NYC

I have been to New York City multiple times. The last time I visited there was in September 2019.

I love visiting NYC. I enjoy seeing Broadway shows and doing other touristy things while I'm there. Earlier this month I had the opportunity to visit again! I think it was kind of a belated birthday gift for myself as well as a celebration of my new job. :)

My brother, Tim, and I planned a trip to NYC over Veteran's Day weekend.

I didn't have Veteran's Day (observed) off so I worked Friday and then hopped on a bus after work. (Tim left earlier that day because he had the day off of work). 

I was happy because my bus ended up being fairly empty, so I got to sit in a row by myself. Also we didn't hit much traffic on the way to NYC so we made it there in pretty good time.

I made it to NYC! I got off the bus and started walking toward my hotel but soon realized that I was walking in the wrong direction. Oops. I turned around and started walking in the correct direction and I eventually made it to my hotel. 🤣

I liked the view from our hotel room! The picture above is the view from our room at different times of the day. I also liked the location of our hotel. Our hotel room was small and had bunk beds.

Overall the hotel was decent, but I had a couple of issues with it. One issue was the ladder to the top bunk (where I slept) was painful to climb because of the material it was made from as well as the thinness of the rungs. I had to wear shoes to go up and down the ladder so I kept my shoes on the bed in a plastic bag when I was up there so that I could have them when I went down the ladder. 

Another issue is that the bathroom sink was draining very slowly and eventually stopped draining at all so we had to call the front desk and have them come and fix it. They did come quickly and fixed it quickly, but it was a little annoying that it got that bad in the first place. Oh well. 🤷

In preparation for the trip I had done research on places to eat for the different meals of the day. I looked for places with good reviews and not too far from places that we wanted to visit. Breads Bakery was one of the places I had researched beforehand. 

Honestly I wasn't a huge fan of what I got there. I had a breakfast sandwich and a pain au chocolat. The bread part was decent on both items but the flavor was disappointing (especially with the sandwich, it was quite bland). Maybe I just got the wrong items. I don't know. I would potentially go there again and try something else, but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat there again.

Not too far from Breads Bakery was the Nintendo Store. It was pretty fun to walk around! Although I don't play video games anymore, I did occasionally play them as a child and my brothers definitely played them. I recognized a lot of characters. Above is Link from the video game Zelda.

 

 

Pikachu!!! He's so cute!

A Lego set of an old NES. I bet that would take awhile to put together, but it looks fun though! And it cost over $200.

Toad and Luigi!

Mario! As I said already, this was a pretty fun store to visit!

On our way to our next stop we saw this store. Although we had already had breakfast, we decided to stop and get some doughnuts for a little later. Because why not?! :)

I really wanted to like the doughnuts, but I wasn't a big fan. I really liked the flavor of them, but they were way too bready for a doughnut. For me, doughnuts should be light and fluffy, but these were not.

Whenever I go to NYC, I always need to see at least one Broadway show. The thing about Broadway, though, is that the tickets are pretty expensive. When I do go I try to get TKTS or lottery tickets for the shows. 

Tim and I had tried for lottery tickets for the shows we wanted to see and didn't win any of them. So our next plan was to try TKTS.Tim and I walked to the TKTS at Lincoln Center (because we heard the line was usually shorter and faster there). 

When we got there, the line was quite long and none of the shows we really wanted to see were on the board. We asked a worker just to make sure and he told us that since it was Veteran's Day weekend, there weren't as many shows on the board as usual. We were pretty disappointed. 

We walked to Central Park (which was nearby), found a bench to sit on to eat our doughnuts and to look at tickets online for the shows we wanted to see. Tim found decent priced tickets for Hadestown matinee. I found a decent priced ticket for the Six evening show.

The picture above was in Central Park near where Tim and I were researching for our shows that day.

 I liked this decorated bus we saw on the streets of NYC!

The bus had tables inside to sit at if you were eating at the restaurant next to it.

Hadestown theatre!

Our seats were on the very top row of the upper balcony, but I thought they were pretty good. I knew nothing about the story of Hadestown, so I went in with no expectations. It was so good! 

The production, the singing, the dancing was awesome! I enjoyed it!

After Hadestown, I convinced Tim to walk to a Japanese bookstore that I wanted to visit. I wanted to look for Japanese anime art or stickers etc.

The bookstore was quite large and crowded. It had three stories but we only made it to two floors. I would have enjoyed looking around more if it hadn't been so crowded. In the part of the bookstore we saw, I didn't find what I was looking for, so we left.

We were both quite hungry at this point so we found a place to eat close to our hotel. We brought our food back to the hotel and ate there and rested for a bit. 

We got food from Istanbul Bay Express! I got a falafel wrap and baklava and enjoyed both of them.

After dinner, it was time for my evening show. I went to Six and I thoroughly enjoyed it! 

Six was like a high energy concert where I learned about history. It was so good! I highly recommend it!

I liked my seat! I found the ticket on TodayTix and the seat was quite a bit cheaper than other seats around it. On one side of me was a large black box (but it did not impede my view at all), but I think that might be why that seat was a bit cheaper. But I don't really know.

I am so glad I made it to this show!

The next morning, we had a bit of time before catching our bus back to Virginia. I was up pretty early and decided to go to Times Square one more time.

I really enjoyed being there when it wasn't very crowded. There was a different atmosphere in the morning, but it was still fun to be there. :)

 

I headed back to the hotel then it was time to go to breakfast and then the bus. 

We ate at Angelina Bakery and it was delicious! (This was one I had researched before our trip). After the couple of dud places we got food at the day before, I was happy to end the trip on a high note food wise. :) 

I got a pesto and tomato focaccia bread and I thoroughly enjoyed every bite! It was so flavorful and the pastry was flaky and soft and delicious. 

After eating breakfast, we made our way to the bus. This time the bus was full so I didn't have a row to myself, but at least I was sitting next to someone I knew.

I had a fun time in NYC and I'm glad I finally got to visit again!