New York, I Love You

This Friday I’ll be saying ‘au revoir!’ to my current job and start a new job next week. The company I’ll be working for is a world-wide entertainment company with their headquarters based right in Manhattan...to say I’m excited is an understatement!! Although I’ll be working at their Amsterdam office and not in NYC, I couldn’t help but think about our trip to NYC 6 months ago. When Christian and I fly to California for a visit, we always try to see if we can squeeze in a few day’s layover somewhere so we can make a quick city trip of it—well this time we decided to stop in ‘New Amsterdam’ (NYC was founded by the Dutch! Christian was excited to reclaim his city..silly Dutchman) for 5 days before we went to Cali for my twin sister’s wedding. Summer in NYC was HOT, but so fun, with an endless list of outdoorsy things to do in the summer. 

Fortunately, jetlag meant our first couple of days in New York started at the crack of dawn...we hit the streets and made it to a diner before 7AM! Because of the astronomical prices of hotels in NYC, we decided to use AirBnB for the first time (we'll be using it again to rent an apartment in Lisbon this summer) and it was a decision we most certainly did not regret! AirBnB is a cool concept, people can rent out spare apartments or rooms to avid travellers looking for a little touch of home-iness instead of a hotel...its also a great chance to meet the locals. We had a pretty affordable room in a super cute apartment of a German expat living one block away from Central Park—the location was perfect and thanks so this guy’s apartments, I seriously want black and white stripped walls with red accents and photos of Audrey Hepburn in our future home :). After breakfast we picked up a booklet of New York City Passes and let the full-fledged tourist side of NYC take over—Rockefeller Center, Central Park, Little Italy, Times Square...we did some serious walking that first day! I’m a FREAK for street markets so I dragged Christian around the Hell’s Kitchen Street Market for a lil looksy. After he spotted some old boxing gloves and some good ol’ Amuuuurrrrrican license plates, he got a bit closer to understanding why street markets are AWESOME because of the random loot on display (see babe! Told ya street markets are cool!).

We retreated from the heat of high noon with a super delicious ham, cheddar and pear chutney panini from 'wichcraft in Bryant Park—which was by far the place we visited most. Bryant Park is small and cozy but has so much to offer—yoga, interpretive dance, ping pong, chess, children’s book readings, a couple little cafes, twinkly lights strung in the streets and my ultimate favorite OUTDOOR MOVIES in the summer. We couldn’t stay TOO long at Bryant Park that day since we had a date with Grand Central, Central Park and Little Italy for dinner, but don’t you worry Bryant Park, we’ll be back :)...we were back pretty quick--we decided to stop by Bryant Park for a beer in the park before bedtime. Oh and NYC and its numerous cupcake bakeries are EVIL...I liked the miniest cupcakes ever at Baked by Melissa..the tie-dye and peanut butter and jelly mini cupcakes were delicious! And the cookies & cream one, and the peanut butter cup one and the red velvet...ah hell, all of them were sinfully good!

Hammy, cheesy, chutney deliciousness at 'wichcraft, Bryant Park

Miniest cupcakes ever!!

Mass crowds at the newly opened Apple store on 5th Ave.

We hopped over to Brooklyn to check out the Video Game Film Festival...

Nightcap in Bryant Park