Before the trip, I was actually really doubtful about being able to enjoy New York because it's a very crowded city, I just kept picturing Times Square, packed to the brimmed, with restaurants that have endless queues, and while it is true that Times Square is a busy place and there are queues that form outside quite a few restaurants, what I had pictured in my head was just a small part of New York City.
Upon arrival, the first thing we did was hail for the cab, since my Sister was going to cover all the basic cost, I didn't have to pay for the cab from JFK Airport to Times Square.
Interior of the Cab is pretty large, the ceilings were really high, but it could have use a bit of cleaning if I were to be honest.
The weather was amazing, it was like walking into an air-conditioned room at a nice 17 degrees. I really wanted to take a timelapse video, but it was tiring holding my hands up for so long. The ride was about 45 minutes.
So instead, I just took a bunch of random pictures along the way.
The driver claims he couldn't drop us off at our hotel because the road was blocked by some food festival, so we were dropped off pretty far away from the hotel and forced to walk for quite a distance, not a great start to the trip, lugging a luggage across the uneven pavement of New York.
I will admit, the first day of the trip was not good, I was not able to sleep on the plane and was on the verge of crashing as I went through the first day of itinerary, unfortunately because we could only check in at 3pm, we had a few hours to spare, so after dropping off our luggage at the hotel lobby, we took the subway to explore New York.
First area we headed to was Upper West Side, which is probably my favourite location in New York, out of all the places I was able to visit during my entire trip there, compared to Times Square, it was just so much quieter and just that little bit cleaner. The place still smells of piss and shit though, like a hint of it.
Got myself a Birthday Cake Shake from Milk Bar, one of the first F&B outlet I visited with my Sister, it was really really really thick, so the first sip was really hard, and it got rich really quickly, my Sis got the Cereal Milk softserve and if I can describe the flavour, it's just taste like Horlick Ice Cream, it's just straight up Horlick Ice Cream, I like Horlick so it was good.
And of course a Compost Cookie, definitely needed to get one of the Cookies from the Milk Bar. I was honestly a little underwhelmed with how the cookies turn out if I were to be completely honest, it didn't blow my mind as much as I thought it would. It was a good cookie, but a little overhyped, in fact, I think I can make a better one with my own Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookie recipe, just gotta replace the Pecans with Potato Chips, Pretzels and a bit of coffee granules.
The walk was pretty long and by that time, lunch time started creeping up, so I told my Sister that Levian Bakery probably sold some savory items for us to get as lunch, and she was agreeable to it. Unfortunately, they don't have a lot of selection of Savory goods, save for 2 small sandwiches on the counter that looked more like display items to fill up the space, so we opted out of it and instead got just the cookies, which is what Levian Bakery is famous for.
I got Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies and Oatmeal and Raisin, both of which I did not touch on the first day because of how sickening the shake from Milkbar made me feel.
Surprisingly, it remained really moist and soft even after 2 days, which was when I finally ate the cookies, sadly I could't finish the Oatmeal and Raisin because it was just a little too much for me.
Once again, not really mind blowing, really over-hyped it in my head.
After the long walk between Milk Bar and Levian Bakery, we came across a small Pizza Shop and decided to get our lunch there. I got a simple Cheese Pizza, something light but substantial and it was honestly quite yummy. They were really generous with the cheese, and my favorite cheese is melted mozzarella on pizza, so I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch. After lunch we walked around a little more, visited the nearby Bloomingdale Outlet Mall, which was selling a lot of items that heavily discounted prices, and then headed back to our Hotel to check in.
The whole place just had this really chill and relaxing vibe that I just really love and I can't stress just how much I enjoyed the weather.
I made a very bad decision after checking in because instead of taking a short power nap like my sister did, I stayed up and played Legend of Zelda on my Switch until it was time for our next itinerary, which was a ghost tour around Greenwich Village.
Honestly can't remember the history behind this, I'm sure there is a scary story behind it but I was just too tired to listen to the tour guide.
This building on the other hand had no haunted history behind it, I just thought the contrast between the white brick walls and the tree looked really good. The actual haunted location is the building next to it which isn't in frame, which I never took a picture of because I was just bored and wanted the tour to be over.
The guide was talking about orbs appearing on photos and honestly speaking, when someone claims that orbs are "ghost", I just want to roll my eyes because most of the time if not always, the orbs are just light reflecting off the speck of dirt that is floating through the air. I just can't take anything orb related seriously, so when someone goes into detail about what the different color orb represents, all I see is the person desperately reaching for something that just isn't.
I had been awake for close to 42 hours at this point, so I was really really tired, but we still had to go for dinner, so we dropped by Katz Deli for their Pastrami on Rye, which is a must try for anyone visiting New York.
My eyes were blood shot at this point and I could sense people just looking at me like I was suffering from some of of drug withdrawal symptom. Sadly, Katz is probably the one place I should have but did not take any photos of the food or restaurant to post on my Instagram because I was so fucking tired, I just wanted to go back to the hotel and sleep. I will say that the sandwich is good, but not mind blowing, I had over-hyped it in my head way too much. The serving was pretty big though, so I shared one sandwich with my Sister and we were full.
Knocked out back at the Hotel, but surprisingly, didn't sleep long, I managed to wake up at around 6.00am the next day, had breakfast at Taco Bell, and the main event that day was the NBC Studio Tour at 30 Rockefeller Plaza
We visited a few studios including the set of Saturday Night Live, which was really interesting because the actual studio was really small and it's just cool to see how everything looks behind the scene, there was a strict no photo taking policy, so no photos there.
I ordered a Pink Drink from Starbucks after the tour at the Starbucks in the building just out of fun, the drink took a very long time to make because there were so many people ordering their drinks at the Starbucks, the place was just really pack, but the drink it self was actually really nice.
After the tour, my sister wanted to get Sliders from White Castle, and the closest one was in Harlem.
So we went to Harlem.
The White Castle outlet just looked really depressing, there was no background music playing in the store at all, it just felt like a very sad place to work in, so I was definitely not interested to stay there any longer.
-insert picture of White Castle Sliders, oh I did not take any pictures because I stupid-
We headed back to Central Park via a bus and had our meal on a nearby bench facing the pond, the weather was a little warmer than the first day, but it was still nice and cooling, my sister underestimated the sliders because we ended up eating only 70% of what we ordered before waving the white flag, the sliders were great though, really like the buns, really light and fluffy, flavor wise, it tasted exactly the same as a McDonad's cheeseburger.
After lunch, headed back to the hotel for a quick rest, then headed out for dinner...
We visited a pretty expensive steakhouse, was told to dress up so I wore button shirt, but upon arrival, I could see a handful just wearing T-Shirt and Jeans, I was not in a good mood that evening because of reasons, so I only took picture of the appetizer they gave us, but the lamb shank was good, a little too much but good, the meat was really soft and tender, and it didn't really have the a strong gamey taste, the ambiance wasn't great though, the place was crowded, the seats were all so close to one another, it was really noisy and I just couldn't wait to get out of there, service from one particular server was pretty bad as well but that concluded the second day.
On the third day, we headed to the 9/11 Memorial Site after a quick breakfast at Chick-Fil-a...
I order a Hash Bowl and it was good, this is my type of breakfast, unfortunately not very popular in Singapore.
Headed to the Memorial and this was the first thing that greeted me when I exited the train station.
This could have honestly passed off as a Singapore scenery until.....
...you start introducing all the Brownstones into the shot and that is when it becomes apparent that is it America again, amazing view of the skyscrapers.
The visit to the memorial was a pretty sombre experience, seeing the names of all the victims who died during the attack on the plates that went around the perimeter of where the towers once stood. Everyone there was pretty respectful, I didn't really see anyone taking selfies of themselves, they were all just admiring the memorial really respectfully.
We lingered there for about 15 minutes and then made our way to the Staten Island, the goal was to see the Statue of Liberty during the ferry ride.
The ferry is pretty big, I was initially afraid that the massive crowd at the boarding area would make it difficult to find seats, but as one can see from the picture, there is clearly more than enough seats available.
It was all about the amazing Skyline during the first part of the trip, many were taking pictures of themselves with the view as a backdrop and it truly is a gorgeous view to behold. I have only seen this view in TV Shows and movies, so to see it in person is just amazing.
And after a few minutes, she started to come into view....
...and she was really small, and I am not just talking about the size that is caused by the distance between her and the ferry, I honestly thought the Statue of Liberty would be this towering behemoth and for a minute, I thought what I was looking at was some sort of replica and that the real one was probably deeper in Staten Island, but nope, she was the real deal.
It was a really really small sight and everyone on the ferry were just clustering at the edge of the ferry taking photo of the Statue, I took a few shots, didn't actually go and see the Statue close up because it's just too crowded and also I don't see a reason why, viewing it from afar on the ferry is enough, although the Staten Island trip was suppose to be a quick back and forth, we ended up staying a little longer on Staten Island after we found out that there were a bunch of Outlet Malls there.
I only manage to get one shirt there because the fit was just all wrong, it was also crazy sunny that day but I didn't actually sweat despite seating under the intense heat, it was really odd but also nice to not be soaked in sweat, my face did get super oily though, which is really gross.
We had to rush back after the shopping because the main event of the entire trip was happening on the third day, and that was to watch the live taping of the Stephen Colbert Show, so we actually skipped lunch and joined the queue at about 2.45pm. The weather that day was not air-con like, it was pretty warm and the very first day I decided to forgo my sweater.
There were 2 queues, first was the priority queue, and the second was the general tickets queue, I was in the general tickets queue with my sister and people in this queue aren't confirmed to get in.
Thankfully, after 2 hours of waiting, we were finally tagged with the wristband and confirmed.
It was such a great experience to see the live show, watch the guest being interviewed live and seeing how professional it looks on TV, it was amazing to be able to see things from a different perspective. I personally think it was worth it to see a celebrity like Stephen Colbert in person as a tourist from Singapore in New York City.
Unfortunately, the guy who was sitting beside me during the live tapping was this dude with really broad shoulders, so every time we got up to clap for the guest, he would just brush into me and it was extremely unpleasant, a great experience that was only slightly partially ruined by a broad shoulder.
Got some merchandise after the show ended because of course we have to.
This was the episode I was apart of, contributing my applause and what not, and it was pretty cool to see how everything happens live and how crazy efficient all the workers were, got to see guest leaving the stage once their portion was over and just parts that are not aired on TV or uploaded on Youtube.
This was probably at about 8.00 pm and the sky is still pretty bright, which kept screwing with me because it was just so misleading. It only gets dark at about 8.30 pm in New York, so I do tend to loose track of time.
Green Frosting, Red Velvet and Hummingbird Cupcakes. Oddly enough, they taste and smell like the cupcakes I would make at home, so I am not sure if I am a good baker or if Magnolia Bakery just isn't all that amazing. My standards for my own baking is pretty high, so I am highly critical of my own baking.
Fourth day is free and easy, I got a break from my Sister and she got a break from me, we had Dunkin Donuts for breakfast together first, and I was just blown away by how good the coffee was, it didn't leave any bitter aftertaste, the drink just felt really really clean, I kept expressing my shock at how much I love the coffee to my sister and decided that I will get a packet of their coffee beans before we got back to Singapore.
This free and easy day was what really made me fall in love with New York, taking the train and blending in with the New Yorkers alone just felt great, the weather was amazing, it was like permanently air-conditioned, I headed to possibly my favorite part of New York, the Upper West Side and visited Milk Bar
Got my hands on a cup of Cereal Milk Latte and a few more cookies to try out.
My attempts at taking picture of the coffee in my hand while walking. My stupid phone keeps doing this thing where it tries to auto sharpen every photo, so photos take are taken while moving ends up becoming completely fucked.
Sipping on a cold cup of coffee and taking a stroll down Upper West Side just felt great, something I never find myself doing back in Singapore because the weather is just way too hot, it's just what a perfect lazy afternoon felt like, walking outside instead of being cooped up in an aircon room surfing the internet
Just a random view of Times Square I took that day.
It was such a simple day, and it's what I like, just exploring familiar places and not doing all the touristy stuff, I headed to Times Square to walk around a little, visited the M&M store, then headed back to the hotel to rest before meeting with my Sister to have dinner together at an Oyster Bar
Ordered a Parmesan Truffles Mac & Cheese because what is Mac & Cheese without any Truffle oil nowadays.
And a few smaller dishes to try, I got fish tacos, my sister for a small lobster roll, and we each had a small cup of clam chowder. Of course we also ordered Oysters but I didn't take a picture of said Oyster Bowl because I am an idiot. Despite the servings being small, it was surprisingly filling, the Mac & Cheese really did it's job of feeling our stomachs.
After which I visited a shop that sells raw cookie dough called DO, actually went to the wrong store but luckily I was sharp enough to notice there was something off about the store, 2 other tourist who were there unfortunately didn't catch on though.
Not a huge fan of raw cookie dough, I much prefer them baked, the taste of raw flour is kinda gross. I only managed to eat about 70% of it and had to throw the other 30% out.
Fifth day is also free and easy, we had Shake Shack for breakfast....
...no long queues like the one in Singapore, but the food there is crazy expensive for a fast food joint, I really like the burger and the shake though, so maybe I might eat it again when the queues have died down in Singapore, although I am not sure how long Shake Shack can last in Singapore with the crazy price point once the initial hype dies down.
Got a cup of coffee from Dunkin Donuts after the amazing one I had for breakfast the previous day, sadly it wasn't as great, this coffee was bitter, it left a sour after taste in my mouth and I also ordered the wrong drink, originally planned to get the Blueberry Crisp Latte, but ended up ordering Caramel Latte instead.
My sister went on to explore Brooklyn after breakfast and I headed to Baked By Melissa after a quick rest back at the Hotel.
The cupcakes by Melissa were super petite, but the sizes were great for eating a bunch of different flavours in one sitting, I only got 6 cupcakes though, kinda regret not going back and getting more flavours to try.
The cupcakes by Melissa were super petite, but the sizes were great for eating a bunch of different flavours in one sitting,
Got a huge sandwich for lunch at a nearby cafe, didn't really like the sandwich very much so didn't finish it, but it was a great to show just small the cupcake is, the sandwich was also pretty huge.
Met my sister for Dinner at The Red Lobster...
The food wasn't all that great, the serving was quite small, everything was over salted and the service was just really slow.
The Ameritania is probably my favorite location out of all the other hotels we stayed in. After this, we headed to Washington the very next day via Amtrak, which is a 3 hour ride from NYC.
