New York: Till We Meet Again

I’m a city girl at heart. The tall buildings, the bright lights, the hustle and bustle… I find a certain charm about them. What I also love about cities is that you can chance upon an unexpected facet, a side you’ve never seen before, without stepping out at all.

Every year, more than 21 million people find their way to Grand Central Terminal. Just how many people have stood where I stood, wondering about their next journey?

I could easily spend a day and more in Central Park, appreciating the wonders of nature, blowing bubbles by the bridge, and watching couples take off in horse-drawn carriages.

Sometimes the setting is a romance in itself.

Watching the sunset from the top of the Rockefeller Center has been one of the best experiences ever. It was cold and quiet, and we just stood there, taking in all that beauty and feeling so unbelievably blessed to have each other and all the memories we’ll always share.

Till we meet again, New York.

Taking a Bite out of the Big Apple

Brace yourselves for the onslaught of food pictures!

One of the best meals during our trip was at Grand Central Oyster Bar. If you’re going to have just one meal in New York City, this is the place.

Clockwise from top right: Deep Bay, Malaspina, Sewansecott, Wianno XXL.

The seafood was so juicy and brimming with freshness. This place isn’t called an oyster bar for nothing. The average buffet oyster should be crying in shame. I didn’t even like oysters until I tried these babies. I didn’t even bother with the sauces, just a squeeze of lemon and SLURP!

Rounding off the meal with a drink and dessert.

The completely drool-worthy onion loaf easily overshadowed the rest of the meal. Is this what Dallas tastes like? I want to go there.

Don’t know when we’ll get to tour Europe, but until then, Little Italy should be the closest we’ll get to authentic Italian cooking, right?

Good but not great. We’ve got a lot more exploring to do!

Snacks: Baked by Melissa cupcakes from Grand Central, and pastries from Little Italy

“Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”

Ever since I watched “The Godfather”, I wanted to know what a cannoli tastes like. I don’t know if the cannoli I had was a good representative, but it was disappointing. It was too sweet and too heavy for my palate. The other pastries were very sweet as well. I’m not sure if it’s an Italian thing or an American thing.

Brunch. Three words: Not. Enough. Cheese.

Dinner at a Brazilian restaurant, featuring awesome seafood paella (we kept discovering more lobster under the rice), and a very deadly cocktail.

On our last day, we dined at our hotel’s restaurant, and it turned out to be rather good!

Is that a ridiculously generous serving of mussels or what?

One last post to go, and then I’ll finally be creating memories instead of reliving them. Not that it’s a bad thing.

In the meantime, I’m hungry! It’s a good thing I’ve got a bagel to suit the occasion.

New York: A City of Dreams

The Nanny. Friends. Sex and the City. Elementary. How I Met Your Mother. Blue Bloods. What do these TV shows have in common?

NEW YORK CITY.

A place where people go to make their dreams come true, be it fame, fortune, or a burger.

On a cold winter evening, two more dreamers appeared among the crowds of New York City.

Heads-up: NYC is insanely expensive. You can save a little here and there with some planning, but accommodation, transportation, dining, and entertainment will cost you serious seashells. Our hotel stay alone cost as much as our entire Disney package. :S

It’s not cheap, but an integral part of the whole “tourist in New York” experience has got to be catching a play or musical. I mean, this is THE big stage that every dreamer dreams about! The choir girl in me will always be a Broadway fan. While in New York, we watched a total of three musicals: Chicago, Phantom of the Opera, and Wicked.

I’ve watched the movie versions of Chicago and Phantom of the Opera, and I guess they set the benchmark. While watching the musicals, I definitely enjoyed the songs, but the overall experience was a little jarring because some of the characters were portrayed quite differently than in the movies.

Wicked, on the other hand, was completely new to me. It’s a good thing that there wasn’t anything for me to compare it with. (The Wizard of Oz doesn’t really count.) When Elphaba sang “Defying Gravity”, it was so good I had chills of the best kind. So worth the ticket price!

On the bright side, shopping is relatively cheap. There’s Woodbury, which is like a mecca of outlet stores. In between shopping for ourselves and others, we were knee-deep in shopping bags! And then there’s Sephora, JC Penney, Macy’s, Kmart… It’s a shopper’s dream, alright!

I’ll leave you with a picture of some things I got for my friends and myself. I can’t believe just how quickly time has passed, and there’s some pressure to wrap up the series before next week, so wish me luck!