May 10-15, 2018
At UBC, graduating students have a month in a weird limbo between classes and graduation. I wasn’t initially planning on going home during this time but a couple of my friends found cheap flights to New York so we all made a trip to the East Coast! I had a pretty quick trip, I arrived the late on the 10th and left late on the 14th. Samantha started her trip earlier and Hannah joined from Toronto on the 10th as well. Our friend, Timme, joined us with his brother, Tome, but I only overlapped one evening with them.
My first day back I went out with my mom to the West Village where we grabbed lunch at Masala Times. We actually discovered this place through a Foods of NY Tour we went on last summer. We sampled the Indian kati roll and were obsessed. We grabbed some vegan desserts at By Chloe to snack on and bring home!
Then I GOT A TATTOO!!!!!!! My mom had booked a tattoo appointment for me as a birthday present! My mom had found an artist on Instagram (@shortyloco) and he had a work space in the basement of Mischief Tattoo in the West Village.
Afterwards I met up with Hannah and Samantha in Central Park at Bethesda Terrace! They had rented Citi Bikes to go around the park.
We walked around Bow Bridge and some of the smaller paths in the area. My favourite section of Central Park is around 72nd.
We walked down the mall and sat around in Sheep Meadow!!! The weather was perfect so the lawn was full of people enjoying their weekend.
While we were lounging, a pair of students came up to us and asked if we would help with their art project. They ran an Instagram account called @haiku.by.you where they posted a word every day for people to use in a haiku. The photos of the words were displayed in different themes and they were using people around NYC to hold the words! It was even cooler that one of them was from Canada!
Next we went down to the south end of Manhattan to meet Timme and Tome to go on the Staten Island Ferry for sunset! The Staten Island Ferry was awesome because it was free and the views are just as good as any paid boat service. It was a bit crowded on the starboard side of the boat but we found a place to catch a look at the Statue of Liberty.
When the ferry got to Staten Island we scurried around the platform to get to the lineup for the ferry back to Manhattan. We were all exhausted from the day so we came home and made dinner and headed to bed!
The next morning Hannah, Sam, and I slept in and woke up to Timme and Tome cooking breakfast! It was so sweet of them; 10/10 houseguests.
The boys headed off to Brooklyn and the girls and I walked through the park to the Met! The weather wasn’t great so I knew the Met would be packed.
I had been a couple times before but the museum is so big I still haven’t seen everything (and probably never will).
Afterwards we walked around the Eastside, had lunch at a Mediterranean place, and found a street fair to explore! We had plans to meet the boys at the Guggenheim for “Pay What You Wish” night! We got there early and the line was already wrapped around the block. However, the line moved quickly once the doors opened. BUT, it was the saddest thing ever, the museum was in between exhibits so the rotunda with the majority of the exhibits was closed!! We could only see the permanent gallery and one other exhibit. Very sad. But at least we didn’t pay full price.
Timme and Tome left that evening to go back to Vancouver! The next day was my birthday and Mother’s Day! Hannah, Sam, and I went to a Yankees game!! The weather was bad so there was a very long rain delay but we did eventually get to see some baseball!
We had dinner with my parents at Mana on the Upper West Side, it’s a vegan Asian place my mom and I love! Then Sam, Hannah, and I headed to the Stand for a standup comedy show to conclude the evening!
The next morning we woke up early to try to catch a sunrise from Central Park. The weather was cloudy so there was no sunrise but the park was empty which was pretty cool.
We came back to take a quick nap before heading out again. We had a busy day planned which started with lunch at Beyond Sushi. The sushi was Asian fusion and made with trendy healthy ingredients and it was so tasty!!
We then paraded around midtown to check out the Empire State building, Rockefeller Centre, Grand Central Station, and the New York Public Library.
We didn’t time things well but the girls luckily had a bit of time to sneak into the MoMa before it closed! We went back to the apartment and had dinner with my parents before packing up and heading to JFK for our flight home.
New York is always a fun and jam-packed trip. I love my home away from home and I love to share it with visitors even more!!! Never going to the Met again though.