Tag Archives: New York City

Croatia – Dubrovnik Day 15

Posted on by
Reply

This day was basically spent traveling. Got the free breakfast from my hotel (scrambled eggs and chicken sausage, which was meh since it wasn’t hot). Then Checked out of my hotel at 10am and took an Uber to the Airport.

Ok, most stressful airport experience so far (not because of anything COVID related, but because of waiting and so many checkpoints). Here’s the breakdown (FYI this flight is going from DBV to JFK using Delta Airlines):

10:50 – arrive at airport and got in line for boarding pass (while in line they ask you if you did a COVID test (but they don’t check) and to fill out this attestation form: https://www.delta.com/us/en/travel-planning-center/know-before-you-go/attestation)

11:43 – got boarding pass and went to passport gate control (I didn’t get asked to show my COVID test when I got my boarding pass, but the person beside me had to show theirs on their phone)

12:05 – went through passport gate control and went in line for security baggage check

12:12 – finished with security and went to actual passport control (no line)

12:17 – in line for last checkpoint (for US bound flights only). They asked if I bought anything. I said a t-shirt

Did create the Defected Spotify playlist as I waited: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1bFR61TYCVfytsvcSASNix?si=Nx404zKNSX2zl4N7afw_xw&dl_branch=1

In short, I see why some people say you need 3 hours at the airport for international flights. If I did 2 hours, I would’ve missed my flight.

It is also interesting to note that at the gate, there is a cafe bar to get coffee, beer, Prosecco, whisky, etc. Super glad that was there.

The flight itself was pretty standard. 2 meals, pillow and blankets, free unlimited whisky, and watching Below Decks.

Got to JFK 30 minutes a head of schedule. Global Entry was super fast (they now have facial recognition. No need to use a card!).

Chilled at the Wingtips lounge at terminal 4 for a couple of hours (needed to drink 3 lattes to help keep awake because of the time change). Then proceeded to the gate for my flight to SFO!

New York City 2019

Posted on by
Reply

I landed in New York City on a Monday in JFK, and headed to Manhattan to meet Ben at his place that is right beside the Empire State Building first pic below is his view).

From his place we went a bit south to a restaurant called Society Cafe: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2019/12/04/the-social-cafe/

After, we walked back to his place, but passing Madison Square Park.

The next day I checked into my hotel, called The Avalon. Then I headed over to Hudson Yard, where I spent a lot of time at the Vessel (but before reaching the Vessel, I checked out the Old Penn station building, which is now a post office, and passed by Madison Square Gardens).

Then I grabbed lunch at Wild Ink over at the shops at Hudson Yard, and also did some shopping: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2019/12/04/wild-ink/

Plus had a snack at Shake Shack and a mocha at Blue Bottle: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2019/12/04/shake-shack-hudson-yard/

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2019/12/04/blue-bottle-hudson-yard/

After Hudson yard, I grabbed dinner at Momofuku Noodle bar: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2019/12/04/momofuku-noodle-bar/

Next day, I started the day late (mainly since I was in the ga area the previous night, where it was surprisingly happening on a Tuesday), and did AYCE at a Japanese / Korean restaurant: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2019/12/04/ichi-umi/

From there, I checked out the MOMA for and hour (they give you a discounted ticket if you go at that time).

After the MOMA, I met up with some friends at the meat packing district area, where we grabbed dinner at a place called Hudson Clearwater: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2019/12/04/hudson-clearwater/

From there we barhopped. We started at a place called Employees only at the meat packing district, then went to an arcade bar called ____ at lower east village (we actually spent quite a bit of time at this bar because of the beer pong arcade game. The drinks there though were not good).

We ended off the night near my hotel in K town, where we found a korean club (one floor up from the karaoke bar), where they had too 40 edm music, with a lot of ppl (girl to guy ratio was 3:2, and it was mostly Koreans).

New York City, third day

Posted on by
Reply

Started off this day by doing an unexpected check in to a hotel right across the street from our previous hotel, the Royalton. The hotel we checked into was the City Club hotel. Gotta say that the hotel room at the City Club is actually better than the previous hotel, but the lobby was not as nice.

Started the day around 5:30pm, and ate at this place before we headed off to a show on Broadway:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2018/11/19/real-kung-fu-little-steamed-buns-ramen/

The show we ended up seeing is The Lifespan of a Fact. The showed starred Daniel Radcliffe, and was about facts vs. perception vs truths. The show was in Studio 54, which I though was very cool. At the end of the show, Daniel Radcliffe came out for autographs.

We ended the night at a bar called Rosie O’Grady’s for a quick drink before heading off to the airport (EWR).

New York City, second day

Posted on by
Reply

This day was probably the most fun day I’ve had in New York.

For the entire afternoon we spent our time in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met). We had a great time looking at all different types of art from various eras (Greek, European, Egyptian). I gotta say, the European section was the best part based on how we were feeling 😉

After the Met, we went to this place for dinner:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2018/11/19/chikarashi/

After dinner, we went to pick up some hard liquor at a Wine and Liquor store around broadway and 22nd (note that in New York City, hard liquor is not usually available in grocery stores. We also found the price is kinda expensive compared to California).

For most of the night we spent at our friend Jonathan’s place for a pre-Thanksgiving party (Sam was DJing and there were a couple of kegs plus rage cafe and beer pong).

After around 12am we headed over to a place called House of Yes in Brooklyn. It was sort of a burning man type crowd. From what I remember, it was pretty crowded, but I would check out it again (they usually have themes every single weekend. We were definitely not dressed up for the occasion).

At the end of the night, we went to a pizza place called Artichoke Basille pizza where we got some artichoke pizza (also in Brooklyn). It was great, from what I remember .

New York City, first day

Posted on by
Reply

Our hotel when we arrived in Manhattan was located in midtown, which is great since it is pretty central to everything (Time Square, Empire State, Central Park, etc). It was called the Royalton.

(FYI, we did arrive in New York, Long Island at 2am of this day and stayed at the La Quinta hotel, but nothing notable about it except the hotel had a horrible bed, and the towels were not soft… but it was cheap at only $100 a night).

We started off the day going to Korea town and eating at a place called Her Name is Han. At this restaurant, we met David Schwimmer!:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2018/11/19/her-name-is-han/

We then explored a bit in Korea Town, stopping by Food Gallery 32 (a Korean cafeteria with different vendors), and then got dessert at this place:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2018/11/19/grace-street-coffee-and-desserts/

After, we headed to Central Park, and walked around (started around 86th st and made our way down).

After Central Park, we briefly stopped by Times Square. We saw Bryan Cranston while we passed by the theater were he was doing show (he starts the play by barging from the outside).

After Time Square we went to the lower East Side, where met up with our friend Mike (whose lives in New York for 5 months), and checked out a couple of bars. The most notable one is this one:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2018/11/19/bar-goto/

Afterwards, we met up with some friends at Cooper’s Craft and Kitchen for drinks.

Then we attempted to go to Marquee, where Quinto was playing. It the tickets were $60, or $500 for bottle service. Since it was already 2:30am (and I’m they close at 4am), we thought it was not worth it. We then attempted Terminal 5 where San Holo was playing, it they closed early at 1am!

That’s its for day 1.