New. York. City. Just listen to Jay-Z and Alicia Key’s “Empire State of Mind (Part I & II)” and you will have so many travel tips packaged in a song you can follow to a jamming beat! Be ready, there is so much to do in the gigantic City of New York (as Columbia U likes to write) and you will need a lot of energy and patience.
I recommend these 9 Things You Must Do in One Day, but I also needed the following to quickly speed through the city in 13 hours from 11 AM to 12 Midnight:
The Uber & Lyft apps, and fearlessness to deal with NYC Yellow Taxis (don’t forget to tip and make sure the child security locks are not on for safety)
2 NYC Metro Cards (sometimes one doesn’t work / 2 USD per ride one way)
Comfortable yet FASHIONABLE shoes to walk fast in and take photos
Remember to remind your friends, new contacts, about your visit often, because NYC life is crazy busy, they may forget or be too late to see you. Hold them accountable. Time is NYC is precious and expensive, especially for a traveller.
Now, let’s step back in time and relive my joyful bright day!
1. Wake up and get Brunch in the Flatiron District
In the morning, I wake up on the Amtrak train from Alexandria, Virginia, work out with the super-elite and Instagram persona trainers in the Meatpacking District. Then I rush over to meet reporter, businesswoman, and marathon runner, Monette Rivera, usually seen on TV especially ABS-CBN (a leading media firm from the Philippines.)
2. Picture at the Flatiron Building and the Empire State Building
We stroll out of Eataly, the popular affordable luxury food market and snap photos in the sunshine. I desperately try to get an Empire State pic next to a barricade (mess). Then try the Flatiron building and it’s shady, so I have to share with you the pic from 2014 haha.
3. Eat at the 1st Shake Shack in Madison Square Park
I used to spend so much time eating here before it went global, with so many friends visiting me. Thank you for helping me eat myself to sleep next to Gisele’s house and hanging with socialite Cathy C. (I'm using a vintage 2014 picture, because it symbolises my skinny ass, back in the day, basically living there lol. Thank you Shake Shack!)
4. Pictures at Grand Central Station
The most recent film I saw featuring Grand Central, in all its glory, was The Sun is Also a Star with Charles Melton and Yara Shahidi. This is where you can find the train to New England (the American region Providence, Yale, Boston, and Nantucket are nestled
5. Lunch near Grand Central Station with all the New Yorkers at UrbanSpace Vanderbilt. Here you can find over 20 different videos catering to your various lunch needs, from Filipino food to sangria in plastic cups, to 50 USD lobster rolls for one person, this joint is wild. Everyone is wearing a suit and ordering pizza and lobster. Yes, to you all not sleeping at work.
6. See the world-renowned Art at The Met
Wow, wow, wow, The Met is New York’s Louvre (Paris). Also, the Met is where the incredible Met Gala is hosted every year by Vogue, and so many celebrities and leaders attend.
7. Visit the Met’s stunning Met rooftop and city skylines
Here is where you can finally take a chill pill after running all over the city. It has a glamorous video but you need an IG boyfriend/IG husband/Instagram boyfriend/Instagram husband (hand hurts writing that, thanks to all the men out there who take my IG pics) to really understand our angles and be patient with multiple people, trying to copy my exact spot. hehe.
8. Hang with New Yorkers - basically friends doing big things. Proud of you all! (We forgot the group picture because we had too much fun catching up!
So on my US tour, I organized a tour for myself to reconnect with so many American based friends, so I planned a big gathering in NYC and luckily so many beautiful friends showed up on a MONDAY night, straight from work or hooking up. Thank you all for joining me!
Writer, Producer, and Model, Kenya Denise Anderson (https://www.dominosound.co/)
Urban planner, singer, and ultra-marathon runner, Jim Diego (Interview: https://www.facebook.com/asianamericanlife/videos/458434181496697/)
Actress Wunmi Fowora & Filmmaker Tracy Ofosuhene (https://livingwithstrangerstv.com/production-team)
9. Late Night food from Chinatown, Flushing, Queens, New York City
My get together ended at 12 midnight exactly, haha with my friends, especially from Virginia and the University of Virginia, going wild, talking loudly, people at The Standard Biergarten, kept trying to sit away from us or seemed to speak so quietly.
(No pic cause the food and left the leftovers in Hell's Kitchen to leave for New Haven, Connecticut, my bad P.M. haha)
Alright, let’s see what Day Two has to offer at the end of the month! Night! Suenos!
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