Me, my mom, and my sister hopped on an overnight bus Friday night, and slept the entire eight hours to New York City. The bus dropped us off in the middle of the city Saturday morning, then left! Fourteen hours later the bus came back and picked us up, getting us back to Ohio early Sunday morning! Whew! What a weekend!
Here is what we did in fourteen hours in New York City, spending almost nothing!
Once we hopped off the bus, this was the first place we went. Not only is Grand Central Station absolutely beautiful, and a must-visit, but we wanted to use the restrooms to get dressed and do our hair and makeup!
Once leaving Grand Central, we wandered around trying to find a cute, New York City styled coffee shop. There were no shortages of Starbucks that's for sure, but we managed to find a crammed, and adorable little coffee shop by the name of Ground Central (get it?!). It doesn't get much more New York City style than that! And I got a passion fruit flavored donut the size of my head! Yippee!
I figured Times Square was a must see, so once we filled our bellies, we made our way there. Times Square is a great place to visit when you don't have a lot of time, but want to experience a lot! You can find anything (or anyone!) there!
I'm not even a big MnM fan, but this store was pretty insane! It had multiple levels inside, all filled to the brim with every shade MnM imaginable, plus MnM shirts, cups, robes, pillows, golf balls, and anything else you could think of! It's located in Times Square, so it's really easy to make a pit stop there while you're making your way through.
From Times Square, Bryant Park is just a hop, skip, and a jump (a couple blocks) away.
I could only describe Bryant Park as ethereal. With plants and gardens and fountains, you feel like a sprite, making her way through a magical fairy kingdom!
There's coffee, plenty of places to sit, a carousel, and even a place to sit and play games!
This magnificent house of literature is directly beside Bryant Park, so once you've finished your cup of coffee, head on inside, and prepare to lose yourself in the architecture, bookshelves, and exhibits. Be sure to grab a free map of the city from the information desk, this was a huge help to us the rest of our trip!
This one definitely needs no explanation! From the Library, we walked to Central Park. It was a bit of a walk, but there was no shortage of stuff to look at along the way!
Strawberry Fields in right on the outskirts of Central Park. I knew that we needed to go there, since we are all huge Beatles, and John Lennon fans. Strawberry Fields is quite a serene and peaceful spot. It's very Hippie-rific, and you can always find someone playing a Lennon song nearby.
Any Seinfeld fans out there?!
From Strawberry Fields we took a cab to Tom's Restaurant (it was pretty far to walk, plus we were hungry!). Tom's Restaurant was a must visit for us, because my entire family is completely obsessed with Seinfeld, and the outside of Tom's Restaurant is famous for appearing in pretty much every single episode of Seinfeld, as Monk's Cafe that they frequent! The inside isn't the same, since they weren't actually on set in New York. But we were still super stoked to stand outside, and marvel at the place we have seen so often in our favorite t.v. show!
I wanted to visit Chinatown, so we took the Subway there. It was completely surreal to know that I was still in America, but to look, feel, and even smell(!) like I was in China!
From Chinatown we walked through Little Italy, made our way to a Subway, and cruised back up to Grand Central Station where we met our bus to go home.
Peace Love and New York City
Jess <3