Welcome to New York, it's Been Waiting for You!

Hey guys!

So I'm finally getting around to posting about my trip to New York. Last Wednesday my boyfriend and I left for New York for our one year anniversary. We caught the train (I live outside D.C. so we left from Union Station) and it was my first time ever going on the train! I napped most of my way there until the train stopped in Philly and that's when I started to get excited. Going into my trip to New York I knew I wanted to do touristy things like go to Top of The Rock and the Brooklyn Bridge but more than ever I wanted to AVOID Times Square. Don't get me wrong, I think Times Square is awesome but the food is usually extremely overpriced. So for this trip, I had a few places I thought I wanted to check out food wise but didn't get too much time to do that as we tried to squeeze in all the stuff we wanted to see (and we walked almost the entire trip - it was exhausting but so much fun).

On Wednesday we got there and checked into our hotel (we stayed at Yotel). Honestly I was so excited to stay there but it did not live up to my expectations. There were certain parts of our room that weren't necessarily the cleanliest to look at but it wasn't anything major. On top of that the people who help with checking bags were acting extremely sketchy. The Yotel hotel uses what they call a "Yobot" to check bags if you can't get into your hotel early or need your bags held somewhere if you had to check out before you're leaving the city. It's completely automated by a robot so there's really no need for "assistance" and the employees there were pretty much telling us we had to pay $2 per bag to check our bags the day we were leaving (we had to check out at 11 but our train didn't leave until 8 PM). To me this raised an eyebrow, as there was no policy stated we had to pay that amount (the Yobot machine did not ask for us to deposit any money) and they said it had to be in cash. I had a pretty great time our whole trip but that last day left a bad taste in my mouth for the hotel and I probably would not stay there again. Additionally, besides the fact that they market that they're in Times Square, they are not. It's about a 2 block walk away from Times Square and they are actually located in Hell's Kitchen (which I did not really mind that much, Times Square is over crowded to me and I cannot stand when people stop and gawk or when there's multiple people trying to beg me for money or get me to go to some trip or sightseeing bus).

Moving on from the hotel, we checked in and got rested up a little bit. I switched out of my UGGs and into my tennis shoes (UGGs make my feet hot and I only wore them to be comfy on the train and in case it snowed). Before going to pick up our New York Pass (I used their pass when I went to New York in December and greatly appreciated it this time as well), we went to Otto's Tacos

Chicken and Shrimp Tacos

They were kind of pricey for the amount of food you get ($3 for chicken, $4 for shrimp) but they were pretty tasty.

Here's my advice about sightseeing passes in New York: if you want to have a cheaper option use The Sightseeing Pass, you can choose 10 attractions to go to. I wish I would have gone with that one cause I thought we'd do the New York Pass to be able to go on the busses every day (but we ended up walking most of the time and could not see everything we wanted to see).

After getting our passes we pretty much walked all around. We decided to go to M&M world to get custom M&Ms for our anniversary (we waited 40 minutes while they had to clean the machine that customizes them - I'll just order them online next time but it was a fun experience!). We went to Barnes & Noble on 5th Ave. and H&M in Times Square. We even made our way to Whole Foods and got some really good San Pellegrino and snacks. After we were ready to head back to the hotel, we stopped for some food (I got Chipotle and it was way overpriced in comparison to where I live in VA and my boyfriend got pizza from Two Boots). We pretty much rested up for the big day ahead of us.

Empire State Building at night

On Thursday we woke up kind of late and set out for the Brooklyn Bridge. We caught the bus and hopped off at the stop. We walked all the way across which is how I got some pretty amazing pictures of the Empire State Building and the skyline!

After walking back we made our way to Chinatown. My boyfriend ate there and then we went into the Canal Street Market. I had a Horchata Boba Tea from Boba Guys (it tasted great!).

Then I set out to find some murals to take pictures of.

Then we finally made our way to Cookie Dō. I loved the Oatmeal M&M so much it was my favorite!

Then we sat in Washington Square Park and ate our cookie dough and I enjoyed looking at the shops as we walked through SoHo. When I go to New York I try not to buy anything as it's hard to stuff my suitcase enough on the way there and the trip in itself is not cheap so I just window shopped.

As we walked back to our hotel, we made sure to cross paths with the Flatiron Building and I stopped at Lenwich because I was craving an Italian sandwich. We also got pizza and stayed in our hotel once we got back for the rest of the night.

Because of how windy it was most days and how tired we were, whenever we got back to the hotel we usually did not come back out. So many times we said "we'll come back out for the Empire State Building" but I could not do it.

On Friday we were determined to tour Uptown so we stopped by Top of The Rock first and I was so happy because the last time I went in December it was raining so I saw NOTHING.

The views were incredible! If you have never gone to Top of The Rock I highly recommend you add it to your list for your next trip to New York!

Then after we finished soaking up the views we made our way to Black Tap for lunch (if you have a smaller group and you want to go there I definitely recommend going during lunch, the wait is much shorter then).

We had to compromise and I did not end up liking the shake we had, it was pretty plain and boring. The burger we had (just a normal burger) wasn't astonishing or out of this world either.

After we filled our bellies we walked through Central Park and to the museums.

"Dum dum I want gum gum" - Night at the Musuem 

Me pretending to be Blair Waldorf getting a Gossip Blast on the steps of the Met

I need my headband, yogurt, and tights

Cool lighting at MoMA

Fun fact - MoMA is free on Fridays (I don't know how long that will last though) so if you plan a trip and you want to go and you can handle the crowd, I'd recommend going then (make sure to look it up before hand though). It was my first time going to the Smithsonian (no offense but I live in the D.C. area with tons of Smithsonian museums and the one in New York does not live up to the name) and The MET (I liked the MET a lot but there was so much to see and my feet could not take all of it.)

I had been to MoMA in December and I loved it, this time I could not really be bothered though just cause of how crowded it was and how much my feet were hurting. When we left MoMA we stopped and got food at the 30 Rock shops (I ate Potbelly and a shake) and then we went to the Nintendo store. After going to the Nintendo store I wanted to go to Muji (I love pens, how about you?).

My Muji pens and notebook, laptop, and laptop carrying case (it's Kate Spade)

Then eventually we went back to the hotel for some much needed rest!

Finally, it was our last day and by that point I was just ready to go home and be in my bed. It was St. Patrick's Day so everyone was running around drunk at 9 in the morning. We wanted to catch the Uptown bus to the Guggenheim but because of the parade the uptown bus was cancelled. Instead we went to Drink inside of American Eagle in Times Square

It was super sugary so I could not finish it all but it makes for a good Instagram picture and it tasted better than Black Tap to me (and it was cheaper).

After that we went on the Downtown tour and just let our feet rest as we took in the sights. When we got back we decided to go to Madame Tussauds and check that out. Eventually we were ready to just be done and go find food before getting our bags and going to the train station. We went to Yum Yum Too for linner and had some Thai food and drinks.

Eventually we got to the train station about 2-ish hours before our train arrived and started boarding but the time went by fast and we were just happy to rest.

Overall I had so much fun and I hope this helps you determine any places you'd like to go on your next trip to New York!

I know that next time I go I will probably stay downtown as most of the stuff I wanted to see was there and that I'll go when it's much warmer.

Where is Spring my East Coast followers? It's been snowing almost all day for me here in Northern Virginia.

I hope you all enjoyed reading this lengthy post.

Until next time.

You know you love me.

XOXO,
Candidly Chynna