these streets will make you feel brand new.

the city may never sleep, but we sure did after an exhausting (but amazing) whirlwind trip to new york.

i wont bore you with every detail of our five day urban vacation, but here are the highlights - and yes, there is a LOT of eating!

the apartment.

we stayed in a beautiful, very lovely apartment in the east village that we found and rented through airbnb. i know airbnb has suffered a bit of slack lately for one incident, but i can't say enough good things about our experience. the apartment was amazing, and much, much larger than i would have ever dreamed for nyc! if you're going anytime soon, i highly recommend it. it was close to the east village, west village, soho, st mark's place...oh and the subway was literally a block away. perfection.

high line park.

after reading about it and watching the ted talk, i was worried i'd gotten my hopes up. i mean, come on, an abandoned railway above the city that they'd finally started turning into a park? it was spectacular. greenery everywhere (okay, tourists everywhere too!) and great views of the city. i don't know many people who have visited nyc that have visited the high line - but do it!!! it's so great. and the second section of it just opened recently, so it was good timing for us to go and walk it.

the food.

we ate so, so much. but we got so many great recos from friends, that we really wanted to try as much as we could! we didn't have a bad meal! one thing i really wasn't expecting is how busy EVERYTHING is. like, do i have a reservation? on a tuesday night? um. nope. and that was for the restos that took reservations. many didn't, so we devised a plan - we'd either eat before we headed to the restaurants and be able to wait patiently (with a semi-full belly). or be a total old couple and go earlier than the masses, which generally meant arriving before 8pm. here's a run down of the restos and what i'd reco you order:

katz's deli - here's my reco: don't go! we had mixed feelings from friends on this one. the mister's friends said it was a must, mine not so much. in truth, it is a huge tourist trap. very chaotic and very overpriced. but the deli was literally on the corner of our street, so it was a quick stop for us.

stanton social  - may have been one of the most delicious places we ate. the baby back ribs and the kobe sliders? amazing.

momofuku - pork bun. god, i'm still dreaming about it.

spotted pig - the jumbo bottle of pear cider, and the burger.

pastis - french toast. phenomenal. though, i should stay this french resto came highly recommended for anything brunch.

grimaldi's - you all know about it. just cross the bridge to brooklyn and wait your turn in the very long line. worth every minute.

baked by melissa - i know there are many, many more famous and more highly recommended places to get a sweet treat in the city (and you can thank sex in the city for that!), but these little shops have the most delicious bite-sized cupcakes. fav? cookies and cream.

city bakery - pretzel croissant. it was reco'd to me. it's very strange. but still very good.

van leeuwen aritsan ice cream truck - if you see this truck, you MUST get ice cream! it's honestly the best i've ever had, and you KNOW i know my ice cream! i'm partial to the chocolate, but everything was good. it was so creamy that it didn't even feel cold in my mouth. ugh. i'm drooling just thinking about it.

top of the standard hotel - we didn't actually eat here, but we had some drinks. (full disclosure: we had ONE drink, because the cocktails were $20 bucks a piece). this place had the most amazing views of the city! more amazingly, the bathrooms had the best view of manhattan. your toilet faces a full-length glass window that overlooks the city! very, very surreal. but beautiful. while we didn't seem to have any problems getting in, apparently the door staff are quite particular. if you're going to go, you'd better get yourselves snazzy! :)

white castle - okay, let's be real, this wouldn't really be on my recommends list. but this was my FIRST white castle trip, ever!!! and even better? we saw this...

yes, my friends. she is asleep at a white castle!

the moma.

there was a great exhibition, talk to me, but even cooler is the fact that they have the original drawings and mock-ups for the i love new york designs there. worth the admission alone.

morrison hotel gallery.

next to the old cbgb, there is a gallery dedicated to music photography. some of the industry's most infamous snaps are in there - jim morrison's classic pose as well as kurt cobain and those white sunglasses everyone remembers. a sad note, the cgbg next door is now a clothing store. worse still, and i can't decide if they were trying to be classy about it or not, but they've left a lot of the old memorabilia from the walls and the old gig posters. it's pretty depressing to know something that was so iconic ended up like this. i'd be mortified if the elmo or the 'shoe suffered the same fate in toronto.

alright. this post ended up being far longer than i'd intended - i mean, i did tell you that i wasn't going to bore you with all of the details! (in fairness, i didn't even mention half of the other places we went, if you can believe it!) our feet and our legs are very, very happy to be home. and our hearts are very hopeful that everyone in nyc will make it through the hurricane a-ok.

more pics on flickr.