New York- Big City, Tiny Spaces

After saying goodbye to Andrea and Scott at LAX at midnight on Tuesday morning, we went home and got a few hours of sleep before Mom and Dad ever so generously drove us back to LAX at 6:30 on Tuesday morning! Our flight was good, and we had detailed directions from my friend Ryan on how to get from JFK to his apartment in Manhattan using public transportation. When we were still in the airport we had 3 different Metro tickets given to us by people leaving the city! So we didn't have to pay for the metro the whole time we were there, which was really nice!! We took an "air train" (like a monorail) to the metro station, and took the metro all the way to Ryan's neighborhood. We put our stuff down, and then Ryan took us walking all over the place!! He has a tiny apartment in the Lower East Side, and he took us through East Village, Little Italy, and  Soho. While walking through Little Italy, it was about 11 PM and there was huge street fair spanning dozens of blocks! There were lights everywhere and tons of different vendors selling every kind of Italian food you could think of, and some I had never heard of! I saw the vanilla eclairs with chocolate frosting that Scott loves, in abundance! And the stereotype of Italians with the gold chains and wifebeaters working at the family restaurant and yelling at each other in thick New York accents - not a stereotype, its true!

We ended the night in a tiny little cafe that had live jazz. It was really hot that night, so we got Sangria and listened to the band - it was perfect!

The next morning the weather changed drastically, and it was way cooler. The night before we were walking around in t-shirts and sweating, but the rest of our trip we were layering on sweaters and jackets! We saw the Rockefeller  Center, Time Square, and spent many hours at Central Park. We ended up on the Upper West Side, so we went to the Natural History Museum (really cool old museum). Another one of my friends from high school, Brittany, lives on the Upper West Side, so we met up with her and she showed us around a bit more. We saw the Hudson River, and went out to eat at the tiny little place called Nicks that had amazing food!! The waiters were fully Italian, and the place was super cozy and warm and solid brick. There are tons and tons of restaurants and shops in New York, but it amazed me how tiny they were, and lots of times they were mostly underground - you have to go downstairs to get to them. Super interesting, and the polar opposite of Orange County! Actually, Brittany's room in her apartment was underground and the apartment was also tiny. Our apartment in Redondo Beach that I thought was small, now seems luxurious!

The next day we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge - it was a beautiful walk and I would highly recommend it! Although it did start raining on us...We also took the metro to the Upper East Side and found the apartment building that my Grandpa Frank used to live it. It's an incredible part of town, and I enjoyed seeing where he used to live. 

After that we had to book it back to Ryan's house to gather our things. We met up with him at his work in the financial district (JP Morgan), so that was pretty interesting also. We got to go to Grand Central Station, and took a bus from there to the airport, and that was the end of our trip to New York!

I'm super glad we got to go - New York is an incredible city, and I was really glad to see my friends and their lives in the city. 

Now off to Cambridge.....