cruise to see Statue of Liberty, Skyline of NYC, Brooklyn Bridge, and go up to Empire State Building to see the whole Manhattan in a glance and of course squeeze ourselves into the crowd in Time Square.
Going up to the Empire State Building was really worth the visit. We managed to go up before sunset to catch the day view, all the way until 8pm to see all the lights up in the city.
Time Square is always filled with people, so crowded no matter when. I have to admit that this is the most happening spot in NYC for sure.
The only pity during the US trip was that we didn't do enough homework to search for nice food. We always decided on the spot or just stepped in the restaurant when we felt like eating. I guess Shake Shack is the must eat? The burger was good, but the milkshake was extremely sweet which We don't really enjoy drinking. The most unforgettable food that We love so much was the Buffalo Wing at Buffalo Wild Wings.
We spent the first 5 days to explore around the middle and lower Manhattan. We will keep on explore the upper east, Brooklyn, and Williamsburg for the next following days.
To be continued.