Exploring Manhattan

Last night we caught a late night flight to New York, and this morning we woke up and went straight to beautiful Manhattan!

New York has never been at the top of my list, but is somewhere I’ve always I wanted to eventually make it to. Let’s be honest, I want to eventually make it to pretty much everywhere in the world! But when Bailey told me he could only take two days off during my spring break, I knew we needed to find somewhere in the states to go. The problem with traveling stateside is that many locations would require a rental car. And for those of us who happen to be under 25 years old, car rentals are expensive!

New York seemed like a good option considering their subway system and the cheap flights that were available. Unfortunately we are only here through Sunday afternoon, but we have big plans to fit in everything we can during these next few days!

Our first stop was Chinatown, where we dropped off our luggage. While deciding on an Airbnb, we thought we’d probably feel most comfortable in Chinatown. And we were right! This place reminds us so much of our time spent in China! The smells, the markets, the funny parks - they’ve got it all. 

Not being able to check in yet, we took a jaunt across the Brooklyn Bridge. A very slow jaunt, considering how many times I wanted to stop for pictures or to admire the view. The bridge itself is gorgeous, but the Manhattan skyline is not something to be missed! The weather here is fabulous and we enjoyed being able to stretch our legs after being stuck on an airplane.

On the other side of the bridge we explored Dumbo. Such a cute place! So many hip shops and restaurants. We stopped into one for some fancy breakfast. It was actually my first avocado toast experience and now I understand the hype.

We came across Brooklyn Bridge Park kind of by mistake. A happy accident! We sat for a second and enjoyed the view.

We originally planned on taking the subway back to Manhattan, but we were feeling energized enough to walk back over the bridge. We still had some time to kill before checking in, so we hit the shops on Canal Street and Tasty Hand Pulled Noodles. I didn’t get a picture of my beef noodle soup because I was so excited to eat it! And it did not disappoint! Familiar and delicious, a true comfort meal with fabulously chewy noodles. 

Still waiting for our host to let us check in, we used our Metrocards to head uptown to Central Park. I had found an awesome deal on Groupon for some rental bikes. I’m so glad that we decided to bike - the park is HUGE! I knew it was big but I never anticipated the enormity of this place! We went at a leisurely pace and stopped a few times to rest and take some pictures. I liked this pretty blossom tree and asked Bailey to take a picture of me by it. A cute old Asian couple was doing the same, and after they saw Bailey take my picture the old man asked if he could borrow my bike to pose with for a picture. Haha I really enjoyed watching him pose with my bike while his little old wife conducted a mini photoshoot!

By then, as I’m sure you can imagine, the exhaustion from taking a red-eye flight was really starting to hit. Finally we could check into our Airbnb, after which we promptly fell asleep. Just for a short nap though! We couldn’t miss our show!

Though it is expensive, we didn't feel like we could go to New York City and not see a Broadway show. We looked at our options and decided on Aladdin! Well, I decided on Aladdin and Bailey agreed. I've always wanted to see it because it looks so beautiful. And it was! We bought cheap seats but they were way better than I thought they would be. We had a great view and really enjoyed the show and our $9 cokes (I sent Bailey to get us drinks and I really wasn't expecting glittery souvenir cups totaling $18!) The music was so fun, the set was amazing, and the costumes were gorgeous. The special effects were really something too! We cannot figure out how they managed the flying carpet, I swear there were no ropes! Also it turns out that the guy who played Jafar tonight was Jonathan Freeman, the voice of Jafar in the Disney movie. So cool! He was awesome and all of the actors and actresses were awesome. What a fun show!

We ended the night with John's of Times Square. We were so hungry and it did not disappoint! We ordered garlic rolls and some pizza, and would totally go back and just order a bunch of garlic rolls. Basically they were giant chunks of mozerella and chunks of garlic wrapped in bread dough. So freaking good.  The pizza was good but nothing to call home about!

By then we were SO tired. We packed so much into our first day in New York! Now we are back at our Airbnb ready to rest for another day tomorrow. We are so excited to see the rest of this fun city!