Visiting NYC for the first time as a Vermonter
Hi everyone!
Ya’ll asked me to do a write up when I got back from my NYC trip to let you know how I felt about the city coming from a town of 500 in Vermont.
It was simply…incredible.
My best friend and I came down here to do an event with a woman’s snowboarding group in Jersey. I’ve never been to NYC so she insisted we go and frankly, I’ve always been intimidated by the city so I was a bit nervous. I saved up my tips from work for 6 months so we could “experience” NYC. We didn’t stay in NYC though, we stayed in Hoboken at a hotel that I still cannot comprehend. The W is easily the nicest place I’ve ever been to. My friend had a bunch of credits so we got to experience cocktails at their bar where Peter and Jose us the best drinks I’ve ever had. This hotel even changes the rugs three times a day in the elevator to say Good Morning, Good Afternoon and Good Evening.
We were a five minute walk to PATH so we took that over to Manhattan which was SO COOL! We do not have cool public transportation in VT like that and I have epilepsy so it’s neat to not need a car. We went to diner at The Chemistry Room and had a 12 course Omakase meal that I’m still trying to understand because the flavors were mind blowing, and an incredible smoked old fashioned. We were initially going to see The Book of Mormon, but the theater had an electrical fire and they canceled our tickets! We ended up getting last minute tickets to see Wicked though and I have zero regrets. We sat in the very front row and I could see every facial expression and hear everything in the orchestra and it was just a very special experience. We walked around Manhattan after that and ended up at a ramen place that I cannot quite remember the name of because it was all a whirlwind, but the ramen was quite tasty! We ended up getting home at midnight because we had our snowboarding event the next morning at 8am at Big Snow.
Big Snow is actually pretty neat. It was a bit odd coming go from VT to that… but it was perfect for needing to get your snowboard on when there ‘t any snow around. I even ended up doing some boxes for the first time. Enough about Jersey though, let’s get back to NYC!
We got home from Big Snow, showered and got ready and then headed down to use our 100$ credit at the bar. We met really cool people and befriended our bartenders and ended up being there for almost 3 hours. Then we realize how late it was and I had to get the The Station which is a dispo here in Hoboken because I needed to give the front desk attendant some home grown bud from VT. Then we hopped on PATH and headed to Brooklyn.
My friend had never been to Brooklyn and my Step Grandpa played for The Brooklyn Dodgers so I figured we must experience it. It was SO COOL!! We first went to the Brooklyn Brewery (I run a brewery in VT so I had to experience it) and that was lovely and everyone treated us so well. Then we went walking and I noticed a birria place. I haven’t had birria since I visited Chula Vista years ago so I pretty much shoved my friend in the door and we ended up waiting for almost 40 minutes for food and my friend told me it better be worth it. Holy crap, I had a spiritual experience with this food. The restaurant was Birria L.E.S. and we got a burrito, consume, a surf and turf taco and churros. Whoaaaaaa food had no right to be that good. We left there to get back to the train because it was around midnight and I realized I hadn’t eaten pizza yet in New York!!! We stopped at the first place I saw, Joes Pizza, and that was a fabulous slice of pepperoni. I ate it on the way to the subway and we hopped on the train and headed back to our hotel.
I had a magical experience in New York City. Every single person we met wa incredibly kind and hospitable. I waved at probably 100+ people and almost all of them waved back. I got called baby girl in an endearing way probably 15 times by random humans who seemed so kind. I chatted with strangers and found out life stories and got into a compliment war with a stranger in the bathroom. I‘m so grateful for the experience I had in your city and I am so thankful for your hospitality and amazing food. NYC was a 15/10 experience and I will dream of coming back one day.