{"id":3742,"date":"2013-05-29T09:00:02","date_gmt":"2013-05-29T16:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/?p=3742"},"modified":"2013-05-28T19:47:51","modified_gmt":"2013-05-29T02:47:51","slug":"trip-report-memorial-day-firsts-new-york-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/?p=3742","title":{"rendered":"Trip Report: Memorial Day Firsts – New York City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/a>
\nSeattle to New York<\/a>
\nNew York<\/a>
\nNew York to Vancouver
\nVancouver
\nVancouver to Seattle
\nConclusion<\/p>\n

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Friday 24th May 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had touched down at JFK T5 and with my bag in hand and over an hour later than I had hoped to of been there, I dialed up Dial 7 and let them know where I was. \u00a0Dial 7 is the same car company I used last time I was in New York and they were still pretty cheap $39 + tip & tolls into New York. \u00a0Worked out around $55 from what I could work out before the trip and considering when I originally booked it and paid for the base cost it was well worth the effort as I was hoping to be in the city quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Sadly had I known we were going to be late and I wouldnt have all that much time till I was due back at the airport I would of pricelined a cheap hotel from the night before and then when I got back from the cheap hotel used left luggage at T4 to store my suitcase while I worked. \u00a0Crazy++ really. \u00a0But I was stuck. \u00a0So into the city I went. \u00a0Just as we left I asked how long it was going to take… he told me over an hour and 20 minutes… SAY WHAT!!!<\/p>\n

I went into panic mode and thoughts of not even having time to change went through my head. \u00a0I was worried entirely about getting back in time for the start of the walk throughs for photos. \u00a0Dammit! \u00a0We made it in about 45-50 minutes in the end which wasn\u2019t so bad but it meant no time for a shave, and I was still pretty paniced as it was almost 8 and i knew I had to be at least back at Penn Station by no later than 830 to make it in time.<\/p>\n

I got to the Eventi hotel and was immediately impressed as the car had barely pulled up and someone was already opening my door and helping me with my bags. \u00a0From that moment on, the race was on to get everything done in time. \u00a0I didn\u2019t expect a room, all I wanted right then and there was a shower and some coffee. \u00a0I checked into the hotel and they immediately greeted me and let me know that I had been upgraded to a suite. \u00a0Score. \u00a0I didn\u2019t expect a room right away considering it was very very early in the morning and check in was 3pm. \u00a0But they told me that if they didn\u2019t put me in the suite now, I may not get it later so they wanted to make sure that it was clean and that it would only take a minute or two to check.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I was happy with a normal room and to be honest any room with a bathroom, but they were adamant I should have my suite. \u00a0So I waited a few minutes and grabbed a coffee from the stand in the lobby (free as usual) and with the service they were going to, I knew it was going to be an awesome stay. \u00a0They were totally friendly and amazingly generous to me. \u00a0Wanting to make sure I was ok and looked after all the time. \u00a0They got their phone call saying the room was good to go and I was handed my key.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I sped up to the room (704) and as soon as I walked through the door I was blown away by it. \u00a0Not large by normal standards but large by New York standards but totally adequate for me. \u00a0The bathroom was beautiful and a nice big marble shower\/tub set up looked magnificient right then. \u00a0My stuff was thrown all about the room as I was literrally in and out of the shower within minutes of getting through the door. \u00a0I was dressed cleaned and ready to go and on the street in less than 15 minutes and as I was heading for the door I thanked the staff for the amazing room and she commented \u201cyou were serious about being quick\u201d to which i replied \u201cI told you all I needed was a shower and to get back to the Airport for work\u201d. \u00a0They wished me a pleasant day and all stress went out of my head as I was ahead of time. \u00a0Right outside the door of the hotel was a coffee and bagel cart so for $1 I had a HUGE (albeit not that great) Sesame Bagel and within 2 blocks I was in Penn Station and for another $1 I had a banana in hand. \u00a0With coffee from the lobby for $2 I had my go to breakfast. \u00a0How can you complain about that!<\/p>\n

Couldn\u2019t figure out what ticket I needed to JFK so I lined up and they told me where to go and what to do and within 20 minutes of leaving the hotel I was in my seat on the train, heading back to the airport I had just left. \u00a0Perfect right? \u00a0Breakfast and some downtime reading my book on the train for the 25 minute ride to Jamaica station to connect on the Airtrain to JFK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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After spending some time at the new Delta T4 with a heap of other Travel Bloggers and getting the royal tour, spending way to much time snacking on crap in the new Sky Club and enjoying myself immensly I was just happy to be heading back to the city. \u00a0One of the fellow blogger (Cynthia from Jaunted) had pointed me in the direction of a nice cheap barber to get my hair cut as I needed one before the Hong Kong trip and wouldn\u2019t have time to get one during the week. \u00a0So I took her advice and headed to Astor Place and wow… this place was old school and unlike anything I had ever seen but they were good, cheap and quick! It was approaching 5:30pm by the time I had reached the hotel so had literally spent almost 9 hours in New York so far and done nothing really but spend it all at JFK!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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When I got back to the hotel, that is when the Kimpton service really showed. \u00a0Inside the door of my room was my amenity for being Inner Circle. \u00a0This time it was spot on! \u00a02 Apples, 2 bananas, two bottles of diet coke and 2 bottles of sparkling water, along with a nice big bowl of unsalted roasted almonds and cashews and hazlenuts. \u00a0They know the way to my heart! \u00a0I had a quick snack and a shower to wake me up and set up my dinner plans for the evening with my friend Daniela who was visiting New York from germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Our dinner plans were catering to the both of us. \u00a0I was getting my first ever Raw\/Vegan experience and Daniela was experiencing the foodie sweet tooth of mine by indulging in what is reputed to be the most addictive dessert ever. \u00a0We were heading to East Village into the \u201ctrendy hipster\u201d area full of lots of different organic, raw, vegan you name it places. \u00a0So if we couldn\u2019t get into one, we could go to another within a 5 minute walk. \u00a0I was happy to walk wherever we needed to go, exercise was good!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The first place we tried was full for several hours apparently so gave up on that and headed to another one that my friend had been to the day before for lunch. \u00a0She showed me what she had eaten for lunch and I instantly HAD to try it. \u00a0It sounded so wierd it was awesome. \u00a0We made it to Quintessance Cafe and it was small, so tiny! \u00a0But it was half full (which was a half decent sign). \u00a0I ended up having the \u201cRavioli Combination\u201d which was a raw turnip based dish stuffed with cashew cream and served with zuchinni pasta on the side. \u00a0It may sound wierd, but god damn it was tasty. \u00a0I may not ever make the decision to become vegan but if I was offered this, I wouldn\u2019t turn it down. \u00a0They also had an amazingly creamy butternut squash soup that I could of sworn had cream or something else in it, but it was just pure pumpkin and spices. \u00a0SCORE!! Recipe replication time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Daniela had the \u201cburger\u201d and it was certainly unique. \u00a0Served with \u201cCoconut & Squash Bread\u201d it sounded totally far fetched but the sauces that went with it to replicate mustard and tomato ketchup were tasty as hell. \u00a0I would not complain about the sauces at least, the burger though wasn\u2019t all to interesting (so really it was kind of like McDonalds hehe).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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We left dinner, regretting not hitting up Groupon like everyone else it seems that night had done and walked through the east village navigating the cold windy streets to find ourselves at Momofuku Milk bar. \u00a0I had one thing on my mind this evening. \u00a0Crack Pie. \u00a0This wierd sounding dessert is really not all that much when you list the ingrediants but holy crap is it AWESOME! \u00a0Amazingly tasty and the slices were not all that big either, a good small size piece is all you need as it was decadant and tasty and sticky and sweet and rich all rolled into one. \u00a0Serve it with a little cup of \u201cCereal Milk\u201d ice cream and your set! \u00a0What is Cereal Milk Ice Cream? \u00a0Ever drank the leftover milk from your bowl of cereal in the morning? \u00a0Get that yummy milky cereal taste? \u00a0Take that leftover (although they make it especially by steeping the cereal in the Milk then straining) milk and turn it into the ice cream base. \u00a0YUM!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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After that I walked it all off by walking back almost 20 blocks to my hotel, totally content with my day. \u00a0Sleep could not come soon enough and I crashed out!<\/p>\n

Saturday 25th May 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

I woke up around 7 hoping to see blue sky or at least no rain and win. \u00a0I got neither! \u00a0It was crap out, so my plans of running in Central Park were totally scrapped and with dissapointment I hit the gym for a solid hour, something I had not done in a while. \u00a0That at least made me feel good. \u00a0The rest of my plans to spend the day walking, that I was NOT going to give up so I caught up on the work and got that all done before heading to breakfast with a foodie on twitter who had met a friend of mine in Singapore. \u00a0I figured I may as well touch base and we had a good meet up over a bagel and coffee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Ess A Bagel is where we met and their \u201cEverything\u201d bagel is what was recommended so one of those with low fat cream cheese (im on holidays remember) and a banana and a coffee and that was my nourishment for the day. \u00a0I was intending on keeping myself to a west coast schedule so that I was good for a very late dinner on the flight and then touching down around 1am and heading straight to bed. \u00a0The bagel, chat and company were great and I left her to head off to a lunch meeting and I headed off back to Broadway. \u00a0At Broadway and 20th I pulled out my ipod. \u00a0Turned left looked all the way down manhattan and headed off. \u00a0Destination Battery Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\nI walked, and I walked and I walked some more. \u00a0Eventually I ended up at the World Trade Center area and made a quick stop (not that I wasn\u2019t stopping for photos and stuff along the way as it was) to visit St Pauls Chapel, the new World Trade Center buidling and then kept on going. I walked for almost 2 hours down to Battery Park and once I got there I strolled around pretty slowly getting heaps of photos and then trying to stay out of the wind as much as possible. \u00a0I contemplated hitting the Statten Island Ferry to get the free trip past the Statue of Liberty but the wind and waves looked a bit to much for me.<\/p>\n

So instead I jumped the 6 train over to Brooklyn and then got a bit lost in brooklyn trying to find the bridge but a police officer (always good for local directions… to the nearest donut place,.. kidding) helped me out and I was soon heading to the Brooklyn bridge where I walked through high winds, rain and plenty of crowds doing the same thing enjoying that feeling of being on an icon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I was so excited to be doing it, that I didn\u2019t care about all the crap around me. \u00a0I just kept on walking, and walking and walking. \u00a0By the time I reached city hall on the New York side the crowds I had passed were pretty thick and getting thicker, so I hit the Subway station again and headed uptown this time to Grand Central. \u00a0I was going to go and visit the Transit Museum hopefully. \u00a0What I got though was a tiny little gift shop. \u00a0Bummer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Instead I explored the station a little, stood around, relaxed, people watched a little. \u00a0Making me slowly happier to just be resting for a little, by this time it was 4pm and I had been walking around 4 hours! \u00a0After walking the wrong way out of Grand Central I found Lexington Ave closed for some kind of street market thing so just followed the crowds uptown further, I did turn around at 48th street and started heading back downtown as I would have to go the airport soon enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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In the end I walked all over the city. \u00a0From 48th Street to Battery park, crossing over many avenues along the way, all through the East Village area back and forth back and forth. \u00a0I would have to say that in the two days in New York I probably walked a good half of Manhattan. \u00a0Pretty good accomplishment.. at least I think so!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction Seattle to New York New York New York to Vancouver Vancouver Vancouver to Seattle Conclusion \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,8,9,1,18,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures","category-expat","category-food-drink","category-life-in-general","category-travelling","category-tripreports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p49RU0-Ym","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3742"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3781,"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3742\/revisions\/3781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}