One of the world's greatest cities, New York!
New York City! If you like options galore, whether it’s food, drink, entertainment, music, or culture, then without a doubt, it’s one of the greatest places in the world.
Our fondness for big bustling cities should be no secret to anyone who comes to this site with any regularity. We love big cities so much because of the variety they offer. No matter what massive city we visit around the world, we know that there’s a wealth of great food to eat, people to meet, and activities to take part in.
Our Previous Visit to New York
But one of the other reasons we are drawn to massive metropolises like NYC is because of the cultures. This melting pot is truly what makes New York great. We had been there in the past (2003), but we did what most tourists do, stay in Manhattan near Times Square and see everything all tourists see.
The Met. A Yankees game. Central Park. Ground Zero. Fifth Avenue. Rockefeller Center. The Statue of Liberty. The Empire State Building. Little Italy. Chinatown. A Broadway show. We packed a lot into our one week trip there when we were travel novices, and we loved every minute of it.
Trust the Locals
But this trip was different. Sure, we were staying in Manhattan for two nights to see Phish on NYE at Madison Square Garden, but the other three nights we were lucky enough to stay with some locals.
Hannah, one of our tour guides while in NYC (I really just wanted an excuse to put a picture up of her since she's so stinking cute)
We met Nate and Sarah in El Chalten, Argentina while on our RTW in 2009. They were in the middle of a 6 month jaunt through South America, and we were in the middle of the South American leg of our trip. We hit it off immediately, hung out for few days in El Chalten, and later met up in Santiago, Chile.
We kept in touch since, and we jumped at the chance to be able to see them again as they so graciously invited us to stay with them for a few days of our trip, despite having a 5 month old little girl, Hannah. And boy, were we lucky we got the chance to meet up again.
Manhattan is a great place, don’t get me wrong, but this trip simply wouldn’t have been as memorable had we not stayed with Nate and Sarah. Seeing the outer boroughs and the real New York, as Sarah called it, was something Megan and I both really wanted to do, and our hosts graciously obliged by giving us a fantastic tour which was heavy on our favorite activity, EATING.
The Real New York
It’s as though our hosts were in our brains when leading us around the city. One of our favorite things to do when traveling, no matter the size of the city, town, or village, is to simply wander. And what better city to wander in than New York?
Queens
Astoria was an eclectic neighborhood we'd have no trouble calling home. *
Our home base was the Forest Hills neighborhood in Queens, and our first trip brought us to Astoria. Traveling is a funny thing, and despite the fact that the vastly diverse neighborhood of Astoria couldn’t be more different than our neighborhood of Webster Groves in St. Louis, we felt extremely comfortable here. There are certain cities and neighborhoods (San Telmo in Buenos Aires being one of them) that just feel right. Ones that, regardless of the extreme difference in what we’re used to, we could probably move to tomorrow without much of a problem. Astoria was one of those neighborhoods.
A massive Greek population was evident immediately, along with a plethora of other cultures seemingly around every turn. We passed Middle Eastern, Mexican, Colombian, Venezuelan, and Italian restaurants, shops, and markets during our exploration of the area. We stopped into a unique and diverse grocery store (something all four of us love to do) and several shops along the way (after eating lunch of course), and we just took our time meandering the snowy streets while catching up with our friends.
In addition to Astoria, we got the chance to go meet Sarah’s parents, born and bred New Yorker’s, in a suburban neighborhood near St. John’s University in Queens. I honestly had no idea that parts of New York City could be so suburban, so it was cool to get an even different feel of the city, all the while meeting the family we had heard so much about through stories. Not that we would have expected anything less after having met and stayed with our friends, but her parents were wonderful, and it was a pleasure to hear her dad’s entertaining, interesting, and enthusiastic stories while munching on bagels with bacon cream cheese-that’s right, bacon cream cheese (be sure to check back tomorrow for my food and restaurant reviews).
Brooklyn
How to get your Christmas tree out of your house in New York City
We only spent part of an afternoon tooling around Brooklyn, but the limited time we did spend there, we were quite impressed. We spent time in the area known as BoCoCa, the name given to the Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, and Carroll Gardens neighborhoods that are all close to one another.
We really enjoyed another funky and trendy area of New York that was filled with some really cool shops, restaurants, and bars. We had just eaten lunch in Astoria before heading here, so we didn’t get the opportunity to try any of the food (there’s always next time). We did pop in a local pub (The People’s Republic of Brooklyn, 247 Smith Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231) for a beer, where we met some super friendly people (who said New Yorker’s weren’t friendly?). It was the type of place we would most certainly frequent often if we lived in the neighborhood. We even got to witness the proper way to dispose of a Christmas tree in New York City.
A trip to Brooklyn wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade to see a view of Manhattan. Memories of my first ever trip to New York as a wide-eyed college kid in 1997 came flooding back as we spent some time here wandering around and taking pictures. The view is certainly different without the twin towers, but it’s still spectacular, and we arrived just after the sun set. It was gorgeous to see the glimmering lights of Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge, about as quintessential a view of New York City as it gets.
One of the prettiest skylines in the world
Loving It
This was our first trip longer than a weekend since our RTW ended over 14 months ago. It managed to reaffirm our love for travel (not that we thought we were over it or anything), and since our return, I have said on numerous occasions that it was the most fun I’ve had since returning home over a year ago. I have written about my feelings and state of mind since our return, and while I am happy and comfortable back home, this got me antsy again. I had that feeling the entire trip, the one of happiness and freedom and wonder and exploration, that feeling that I only get when I’m on the road.
Those smiles were around the whole time we were in NYC
So thank you Nate and Sarah and Hannah and Lil and Mark and Phish! All were wonderful hosts, and though it was a short one, this little trip to one of the world’s greatest cities just reminded me of why I love to get out on the road, no matter the length.
Be sure to check back tomorrow for a list and reviews of all the places we ate while in New York.
*picture by johngullo
** picture by Tony the Misfit
