My first time in New York, New York!

Last Tuesday I made my way up to New York City for the first time ever. Though I had lived on the east coast forever, and DC isn't really that far from NYC, I just never had the chance to go. So when FitFluential offered me a chance to visit for the Fitness Magazine Meet and Tweet event, I told myself that it was now or never. It was the perfect time to go with my husband gone and with my in-laws only a stones throw away to watch Caleb for me. I needed the distraction and it was a once-in-a-lifetime event for me to attend, I just HAD to make this happen. The stars aligned when another blogger attending the event revealed to me that I could ride the Bolt Bus to NYC for only $12.00 and when a friend who lived in the city offered her place up for me to stay. So I worked everything out and on Tuesday afternoon, I arrived to the concrete jungle that is New York City.

My first impression? The city stunk.

But I grew up in Korea where open fish markets and butcher shops line every street corner so I got used to the smell pretty quickly. And it honestly didn't bother me, it just happened to be the first thing I noticed. My next impression was that the city was CAR-RAY-ZAY! There were hoards of people everywhere imaginable. We stepped off the bus at Penn Station and were immediately greeted by a couple shouting and fighting with each other, followed by a swarm of people rushing to get to wherever they were in such a hurry to get to. It was nuts from the get-go. And you know what? I loved every minute of it! I hopped in my first NYC cab, had a little too much fun chatting with the cab driver about taxicab confessions and made my way over to the Lower East Side to meet my friend at her apartment.

When I arrived to her apartment, I'm sort of ashamed to admit at how shocked I was. For some reason, I was expecting a smaller, cramped apartment with barely any room to breathe. Hollywood really has a way of screwing with your expectations because her apartment was amazing and absolutely gorgeous. I loved every part of it!

After settling into her apartment, we decided to head to dinner. I was craving pizza so we chose this cozy Italian restaurant Pulinos for my first meal in NYC. We started off with a roasted cherry tomato, fresh mozzarella on warm sourdough appetizer that was out of this world. It was such a simple appetizer but because everything was so fresh, it was so much more delicious than it sounded. Plus, I was on such a NYC high that I probably could have eaten garbage from Penn Station and that would have even tasted amazing to me.

 For our entree we split a brickoven sausage pizza and half a bottle of Chianti wine. Together the whole meal was to die for and I was feeling pretty good (if you know what I mean) by the end of our meal. And even though I had major food coma at the end of the meal, we decided to make a pit stop at Times Square so I could stare in awe at all of the lights and tall buildings like the good tourist that I am.

We got there at 10:00 pm and my immediate reaction was in amazement at how bright it was! It almost looked like it was in the late afternoon with all of the bright lights. I was so transfixed by all of the lights and also at how busy it was. Normally, my granny self would be in bed by 10, haha. What were all these people doing out so late!? Don't they work the next morning!? Where were they going!? Where do these people come from!? I seriously could not stop wondering in amazement at the whole situation.
 

    

I wish I could have gotten better pictures but since I normally lug around a huge diaper bag, it felt nice being able to carry only my small purse for once. So I only took pictures with my phone since I didn't want to carry a camera bag as well. But as you can see, not having my real camera didn't stop me from enjoying my night out in Times Square.

         

 

I felt like such a country bumpkin while there. I cheerfully said "hello" to everyone that passed us and got the strangest looks but it didn't bother me one bit. I was simply having too good of a time to care. I was loving NYC and all of it's hustle and bustle!

This picture cracks me up because we thought this guy's sign was hilarious. My friend wanted a picture of it but thought it was ridiculous to pay him for a pic so I stood in front of him while she took a pic of me. The entire time this went on, he kept jokingly yelling at us "I know exactly what you're doing, oldest trick in the book"! Fortunately, he was a good sport about it all and was having just as much fun as we were.
 

 

After touring a few more NYC hotspots, we decided to make our way back home around midnight. I had an early morning with Fitness Magazine and my friend had to be up early for work in the am. Plus, we wanted to have a bagel and coffee date before we started our days.

We ended the night stopping at one of NYC's glorious food trucks, Wafels & Dinges. This one served Belgian dessert waffles with a variety of toppings and we about almost died when we tried the soft Belgian waffle with "Speculoo" sauce.

Speculoo sauce is a caramelized gingerbread spread that pretty much equates to heaven. Yeah. That good. We seriously walked all the way down 1st avenue moaning and groaning in food pleasure as we took bite after bite of this amazing waffle. Again, we got a few more crazy stares but hey, it's New York City. When in Rome, right?

Anyway, our waffles were the perfect sweet ending to a wonderful first day in New York City. In just the few hours that I was there that day, I fell in love.

I fell even more in love with the city the next day, but that's for another post. My recap of the Fitness Meet and Tweet is up next! See you soon :)