New York City
How do I introduce a city like New York? With a cliché about bright lights, tall buildings, subway rats? With a story about a little girl who always dreamed of stardom on the Broadway stage? With a quote from 42nd Street, Home Alone, or “Welcome to New York”?
I think I’ll just preface this post by telling you about our individual relationships to New York City: my husband Matt is city-slicker wannabee, but I am the outdoorsy nature girl that prefers blue skies to skyscrapers and mountains to metro stops. Nevertheless, I have loved New York since I was little, and have very fond memories of trips there with my parents and friends. But Matt was definitely the more excited of the two of us, as he had never seen the bright lights, tall buildings, or subway rats. Happily, one of my good friends from college, Jackie, also lives in New York, so we were thrilled to have the chance to visit her for Easter weekend.
We landed in NYC on a windy spring day (hello, turbulence) to a crowded city and a tiny hotel room squeezed into the heart of midtown, just one block from the southern end of Central Park.
Our first stop in New York was Tavern on the Green, the famous restaurant that sits at the heart of Central Park. When I was little, I remember my parents hiring a horse-drawn carriage to pull us through the park before we ate at this restaurant. A magical memory! (Although, I’m no longer a fan of the horse-drawn carriages).
Although we didn’t eat at Tavern, we popped into their café for a coffee and tea. Our subsequent exploration of Central Park was quite random because we didn’t know where we were going. To our credit, we serendipitously hit all the major attractions—the Alice in Wonderland statue, the Boathouse, Belvedere Castle, the lake, the Jackie O Reservoir, and Bethesda Fountain.
Our adventures through the park abruptly ended when we decided to meet up with our friend Jackie, who lives nearby in the Upper West Side. She suggested we meet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is located on the Upper East Side of the park on 5th Avenue (but did I really need to tell the Gossip Girl fans?)
After arriving on the steps of the Met and having a complete Blair Waldorf moment, Jackie grabbed us by the hands and hustled us through the streets of NYC to Ladurée, the famous macaron shop, where we bought a box of six for takeaway. Snooty as it may sound, this totally brought us back to the day that Matt proposed in Paris, when we ate macarons at Ladurée to celebrate.
Afterwards, we spent the remainder of the afternoon touring the Met exhibits and spending a little extra time staring at the famous staircase, which is usually a highlight of the annual Met Gala.
Our first day in New York was an exhausting affair, and Matt was clearly coming down with a cold, but we didn’t let it stop us. After dinner at a dark and romantic Italian restaurant, we bee-bopped around the city to see Times Square lit up, as well as Broadway and Rockefeller Center.
I even had the tremendous pleasure of getting to ice skate at the famous Rink at Rockefeller Center! This was a complete dream come true, since some of my favorite ice skaters in the world have performed on this ice. After twirling in my skates (and not falling!), Matt and I headed home, but not before stopping at a bakery to get cheesecake, because . . . isn’t it a requirement to eat cheesecake when you’re in New York?
The next morning saw us awake at the late, late hour of 9:00 a.m., but we forgave ourselves for sleeping in because poor Matt was so sick. We grabbed breakfast at a bakery and both chugged orange juice, vitamin waters, and ginger-and-lemon tonic to stave off the sickness. Trying not to feel even worse from these special concoctions, we headed down the block towards the Museum of Modern Art, which was easily the most crowded museum I’d ever been in, ever.
For good reason. It holds (in my opinion) the most beautiful painting in the whole world: Starry Night by Van Gogh. Starry Night is glorious for many reasons—its colors, the expressiveness, the light, the texture, the scene. I always imagine this painting in the context of an episode of Doctor Who. In that episode, the main characters travel back in time to visit Vincent Van Gogh, where they quickly befriend him and become familiar with the depth of his depression. As you may know, Van Gogh committed suicide at a very young age, but not before he created over 2,000 masterful works of art. As the episode progresses, the Doctor and his companion decide to take Vincent with them to the Van Gogh exhibit at the Musee d’Orsay in present-day Paris. The display boasts some of his most beloved paintings, over which a crowd of people ooh and aah: Self-Portrait, Vincent’s Bedroom in Arles, Still Life: Japanese Vase with Roses and Anemones, and Fritillaries in a Copper Vase. Vincent is visibly stunned at the display and becomes emotionally overwhelmed when he hears the curator describe him as “the greatest painter of them all.”
Watching people swarm Starry Night at MoMA had a similar effect on me, and I just keep asking myself and Matt, “what if he had known just how beloved he would become?” Seeing this painting was among the most transcendent moments of our trip, and I couldn’t stop tears running down my cheeks as I stared at the painting in real life.
We had been at MoMa for about an hour when Matt started to look quite pale and miserable, but he insisted we keep going. In consideration of his illness, we hailed a cab to head south to Chelsea district, one of the major art centers in New York. Our cab dropped us off at an entrance to the High Line, which is an old elevated railroad system that has been transformed into a public park and green space. We climbed a set of stairs to the top of the park and walked along the greenway, taking pictures of the Statue of Liberty in the distance and sitting on a bench to people-watch. It was from this vantage point that Matt spied a little pizza place called Artichoke just below our feet—amazingly, one of the restaurants that my hairdresser had insisted we try! (Can you imagine, actually finding this restaurant by chance in all of New York City?)
We popped down to the restaurant and split a massive slice of pizza, and then spent the next hour walking around the Chelsea art galleries, flower shops, boutique stores, and bakeries. By the time we were done, we realized we needed to get Matt some medication quickly, so we headed even further south to Greenwich Village, not to experience the history of this culturally rich neighborhood (although we did), but rather to pop into CVS for some Advil Cold & Sinus. Ladies and gentleman, this is not a sponsored post, but THAT STUFF WORKS. Matt was a changed man after he took it. 10/10 recommend.
Newly fortified, we kept wandering south until we reached Washington Square Park in the heart of NYU’s campus, and then continued on to meet Jackie in Chinatown.
(ISN’T SHE THE CUTEST PERSON IN THE ENTIRE WORLD?!)
Chinatown was overwhelming, and although we had the urge to buy some knock-off sunglasses or designer purses, we resisted. Instead, Jackie waggled her eyebrows at us and asked, “would you like to get your auras read?” Without fully understanding, we both nodded. She shuttled us through the crowd, batting away the hands that grabbed at us, and pulled us into a tiny, unassuming shop tucked into the corner of an off-road. Inside, we were greeted by a woman who strapped us into a machine that read our electromagnetic fields, and as currents buzzed through our bodies, she snapped a Polaroid of us. In just minutes, she returned our photos. In my photo, the space around my body radiated soft hues of blue and purple; by contrast, Matt’s was an explosion of red. We giggled nervously at each other.
“You,” she said, pointing at my photo, “are a sensitive soul. You are very cerebral, in your head, with lots of thoughts and emotions. You are quiet, and like to be alone with your thoughts.” I nodded—all true. “The blue stands for the throat, and shows that you have a highly developed intuition. The purple shows that you are a daydreamer, a visionary. You have glimpses into other worlds and are currently in a place of healing.”
She smiled, and turned to Matt. “Red is the color of blood.” Matt couldn’t suppress his laughter. “It is a very strong color. You are vibrating with action. Red comes from the earth and from the center of the body, the core, and gives you lots of energy and passion. You have the ability to attract circumstances and experiences, and you’re very competitive.”
So she confirmed that very different people, which we’ve always known. Matt is quite extroverted, with endless energy, fathomless kindness, and bottomless joy. I’m more deliberate, more inward-focused. I’m a daydreamer, and can spend hours in my own thoughts. I have limited stores of energy, and I shift constantly between joy and sorrow—I absorb the feelings of those around me. We make a great team because of these differences.
After our aura reading, we grabbed ramen to stave off the chilly rain that had started to fall around us. Matt ate his so quickly that the waiter asked him if he needed more noodles, and Jackie and I endlessly teased him about this. For our final stop that afternoon, Jackie took us to The Strand bookstore, which has EIGHTEEN MILES of new, used, and rare books. We picked up a few books before saying goodbye to Jackie, who left us with a solid nighttime recommendation: Serendipity for frozen hot chocolate. Serendipity is a famous “indulge-yourself” type of restaurant that is home to the world’s most extravagant desserts, some of which have been featured in the Guinness Book of World Records. I’ll leave you with a picture, because that’s the only way to describe the decadent things we consumed that night.
