new york city in the fall, part one

This year I had the crazy good fortune of being able to visit New York City (my current favourite place in the world) not once, but twice. Another friend wanted to go, and I was already planning on visiting her in Ottawa anyways and for only a couple hundred dollars more, I kind of figured, why not? It was a  completely different experience visiting in the fall. Mostly, I could walk all day without my face melting off (and I'm not talking about make up). The milder, breezier weather was definitely more enjoyable. I'm so glad I got to go twice though, and experience both seasons, and with different friends. Completely different experiences but just as memorable.







We flew in to LaGuardia airport and landed around 11am. Having been to both Newark and LaGuardia now (but still not JFK), I'll say that LaGuardia is easier to get to/from (it's a bus away from a subway line... no elevators though so I don't recommend more than a carry-on) but Newark is a lot nicer and has way more food options. We went straight to our hostel in Williamsburg (and gosh is that subway system annoying sometimes. we had to take the train to Manhattan and then transfer at Union Station to get to the L line and cross the river again to get to Williamsburg) and checked in, freshened up, and headed back out into the city. We decided to leave Brooklyn for another day and went straight for Manhattan. After a long day of travel (I took the redeye from Edmonton to Toronto, slept in the Toronto airport for 3 hours and then met Sarah there for our flight to NYC...) I wanted nothing but Shake Shack. Sarah obliged me (especially after hearing me rave about it the entire flight) and we headed down to Maddison Square. In front of us, as we got out of the subway station, was a giant Forever 21. So of course we hit that up first. Then we got some Shack Stacks and split some fries and a drink. At this point it was getting late (maybe 4 or 5) and we had to be at the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theatre for about 6:30pm. So we decided to stay in Manhattan and wander. We walked down to the Doughnut Plant (another favourite...) and split a Pumpkin doughnut and then wandered into Chelsea and down south into the Village for as long as we could before we felt we should head back. It was at this point I realized we were next to the High Line so we took the stairs up and then headed back north on the High Line. It was a beautiful walk to do as the sunset, and a perfect one to do on the first day in that beautiful city. We got off on the last exit and then headed towards the UCBT to stand in line for our show (we had tickets but wanted good seats. Asssscat 300, btw). It was pretty good (maybe would have been better had I not been awake for something like 36 hours at that point) and we headed back to the hostel pretty content with our day.





This time we stayed in the Moore Hostel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for the first few days. I actually really liked it. We stayed in a mixed shared room and had no issues with creepy roommates or anything like that. It was pretty easy to get to (5 minute walk from the L line), the staff was nice and friendly, and it was decently clean. My only qualms was the location, to an extent. While it was light it, it was perfect and fine. When it got dark out (and you got lost...), all of those graffitied walls and barbed wire fences in the neighbourhood started to look kind of scary. No issues though, so I'm sure it was fine. And yes, Williamsburg was about as hipster as you can imagine. We even saw a mobile vintage clothing trailer...