Well… We did it!! Tatiana and I did it!! We successfully made it to New York for a weekend {that just so happened to also be my birthday weekend} and we made it back in time for classes on Monday.
Thursday {my birthday} was not spent how a “normal person” would celebrate their birthday in New York, but for me it was perfect. Tati and I had our flight out of Dallas around six and landed around nine at night. To say the least, the traffic getting out of the airport in an Uber was NOT ideal. By 10:30 we arrived at my guncles, got ourselves some New York styled pizza just down the street, got showered, and then watched Netflix until we went to sleep.
Friday we woke up semi early {ish}, got ready for the day, and then headed just downstairs for breakfast at Citizens of Chelsea. Lemme tell you, if you are looking for a spot to look trendy and post Instas of, THAT IS YOUR PLACE… Not to mention, the food and frose was delicious {even if it was pricey af}. You can see more about the food and aesthetics on my New York: Food & Style Guide if you’re interested.
Once we finished breakfast, we decided to start our exploring {but mainly wandering}. We walked to the big arch at Washington Square Park, hung out in the fountain, walked some more, managed to make our way to Milk {they have gluten free truffle balls!!}, got Starbucks because we had to be basic with our Milk balls and a pink drink, and headed back to the apartment.
Now — Call us lame if you want, BUT we did take a nap… Yes, we went to NYC and watched Netflix {I highly recommend the Dynasty series} and napped a lot of the time, BUT it was only to prepare us for the nights to come. We got ready for our 7:30 dinner reservations at TAO and then indulged. Lemme tell yah, if you haven’t been to TAO and you’re willing to spend some good money on some yummy food and drinks with a fun ambiance, you should check it out {pssst: another secret about TAO in New York is they have a lil room // bar upstairs that they put “reserved” tags on tables; however, it’s just to fool you. Anybody can sit down at those tables because it’s first come, first serve but nobody knows about it… I only know because the bouncer told me}.
Oh, ALSO, Tatiana managed to rip her skirt {almost in half haha} so our plans to go to a cute rooftop bar following dinner turned out to be us actually going back to the apartment and pregaming until her lil sister came. If you’re looking for a “low cal” alcoholic beverage and don’t just like vodka water, I’m going to fill you in on my secret. WOW GUYS, I’M JUST SPILLING THE BEANS IN THIS POST!!
New drink alert:
☆ Vodka
☆ Water
☆ Tons of Ice
☆ Raspberry lemonade Crystal Light
☆ BLEND THAT BABY UP!!
I swear, that drink that I just gave you the recipe for above, straight up tastes like candy!! For that reason though, be careful to keep track of all that you’re actually drinking, because it could be dangerous. It is however approved by me {who hates the taste of alcohol}, Tatiana {who thrives primarily on tequila}, and Anastasia {who walked in the door as we were having our second glass of slush}.
Our night was spend out at bars in Brooklyn; however, going out in New York ain’t cheap… We went to some bar // club in Brooklyn that was called Output and it costs $40 just to get in {even if you are a girl} and then $15 for just a vodka water {which tasted like trash}. Don’t get me wrong though, the place was super cool and kinda exclusive because you’re basically banned from taking photos or videos when you’re inside; however, it also has a secondary room and rooftop bar that if you’ve never been there, you probably wouldn’t find. For those of you who may go after seeing this post, you have to walk outside {not the way you walked in} where two more bouncers are and where people are allowed to smoke. There’s a fence that you have to walk around and then before you know it, you’re walking into another hall into another room that has techno {Ibiza vibes} music playing and if you keep walking around that room you’ll wind up at some more stairs that will ultimately lead you to the rooftop bar.
We didn’t get back to the apartment until around FIVE IN THE FREAKIN MORNING!!
Saturday we spent the majority of the day {once we had woken up and semi revived from the night before} in Brooklyn. Around eleven in the morning, we made it to Sunday in Brooklyn {a cute lil brunch spot}; however, the wait was about an hour and a half SOOO we decided to walk around. I don’t know how we did it, but we managed to walk over a mile away from the restaurant BUT we also managed to walk toward a place that I had sent to Tati on Insta-G just weeks before our trip.
Yes — For those of you who kept up with my Instas and Snapchat, we did get something permanent to mark our 10+ years of friendship… To those of you freaking out {aka my parents} about it being another tattoo, it was NOT a tattoo!! I had stumbled upon a blogger’s post a few weeks back that lead me to a place called Catbird. The little boutique jewelry store has some of the daintiest jewelry I have ever seen, but they also have a little welding shop that you can get a 14k gold bracelet welded onto your wrist. For $102 {that included our tax}, Tatiana and I got small gold bracelets “zapped” onto our wrists. Now, we have something that will last forever and never come off {unless we use pliers to cut them} and something that will remind us of our second trip to New York together.
After we got our bracelets, we were off to our brunch again and ready to indulge in filling food and tons of water… CLICK HERE to find out if the wait was actually worth the food.
Once we were done with food and Tati and I realized we had no “going out clothes” that we wanted to wear, we thought it may be a good time to head back to Manhattan. We walked for what seemed like forever and may or may not have gotten lost trying to find the Brooklyn Bridge, BUT when we finally found it, we started making our way across it. To those of you who see bloggers and Instagram influencers post pics on the bridge, I swear I have NO idea how they take their pictures!!
First of all, to the people who sit on the bridge itself, there are cops watching and yelling at you if you sit on anything except a bench… Trust me, I am guilty of being yelled at because I wanted to get a cute pic. Also, to the people who get pictures without other people in them, how is that freakin possible?!? I felt like I was a sardine going upstream and the two times I tried to put up my arm for a picture, I whacked people in the face {oops}. If you haven’t seen my Insta by now though, we FINALLY got a cute pic!!
Once again, once we made it back to to the apartment, we got back into jammies to watch an episode of Dynasty {while sippin on some Veuve} and then got ready for our dinner reservations at The Standard Highline {I highly recommend their tomato salad}. Because our plan was to have a pretty mellow night where we just got to dress up and look cute, I finally got to wear one of my favorite dresses my mama got me!! It was a blue suede dress by BCBG that I got when I was turning 21 and it had two layers of fringe.
After two drinks, you best believe that we talked ourselves into going out. We had Ana go a little ahead of us {because she was also using Tatiana’s ID} and then we met her up in Le Bain which is quite an interesting bar. When I went there for my first time last year, I could’ve sworn that everybody was on some kinda drugs, but the view was incredible. I would honestly just recommend you check it out for the view. OMG ANOTHER SECRET!! If the bouncers are only letting people in who are on a list, don’t try using some generic name {the people in front of us said their friend James has a table}, try just saying “oh my sister is up there with the people were meeting,” but if that doesn’t work, don’t blame me {it worked for us lol}.
In less than thirty minutes, we were over Le Bain ANDDDD BRIANNA MONDY was waiting for us downstairs to go to another club. Again, it was kinda irrelevant because we didn’t last longer than an hour there but we managed to scoot in with some girl who said we could be on her list. We got drankssss, jammed to music, witnessed some pretty weird things, and then headed back to the apartment to chill and hang out until bedtime {2:30 am… early for NY, I know}.
At nine in the morning, Ana was on her way to meet up with one of her friends and Tatiana and I were headed to meet Bri at another restaurant I found just clicking around on Insta: While We Were Young. The food was incredible, but again way overpriced if you wanna read about it, it’s on my other blog {link post}, but if you do find yourself going, I HIGHLY recommend the truffle fries… THOSE WERE DANKKKK!!
Following breakfast, Bri had to go do “big girl things” like do work and Tatiana and I were on a mission to get some pictures in Time Square and get another touristy sweatshirt. Surprisingly we didn’t manage to find the sweatshirts we wanted BUT we did manage to get some pics, see some weird people in Times Square {aka topless girls with thongs on and paint all over their bodies}, and witness a ton of cops with guns run around while a bunch of people looked confused {including us}. We also managed to get one more thing of Milk truffles before we headed back to the apartment to pack up for our early flight in the morning and dinner with the guncles.
Wow, oh wow. All I can say {continuously} is I LOVE YOU NEW YORK and I canNOT wait to visit again. Currently looking for potential jobs there BUT who knows where I’ll end up at this pace because I definitely do NOT want to live in a shoe box {lol}.
Next stop: AUSTIN, TEXAS!!
Although it’s not for two weeks, I can’t wait to keep y’all updated on my third time at Austin City Limits!! If you have any recommendations, don’t be afraid to slide in the DMs.
xoxo V
