Wednesday night I took the Chinatown bus to New York to meet with Matthias from Jimdo, Malte from iliketotallyloveit.com, and hang out with Charles (who needs to update his photoblog). Over the course of the weekend, I also got to see David and Adrien, friends from when I went to high school at Lincoln in Portland. It's almost been 10 years since I've seen David...
The last few times I've been to New York, it's made me really thankful that I live in Philadelphia. There's so much going on, the crowds of people, the running around, and the sheer enormity of it all (not to mention the time spent on the subway getting from one place to another)... well, let's just say I would breathe a sigh of relief as I stepped off the bus in Philly.
This trip was different. For one, I stayed from Wednesday to Sunday with Charles, who moved about six months ago to a place by himself in Harlem around 145th St. That meant I had a lot more time to just wander around (hello Central Park on a sunny Thursday afternoon!), explore, and just enjoy everything.
The weather also made a difference. Fall is hands-down my favorite season. New York in the sweltering summer is sweaty, stinky, and smelly. It's all much more pleasant when the air is crisp and breeze is brisk.
David, Charles, and I embarked on a tour of Flushing street food, inspired by an article in the New York Times this summer on Chinese food in Queens. We had dumplings (the soupy & the fried kind), grilled meat on a skewer, scallion pancakes fresh off the skillet, and of course bubble tea. There's a handy map + food PDF that we printed out and used to guide us in our explorations. I'd definitely recommend it if you have some time in New York, and in case you're not up for taking the 7 all the way out to Flushing, there are some shuttles from Chinatown in Manhattan for something like $2.