New York Trip Part 2

Here's the second half of the trip. You can read part 1 here.

Thursday, May 27th: 

• Went to the Charging Bull in the Financial District since it was nearby
• Grabbed delicious chai from Gregory's Coffee. We didn't know how much we loved it and couldn't find it nearby our place D:
• Ate amazing banh mi from Saigon Shack
• Took a confusing walk to SoHo because Archana's phone was drunk and kept on taking us in the wrong direction
• Went dress and shoe shopping because I didn't realize my dress for the wedding was technically white with a lot of blue print on it and because I didn't want to wear my heels since the weather said it was going to rain on Sunday (the wedding was at Central Park)
• We quickly realized that we're not in-person shoppers. We are 100% online shoppers, so we were so tired and cranky dealing with the hot sun and large crowds
• However, we went to Sephora and bought new foundation since we needed it lol
• Found a bingsoo place, but they only sold bingsoos on the weekends, so I got this strawberry matcha drink instead at Lazy Sundaes
• Bought an acai bowl on the way home as a healthy snack and loved it, especially that it's so close to our apartment
• Went to Gotham Comedy Club and had a blast with all six acts
• Finally played Catan: Cities and Knights! We didn't finish until 2:30 AM!

Friday, May 28th: 

• Originally had plans to go to Little Island in the morning, but we stayed inside for most of the morning because we came home so late lol
• Ordered another acai bowl and smoothie from the place nearby
• Met up with some of Archana's other friends for lunch at Emily, another noteworthy pizza place
• Found out that the Friends apartment building was nearby, so we walked there and took pics right before it started raining
• Stopped by and took pics in front of the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop because it was on the way to the subway lol
• Found out that we took the wrong train and discovered that we were one stop away from Central Station, so we took a detour there and explored the place
• Had a pleasant surprise in the dining area and found out that Magnolia's Bakery was there, so we ordered some of their famous banana pudding and a cookie
• Went home and enjoyed our snacks
• Found out that the noise that kept me awake early every morning wasn't our neighbor's pet but one of the windows in the bathroom! The lock was broken, so whenever it was really windy outside, it would push the window open a bit before closing, which caused that slamming noise! Archana stuck a towel in the crack and fixed the problem. What a genius lol
• Ended the night with warm milk and enjoying the view outside our window and laughing at how we were like old ladies, drinking milk on a Friday night in NY lmao but we were exhausted from the week, and it was so cold and rainy that we didn't want to go out

Saturday, May 29th: 

• Went to get my first facial and got suckered into getting the microdermabrasion package, so my face felt so smooth and amazing afterwards! My skin really needed it since I noticed my pores were really clogged after the first couple of days in NY
• Ordered banh mi from Saigon Shack again for brunch because Archana was still thinking about their amazing vegetarian banh mi lol
• Went on a hunt to find jackets since NY was a lot colder than we originally thought. Before we left, the lowest was supposed to be 68 degrees, but it was supposed to be 50 degrees the day of the wedding, so we didn't want to freeze lol
• Went to SuperDry, TJ Maxx, and headed towards Target to find any jacket, which was harder than we thought since it was technically spring in NY, and everything was light and summery
• Found the Pakistan Tea House that I was interested in going to if we had time on the way to Target. Found out it was really a restaurant because they only had two chai options lol. Either way, the chai was SO GOOD, especially because it was so cold outside that it immediately warmed us up :D
• Target was a bust, so we went back to SoHo because we knew there was a The North Face shop there that we passed before
• Finally found the jackets we were looking for and immediately put it on (I was just wearing my light rain jacket this whole time while Archana was wearing an oversized hoodie lol)
• Explored The Oculus since it was one of the stops on the way home
• Rested for an hour and tried our new makeup before going to the Color Factory and having a blast there! There were so many fun rooms to explore and take pics in! The ball pit was definitely the best part since you got to rest and play around in the pit for as long as you want lol
• Went to Chinatown to find this latte place that was known for its cute latte art only to find out that they lied and closed an hour earlier than what they put on Google Maps!
• However, we didn't need to use Google Maps to get home anymore because we knew the way back by then. That's how often we walked to Chinatown and back lol
• Went home and whined down with a warm cup of milk again lol

Sunday, May 30th: 

• Ordered bagels, packed a little bit, and got ready for the wedding!
• Took an Uber to Central Park and had the genius idea to only bring one umbrella, so we were both freezing and walking carefully through all of the puddles in the rain
• Luckily, the new location was under one of the tunnels, so a bunch of passerby's were also in the background lol
• Participated in the wedding and met a bunch of new people
• Took a lot of pics before deciding to have a late lunch with a large group at Ippudo, a popular ramen shop with good vegetarian options since almost half of the group were vegetarian lol

• While waiting for the food, we decided to make up questions for the wedding shoe game where the bride and groom have to hold both of each other's shoes and raise the shoe who they think is the one that best fits the question asked. We tried to come up with not boring, typically questions which was really hard when we were put on the spot at lunch lol
• Went home, changed, and rested for a little bit before going to the after party. I had to put more bandaids on my ankles because my sandals got wet and rubbed against them too much during the wedding earlier. Why am I so delicate??
• Went to the after party at a bar with all you can eat and drink
• Nishita hosted the wedding shoe game and made it interactive by having all of the other couples and guests ask the bride and groom questions, and every time they got different answers, they would have to take shots. If they got the same answers, everyone else had to take shots lol. In between questions, I had the thought that they looked so happy and immediately thought, "now, how do I make this controversial for the game?" Lol, so I asked them who was the happiest tonight thinking I would trip them up, but they both chose Saatvik! 
• Anyway, I had a good time talking to everyone and getting to know them some more before we left around 11:30 saying it was because we had a 9:30 AM flight lol. Our flight was at 11:30 AM but we had wanted to leave early anyway since we were peopled out and tired.
• Went back home and packed some more

Monday, May 31st: 

• Got up early at 6:30 to decide if we wanted to be cheap and take a long ride on the subway or be expensive and take a short Uber ride. We decided to be cheap since thought we could make it since it was only two stops from the airport
• Took the subway and only messed up once by missing our first stop because we weren't paying attention lol
• Landed back in Atlanta and took an Uber back to Archana's place
• Archana made chai and we chatted for a bit before I went home

What an eventful trip! This was also the longest trip I've ever been on, so I think we burned ourselves out at the beginning trying to do everything because we're so used to trying to cram our schedules full on short vacations. We really spent those next few days working remotely trying to recover from that weekend lol. 

I also realized that traveling with a friend is different from traveling with family and your significant other. Granted, it's because everyone has different travel/vacation styles, but Archana and I were really good travel buddies who complemented each other well. Archana likes suggesting a bunch of places and things to do to maximize our time here while I like to only choose a couple of places (usually food lol) as the key highlights for the day so that we have time to relax and can change plans if need be. And if we were cranky, it wasn't at each other like how we can be with family lol. It was usually because of the weather or being hangry lol.

I'm glad I went on this trip with Archana. It was really fun and made me realize a lot of stuff about myself and traveling. Oh yeah, did I mention that the only reason I went was because Archana realized that two of her exes and their significant others were going to be at the wedding, and she didn't want to go alone? Especially since one of those exes kept on calling her and telling her that he regretted their breakup even though he was living with his currently girlfriend? What a weirdo. I didn't have a chance to talk to him at the wedding or at the after party, so I don't really have much of an impression other than he was pretty outspoken and tall lol.