My friends, Cassie Ashley and I booked a trip to New York City to visit our other friend, Jenny. We scored super cheap megabus tickets, from Toronto to Philly and then from Philly to New York City. I’ve been to New York before with my parents on a tour but this time, I’m with friends and I’ll get to explore the city on our on schedule.

Day 1 – Thursday September 2, 2009

The Megabus departed an hour late and then we spent another 2 hours at the US border. This led us to arrive in Philly at 11am in the morning, 3 hours late from the schedule arrival 8:00am time. Sadly, our Philly plans were cut short.

Luckily, I slept pretty well and the ride went by quickly. We freshen up in 30th Street station (equalling to Toronto’s Union Station) and went hunting for some philly cheese steak sandwiches.

We made a quick stop at my favourite clothing bargain store; Ross and I bought a new luggage and a few tops. We boarded the Boltbus and was on our way to NYC for the evening.

We arrived in a NYPD-filled madison square and Cassie and I got lost in the subway, which smelt like pee and was insanely hot. We dropped off our luggage at our hotel, the Sheraton Four Points and headed to MAD (Museum of Arts and Design).

Next, we went to Totto Ramen for dinner, which was not too bad but not as good as Daiyoku in LA.

We stopped by Red Mango for frozen yogurt and headed up to Juenex Spa. I was expecting a relaxing bath house and spa. However, it was not like that at all. The prices were overpriced and different from what is advertised online.The bath waters were plain. The one sauna that was turned on was nothing special. The massage was decent. The place said all their therapist are NY Licensed but clearly they are NOT. They don’t even know what it means to be licensed and they don’t speak a single word of english.  Overall, I highly do NOT recommend.

Day 2 – Friday September 3, 2009

We started the day with Jacques Torres, homemade chocolate cafe/shop. This was the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had! The caramel hot chocolate was so smooth, creamy and had just the right amount of caramel flavour.

Next, we headed over to Soho to do some shopping. The first stop was one of my favourite illustration characters; tokidoki! Small store but loved the window display.

After that, we headed to Uniqlo, a japanese fashion store and some other stores around the area. We stopped by Cafe Hanaba, cuban/mexican place for lunch. The food here was amazing! The steak sandwich I had was the best sandwich I’ve ever had. It was so flavourful.

After our meal, we went to the Kid Robot store. Where I just bought lots of vinyl toys; some as gifts and some for myself.

We stopped by Pink Berry for some mango frozen yogurt. I think I still prefer Yogurtland in West US areas, better than red mango or/ pinkberry!

We went to DSW for some shoe shopping and I discovered a discount store called Filene’s Basement. I got 3 tops there for $10 total! But that’s because the cashier messed up and gave me 70% off the clearance price instead of 40%.

Next, we headed to a Japanese Brassiere called EN for dinner with our NYC resident friend, Jenny. We ordered many dishes but the best dish was the Black cod that simply melted in my mouth.

Day 3 – Saturday September 4, 2009

This morning, we headed out for brunch at Clinton’s Street Baking Co. After waiting 2 hours for a table, I experienced their amazing pancakes.

We wanted to get some speciality donuts at the doughnut plant but it was closed for the holiday so we settled for gelato instead.

Next, we took the water taxi to see the brooklyn bridge and statue of liberty.

After departing the boat, we walked across the brooklyn bridge as the sun was setting. IT was beautiful!

Starving now, we had some korean chicken wings, which was okay and headed to times square. Jenny bought something from American outfitters so we got onto the large billboard!

Day 4 – Sunday September 5, 2009

For breakfast, we went to Crumbs to get cupcakes and head to an outlook area to catch a view of Manhatten.  My red velvet was the best cupcake I’ve ever had.

I started the day to shop at Century 21, a popular discount department store. However, I didn’t find anything that I really liked and was a great bargain. I did end up in Urban outfitters and got three tops there. For lunch, we ate a Malaysian restaurant that was ‘ok’.

We rented out bicycles afterwards and began biking around central park and making stops on museum mile to see the MET, Guggenheim and the design museum. Sadly, by the time we got to the design museum, it was closed and we couldn’t check out the exhibits or the gift shop. The bike riding was a lot of fun, great exercise and we got to experience the park to the fullest.

We ended our night with a italian dinner at gradisca, which was good but my dish, the tomato sauce, I felt was a little too sour.

I was keen on going to chickalicious to try their desserts for our last night in NY.  Each dessert comes in three courses, you get to choose your ‘main’ dessert. I chose a honeydew soup with melon balls, gelee and ice cream. We got to sit at the bar and watch the chef make the dessert. Each dessert course was simply divine and it must have been the best thing I’ve ever eaten. Each flavour was perfectly paired and presentation was very attractive. It was the perfect way to end our trip.

Day 5 – Monday September 5, 2009

With only 2 hours of sleep, we headed to Penn Station to board our bus. I wanted to see what the hype of white castle is all about so I had that for breakfast. Meh.. nothing special. Hero Burger > White Castle/In and Out. I also wanted to go back to another Crumbs and pick up a cupcake for Chris. It was suppose to open at 7:00am but it never did and I went back to board our bus. After a long 13 hour bus ride (slept for the most part and stuck 2 hours at the Border), we finally made it back to toronto.