Welcome to NYC

My trip to NYC was fairly uneventful. The airline got my email in time and had vegan meals prepared for me, even still I was pretty hungry most flight and totally forgot to pack snacks. What kind of unprepared vegan am I?! I watched 6 episodes of The People VS OJ Simpson (highly recommend!) and was sad I didn't download more for the trip as the airline didn't have tvs for the 10 hour trip, just a small old one in the centre aisle. In he end my 20 hour travel day to NYC was not so bad.

Josh on the other hand had his long flight from Frankfurt to Vancouver delayed by 3 hours, meaning he would miss his connection to Victoria. After the airline saying since it was their fault they would pay for him to change his flight around we both felt relieved. But once in Canada he had no such luck with Condor, so we'll be pursuing that more when I get home! Luckily the Air Canada staff were helpful and didn't charge us as much as normal to rebook a new flight home.

Once I landed in NYC I was a bit nervous for customs, but I just breezed right through with hardly any questions. Next I navigated the subway system to get myself to the Air BNB with no trouble at all. First thing I noticed getting into the states was the sweet NYC accent! So good. And the second thing I noticed was the size of the people. Just coming from Tel Aviv, a city where it is so cool to workout and be in top shape, and then before that Africa, I realized we hadn't seen too many large people. And now in the states it was shocking to see the size of some people! A month away can really open your eyes haha. It was also weird to be around so much English! But riding the subway I heard so many different languages since it's so diverse here.

Before I knew it I was at my new shared home with one of my best friends Jeremy! It's a closet with twin sized bunk beds, but it will totally do the trick for us while in the big city.

I felt totally ready to hit the pavement so I changed and we headed out to meet with another friend Jaime for drinks and dinner, I was pretty starving at that point. Jaime is doing her masters at Columbia, graduating in a few short days! I'm happy I got to visit her while she's hear and she's been awesome at showing us all the good stuff so far

We got off the subway from Queens, where we're staying, to Greenwhich village where we were meeting Jaime at the iconic corner where the friends building was filmed. Welcome to NYC! So nostalgic

Next we walked a short distance to see Carrie Bradshaw's apartment.

And finally we got some dinner at by CHLOE, one of the top vegan restaurants on my list! I have been following her for years and was so thrilled to eat her food. Jere and I decided to split two things since we were both having a hard time deciding, so we got the guac burger and the meatball sub to split, plus we both got a small side of the mac and cheese with shiitake bacon. It was all UNREAL and was such a good welcome to the city!!

We had got the food to go to eat in Washington Square Park, which I immediately recognized from movies over the years. Lots of people playing chess at the tables, pretty intense games as well!

Next we stopped at a little cafe for a bottle of wine to share. The wine was fantastic, it's been a while since I'd had good quality wine! The people watching was great, everyone had their pint sized little dogs with them out for a walk. And the al fresco spot we were at was perfect, but MAN is it cold here! Coming from round he clock 30 degree weather to 16 feels like coming to 5 degrees with the wind chill! I'm sad to be out of the heat, it's definitely more my style!

Jaime had to head out early for a meeting, so Jere and I finished our wine and headed out to subway an walk towards the World Trade Center monument. It was stunning to see.

We also saw the Oculus - what a crazy looking building!

And then we walked and walked and got to the Brooklyn Bridge!

With that we decided to get a bottle of wine and head home for the night. I was at the 28 hour point of traveling, and I was fading fast. We got home too tired to even open the bottle!

Overall my first afternoon in NYC was a great one! I'm glad I was able to rally and make the most of the evening.