Westside to Eastside.

Oh the energy of the young, restless and curious.

First day in New York today. It was long and...well, long. I started my morning with a quick jog with my grandmother. Okay, lie. I walked with my grandmother because I didn't have any time with her and wanted to catch up on 4+ years that we've spent apart from each other.

After my walk, my sister and I got ready and went to the train station (we are staying at my aunt's in Great Neck. That's on the north shore of Long Island, folks.) to take our train to Penn Station.

My 16.50 train pass. Bullshit pass.

Waiting for our train.

After 30 minutes or so, there we were. In BEAUTIFUL Manhattan.

I was literally bouncing off the streets with excitement. Effervescence at its best, especially with the buzz of energy all around us. The honking cars, the busy people, the noise. Everything. It's unreal, this city. It really does not STOP. Needless to say, I was thoroughly pleased with my first impression.

Walked around 7th avenue towards Times Square. Was going to walk all the way to central park but decided to wander down 7th avenue towards Chelsea instead.

Times Square. I am moving to this city. I seriously am in love.

As we reached Chelsea, our hunger grew. We needed food right away and got crankier as we reached 23rd so we dropped by Energy Kitchen for some quick bites. The restaurant itself was cute, clean and had a good concept. Everything under 500 calories and pretty healthy. My sister ordered a breakfast sandwich (Extremely overpriced for a McDonald's look-a-like sandwich) and I had a veggie sandwich (again, overpriced but it was pretty tasty so I didn't care).

Fuelled with food, we wandered down Madison Ave, past Park Ave and Lexington all the way down to the lower east side.

We went to some stores on my list and found the most valuable finds. I bought so many things for under 130 dollars. Who said New York City was expensive? You just gotta know where to go.

We headed home after and walked back to Penn Station. (Trust me, it was a very LONG walk).

In total, we walked for 7-8 hours today with stops no longer than 15 minutes.
Damage done: Nothing except our credit cards.

Loving this: I plan to go for my run tomorrow because I can't stand that I haven't ran in two days. It's driving me crazy.

Loving this 2: The Michael Kors cardigan I bought. And the Alexander Wang shirt I bought today.

Not loving this: I was pretty irritated that I didn't plan things out better yesterday. Spending all of tonight planning tomorrow's events.

Not loving this 2: My grandmother likes meat. Actually, this whole family loves meat. Rice/fish/meat are their staples in life. Would it seem offensive if I went to the grocery store and bought my own food...?

Not loving this 3: Our train ride from Great Neck to Manhattan was 16.75 (round trip). It was bullshit. A weekly pass is 100 something dollars. Transit here is so damn expensive.

Tips:

1. Do not go to Metropolis Apparel on 3rd Avenue. It's dingy, stuffy and incredibly over priced (for vintage clothes)

2. Family Jewls Vintage is also dreadfully overpriced for a vintage store. And the clothes aren't that great either. (Chelsea, W 23rd)

What to expect from next posts:

1. Our adventures from Central Park

2. Pretzels from street vendor and if it does, indeed, taste like shit

3. Food porn (mainly of the delicious cookies, supposedly the best burgers by Central Park, cupcakes from Buttercup Bake Shop...etc)
4. More of my designer find boasting
5. Columbia university
6. Metropolitan Museum of Art / Guggeinheim (we may not go tomorrow)
7. Going to visit the Dakota (first apartments on the upper west side, celebrities lived there, mostly well known as the location where John Lennon was murdered).

xoxo,
MK