Travel Diary: New York — A Gemini's Lookbook

If you have been reading previous posts you may know that I like to celebrate birthdays by traveling. This time it wasn't my birthday, it was my boyfriend's (Franky) birthday and we went to New York. It was a quick trip but memorable and full of activity. His first time my second. Honestly I wish we could have had more time because there is just so much to do and see in New York, but we were defiantly happy with our stay.

We arrived on Thursday night, on his birthday. We were a little tired from the flight and after having an incident with the taxi driver all we wanted was to freshen up and eat pizza. We found this amazing restaurant close to our hotel. Isola on Colobus - an Italian restaurant. Their pizza looked amazing but we didn't try it :(. It was my fault, I have been dairy free for a couple of months now and I was a little scared to try it with out taking pills that help relief the discomfort I get from eating dairy products so we opted for the pastas below. I gotta say, the pizza looked so good but these pastas were absolutely amazing. I ordered Pappardelle ai Funghi Porcini e Tartufo which is a homemade ribbon pasta with porcini mushroom and truffle oil (the one on the left) and Franky ordered Penne alla Bettola which was a pasta made with spicy tomato and vodka cream sauce (the one on the right). We both added grilled chicken and it went perfectly with both pastas. I didn't try Franky's pasta but he really liked it. Mine was oh so good, it really felt like it was homemade, it felt like they took their time to make it. I had never tried a pasta with truffle oil and I loved it. Last but not least from this restaurant, the service was great, one of the best experiences during our stay in NYC.

On Friday we got up early and started our day with a walk in Central Park, we didn't plan the day we just kind of went with our gutt and took whatever direction we felt like with out an itinerary, so we continued walking and exploring.

As we walked through Central Park we observed those who seemed to be locals. They were walking at a fast pace and going about their day either walking their dog, jogging or working out, some were waiting for the bus. I loved NYC the first time I went and as I admired all of my soundings this time, I couldn't help but think would you move here? The truth is that I probably wouldn't survive during the cold weather season.

We continued walking in search of a cafe, but this city has so many things and places to go into that we were easily distracted. Before we knew it, it was lunch time and we were really hungry. We walked into this place called The Coliseum Bar and Restaurant- Italian food again and it was pasta for me again. After this we continued exploring and went to Time Square, Rockefeller Center, Top of the Rock, Fifth Avenue Madison Square Garden and St. Patrick's Cathedral. We made a couple other stops including to stops to get small snacks here and there like tiramisu cake and we also stopped at a nice bar to get a drink before heading back to the hotel. On Friday we walked 11.5 miles, we were exhausted by the time we arrived at the hotel but also very hungry.

Can you guess what we ate? Italian again! This time we did have pizza and the chicken parmesan calzone that is one of the pictures below. I don't know if it was our hunger or what but it was really good. My favorite and Franky's favorite was the calzone. The cheese would oozed out, they put both ricotta and mozzarella inside. I was pretty excited to eat this, the cheese would stretch on every bite. We both enjoyed it so much we went back on our last night. The calzone was from another place close to our hotel, called Pie Pie Pizza.

Saturday! We woke up a little later because we were tired from so much walking the previous day. Our plan was to take it a little easier and not try to see so many places at once so we went to Little Italy! There was a festival going on celebrating San Gennaro, there were so many people and so many stands and so much food. This was perfect, we were able to buy a few souvenirs and the best part was that we got to try snacks, and food. Sorry only took a picture of an arepa because we were to excited over the food and always realized I didn't take a picture until we had finished it. If you are ever in NYC during this festival I defiantly recommend it, it'd pretty crowded but we really enjoyed it.

I know an arepa is not Italian, but they were selling it there so we had to try it. Sooo good!

We ended the night dancing! We went to this night club called Don Coqui located in Astoria. We got together with my cousin who recommended this place for Latin music, she lives in New York. We had a great time, they played a little bit of hip hop at the beginning and then salsa, bachata, and merengue.

Last Day in NYC! NO!

On our last day we went for breakfast, did a little shopping and headed to Time Square for a little while.

Found this in the restroom...had to take a picture.

All we ate in NYC was Italian food. I told my self we would try lots of different things and all we ate was Italian. I gotta say total fail and a bit embarrassing but I don't regret it at all, it was all so good!

A short but amazing trip to New York, we'll be back!

XOXO

Yerenid

P.S. Italy soon! I think we have too.