What’s a travel vlog in written form? Is it just a travel blog? I don’t know if that’s what I’m going for here. City Diaries is what I’ll call them I think. Yeah.
*record scratch*
Welcome to the first installment of the City Diaries! For the past four days I’ve been gallivanting around New York City with my girlfriend, Olivia. We drove from Pittsburgh to Manhattan last Friday and I’m sadly constructing this post while we make the long trek back towards home. Instead of settling back in Pittsburgh though, we’re skipping town to Cleveland and yet another wrestling show because we’re certifiably insane at this point. Plus Olivia hails from Ohio and won’t let me forget it (Ohio sucks!) But anyways let’s get into New York shall we? Below you’ll find my trip broken down into days with all my favorite things that made this weekend so special.
Day One(ish)- Friday January 21, 2022.
Song(s) of the day: Tis the Damn Season- Taylor Swift; Weekend- Priory
Significant events include: New York at night.
Friday started off like an ordinary day. I woke up and went to school. I. went. To. School. On the precipice of what was to be the best weekend of my life I went to school! Disgusting. Anyways. I slugged through all my classes and seven hours and one APUSH exam later, Olivia finally picks me up and we’re off!!
The drive itself was uneventful unless you take into account that my girlfriend is the definition of a reckless driver and breaks five speeding laws a day. The five hours seemed to drag on endlessly if not for the lovely sounds of our hearts beating too fast, Taylor Swift blaring in the background, and the promise of the next four days ahead of us.
We touch ground in New York at 7 something in the evening, and I don’t think I took a breath that entire night. I haven’t mentioned it on here yet but I am a huge city person. There’s nothing in the world that will ever give me the same feeling as being in the city. So to end up in New York? To roll in when it’s dark and all the lights are on… suddenly I can’t breathe.
We check into the hotel and we’re off again. We walk to the Manhattan Center and I nearly collapse on the spot (see January 23). We walk more, no idea where we’re headed actually, and then all of a sudden I’m staring right at The New Yorker. Not the actual New Yorker, just The New Yorker hotel but still! It’s the fucking New Yorker. And it’s real and it exists and instantly my whole life made sense to me. I mean it’s very obviously my life’s purpose. I was standing on the middle of the sidewalk, thinking, dreaming, staring. I get into this trance and then I can picture myself. Big time writer in New York, nice apartment, dream life, working at the real New Yorker (not the hotel), and when I snap out of it everything comes crashing down and oh my god I’m in New York.
It’s Chick Fil A in the hotel for dinner because despite all our excitement we’re still in a new place and we’re still young girls in the city and.. well you know. In all our excitement we forgot we have to be careful. Whatever people suck.
We decide we can’t be confined to the hotel anymore and out we go again. We drive this time, looking around and slowly making mental lists of things we want to do, retiring to the hotel room no earlier than midnight.
We didn’t do much, but the first night in New York was completely overwhelming and I swore up and down that I would never feel as good as I did then ever again. But then the sun rose on the next day and…. Well you know…
Day two-Saturday January 22, 2022
Song(s) of the day- Life in the city-The Lumineers
Significant events- Target in Times Square, late-night bagels.
It’s an ordinary Saturday except I woke up in New York. In a hotel room with my best friend, I opened the curtains and the whole city was right there. It was right there in front of us!
Today’s plan was simple: Times Square.
Times Square is one of those places you know exists and you know what it is and what it’s about, but when you’re standing on the red stairs looking around at everything… to put it simply you don’t really know about Times Square until your in it.
After a 35 minute wait for coffee our next move was very simple. The destination in question? Target. Yeah yeah I know “You have Targets at home.” Well guess what mother, this one was different. Every couple has their “thing” and mine and Olivia’s just happens to be Target dates every Friday. The Target in Times Square was insane. To everyone else it‘s just an overly busy, crowded, regular old Target. But as I’ll come to mention again, everything is better in New York. We spent a solid two hours there sort of forgetting everything else around us.
When we finally walk back out the feeling hits all over again and I have to pinch myself for the thousandth time because oh my god I’m in New York. Over the course of the day I swear we pop in every single shop in Times Square. We feast at Mexicue and their out of this world D.I.Y tacos, and follow it up with cheesecake at Junior’s ohhhhh yeah. All of the travel blogs that told you they have the best cheesecake? They’re right.
At this point we’re exhausted and hop a subway back to the hotel. It’s eight something at night and when we get back to the hotel, we take one look out the window-we’re eye-level with Manhattan- and we’re back outside again.
Our next exertion leads us back on the subway and just over a half an hour later we stop in Queens. And you know what happened next? BAGELS.
Bagels at quarter til ten at night. This is the shit I live for guys. We get our bagels and walk and talk, Queens is absolutely wonderful and I wish we had more time to spend there.It was one of those rare moments where everything else just stopped. It was just me and her (and our bagels) and for just a little while I allowed myself to entertain the idea that life could feel like this all the time.
It was the dictionary definition of a perfect day. I didn’t know such a day even existed. My heart had never been fuller and for the first time in over a year my chest didn’t hurt to breathe. Again it’s after midnight when we finally settle down for the night, and it was the best nights sleep I had in months. The impending excitement of the day to follow loomed in the distance, and in a random hotel in the middle of Manhattan, five hours away from Pittsburgh, I realized I felt more at home then I ever have in my own house.
Day three- January 23, 2022
Song of the day- We Built this City-Starship
Significant event: The Wrld on GCW.
IT’S HAMMERSTEIN DAY BABYYYYYY. I’m not going to spend too much time talking about the event and instead will link the article where you can read alll abut that event (hehe).
I woke up that morning completely buzzed. The restless feeling of having a wrestling show later that day hit me as soon as the alarm went off and immediately my leg was bouncing and my head was spinning. We decide to just head out and walk around, no specific plan because I was two seconds from collapsing the entire day. Let me tell you overcast days in New York are gorgeous. We bop around Manhattan and then head back on over to Times Square. Eventually we end up back around the Manhattan Center and we find THE COOKIE DOUGH BAR. Heaven on Earth man.
After the best wrestling show I’ve ever been to and losing my girlfriend to Nick Gage (lesbians for MDK), I found myself outside the Manhattan Center once again, this time a changed woman. Maybe that’s a liiiittle dramatic, but my life will forever be defined by pre-Hammerstein and post-Hammerstein. Again, maybe that’s a littttle dramatic.
Day Four- January 24, 2022
Song of the day- We Built this City- Starship (but sadder this time)
Significant event- uhhh we were supposed to leave this morning.
The plan was to drive back home today but Olivia conveniently forgot to sleep last night and we’re only half alive at this point anyways. Sooooo we stay a whole extra day and make the plan to just drive straight to Cleveland on Tuesday. Thank god for online school am I right? (Spongebob fish yells, “Boo you stink!”)
There wasn’t much to this day- we were beyond exhausted. But we did walk around some more of course, trying to soak up every last minute we had left. A car ride through Manhattan ends our night and we’ve already begun the daunting task of reminiscing on the weekend.
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Honestly looking back on it it’s kind of a blur. The whole weekend really. I can remember every tiny detail and yet it all seems foreign and far away. All I can say is I’m so incredibly grateful for this weekend. After everything that’s happened and all of the things I’ll have to go through going forward, I couldn’t have needed this weekend anymore. I know I’ll spend whatever time I have left chasing that feeling.
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