new york city

last weekend i hopped on the double decker megabus up to new york city. true, it's a bus, but it only cost me $22.50 round trip. that's cheaper than tolls - or even gas at this point. plus the ride up was pretty empty and i read, and finished, twilight.

friday was spent doing what i love the most - frolicking around the city. i got a cheap manicure, strolled through the farmer's market, grabbed lunch, stumbled upon the grand opening of crumbs and got a cupcake (giant red velvet - it was alright), walked through central park and saw my cousin's gorgeous apartment on the upper east side. and that was just during while the sun was out. dinner plans were for the spotted pig, but we were too hungry to endure the two and half hour wait. instead we walked a few blocks over to the meatpacking district and grabbed dinner at spice market. the highlight of dinner was while we were waiting for a table at the bar - i asked for a glass of cava and got a glass of malbec instead. um, it's not even the same color. after dinner we grabbed a drink at gaslight (where ashley saw gg filming one night last summer). the cab ride home was spent singing subway commercials and tupac - good times.

what's the best thing to do on a cloudy saturday in new york? go shopping, of course! we walked up to bloomie's and went to town. seriously, i love that store. on the way back home we conveniently walked right by buttercup and picked up a box of cupcakes to snack on while we watched the uva game. i was initially thinking we might need those cupcakes to cheer us up when we got slaughtered by georgia tech, but what do you know - the hoos pulled out an upset!

dinner on saturday night was over in the east village at a cute little italian spot called paprika. kind of reminded me of locanda, but better. seeing as it was pouring we hopped in a cab and headed downtown. we didn't even make it five blocks before we rear ended another cab and were stuck in the middle of an intersection. and the best part? this is not the first time i've been in an accident in a cab. ugh.

so we finally made it to our destination and got a table by the window (not really a great night for that since the rain was coming down so hard - oh well). but, the food was well worth the trouble getting to the restaurant. fresh pasta with delicious homemade sauces - definitely my kind of place. and luckily we were getting penn state updates all throughout dinner since there was no tv to be seen.

after dinner we headed back uptown to nikki beach - a club modeled after the one down in south beach. we got the mojitos flowing and then there was dancing on tables and then it was definitely time to go home. luckily the rain had finally stopped by then.

sunday morning in new york city - of course we went to brunch. down on irving place is the homey looking friend of a farmer. it's a tiny spot and the line to get in was down the block. although being a group of three (and willing to sit outside) allowed us to bypass almost everyone in line. we were seated in no time and had a plate of cornbread and chunky applesauce waiting for us. first up - coffee. in a french press! wonderful. and the food was delicious - eggs benedict, eggs, pancakes, pumpkin pancakes, sausage, potatoes - the food just kept coming.

but then it was time for me to travel back to dc. my trip up was so smooth so by default the way back had to be disastrous, right? i got there early hoping to catch an earlier bus, but there wasn't one. so i hung around and got in line to get on the dc bus. the buses pulled in early but they waited to board them until right before we were supposed to leave. big mistake. the bus employees are pretty much incompetent and kept shuffling people around on the two different buses (one went to baltimore and one all the way to dc).

so we finally got moving only to stop at a gas station in jersey to switch drivers. then some little french girl got up and asked the bus driver if he could play a movie. well you have to listen to the little french girl, right? so we sat at the rest stop for thirty minutes while the idiot bus driver tried to figure out how to turn the movie on. with the movie on we finally got moving again. but the icing on the cake was that the bathroom on the bus was all clogged up. let's just say i had to hold it for a long time.

next up: homecoming(s) in charlottesville! it's gonna be great - but can it top last year? we'll have to wait and see...