A Week Long Excursion Part One: Concrete Jungle Where Dreams are Made Of

I shouldn't have used such light colors. Rats.

Here's the entry that I should have posted in September of last year. I have a fair amount to write, so I'll break it up into several posts, each going through one leg of the trip. First stop: New York! So, being the rogues that we are, Sameer and I decided to fly first thing Friday morning to LaGuardia - right through Hurricane Earl. Earl is a big fat poser. We experienced maybe 20 minutes of "turbulence" the entire flight and once we set foot in the city, I was like 70 degrees at 6pm with a slight breeze and brief instances of drizzle. Earl Schmearl. I was relieved we declined the option to accept airline flight waivers. This was my first time ever in NYC and I was beyond excited to finally visit. Once we landed and got out of the airport, oh my goodness the city is more insane than you can imagine. Nobody was lying when they said 1 - it's a concrete jungle and 2- the traffic is absurd. Furthermore, why are these people (New Yorkers) always running? Where are you going, guys? On a Friday night, you clearly are not running to work. What is going on?! Running through intersections, running like mad through subway stations, running to Duane Reade, seriously, just always in a hurry. I stopped to take a picture in front of Madison Square Garden (where our crazy shuttle driver dropped us off) and people were literally confused as to why someone would be stopping on the sidewalk. Sorry guys, I don't run around all day! Lazy Californian supppp? This was the same issue Saturday morning and every other subsequent day. No wonder they're all thin. They don't stand still for a second. Anyway, like just about everyone else, I love NYC!!! I would love to visit again but I would NEVER live there though. I don't understand the hype about that. I love big cities and city life, but this is too much insanity for me. Pass!

First time in the city, gotta see it like a true tourist, right? Of course. That's exactly what we did. The rest of the crew came in Saturday afternoon and we were on our way. Visited the United Nations (awesome), Empire State Building (went to the top - overrated and a waste of time), Central Park (amazing), Rockefeller (nice, but I wanted to see it with the ice skating rink), Time's Square (pretty cool but way too many people, felt like a zoo haha), Brooklyn (hipster paradise), Brooklyn Heights Promenade (awesome), West Village (great area), Staten Island Ferry (fun and nice way to relax for a while), and a bunch of other random areas we ventured into out of curiosity. Remember my attack on Google Maps via iPhone? Google Maps may not know LA, but it knows New York City very well. It got us everywhere we wanted to go without a single glitch! It also was great with public transportation. It knew exactly what time certain trains were coming and always gave us the next three we could take had we missed the first. Bravo, Google Maps, bra-vo!

So, I didn't know this until I got back, but you're supposed to eat at about 20 different "must eat places" when visiting? I ask because friends kept asking me what I ate in NY once I got back. Seriously? You travel 3,000 miles to eat? I'd be lying if I said I never saw or heard about some place and was like, "Oh man I MUST eat there." I do that a lot, especially when I see something crazy on the Food Network, but when people go on vacation and make a list of like 10 places they must eat at, that is just wrong. Considering most of us live(d) in Los Angeles, a food mecca in itself, you cannot possibly go elsewhere and revolve your trip around things to consume. A lot of the things people were suggesting are readily available here! haha. Anyway, let's be real here - I had my own mini list of things I wanted to try. Gray's Papaya - awesome. I love hot dogs that are that thin and cripsy they are my favorite. The chicken and rice halal cart on 53rd and 6th - oh man it was AMAZING. That totally lives up to the hype (and I almost always get let down by over hyped things) and we were lucky enough to get there at a time when the line was fairly short. I wish that cart would be imported to California. Just writing about it is making me hungry again. Cart food rules. I ate a good amount of it. I bet you Bonni is cringing as she reads this - you need to let go of your fear of shady food, Bonni!