New York, New York
Summer 2017 I came up with the bright idea to take crazy annual trips for my birthday. I called it, Aneissapalooza. My first Palooza was to the big apple with my sister and my two BFFs. We have some absolutely crazy stories about that week, four days of complete madness, we only slept eleven hours total! As always there are three things I want to experience when I travel: the grub, the atmosphere, and something new. Let’s start with the food of the city that never sleeps.
New York food:
All four of us girls on this trip had one thing we absolutely had to do while we were in New York. My palooza bucket list included food of course. I had to go to the original Carlo’s Bakery in Hoboken (where the empire began) to indulge in my first ever cannoli. July 4, 2017, at 7:00 am we walk up the bakery that usually has a line wrapped around the corner, and there is no one there, not one single customer! Oh, we went buck wild. We were talking to all the employees, trying all of the freshly baked goods, we had the best time. The cannoli was visually stunning, and it tasted like manna from Italian Heaven. Actually, all my meals in New York were Heavenly. Chinese takeout was terrific, lamb burgers were superb, and the $2.00 slice of pizza that was larger than my entire face was amazing!
The atmosphere:
We explored almost every inch of the state of New York. Queens, New Jersey, Manhattan, Time Square, Harlem to name a few. We took every single form of transportation as well. We took the bus; we rode the subway, we took the ferry, we hailed a taxi, we walked so far the soles came out of my brand new tennis shoes! The atmosphere was exactly like I suspected, crazy! Everything is loud and face-paced. The uber ride from the airport to our Airbnb felt like we were in a foreign country. Drivers honk the horn to tell you they’re about to move into your lane; they aren’t asking for permission. Houston drivers really have nothing on the streets of New York. We watched Independence Day fireworks on the Hudson River squished together with one million of our closest friends. The police officers of the concrete jungle clearly had to pass a GQ modeling test to join law enforcement because they were all beautiful, every single one. One of the best experiences of my life happened right outside of Times Square the last few hours of our trip. My BFF Sara emailed Dez Duron (if you don’t know who this man is, please look him up. He is the walking definition of the word precious) She told him it was my birthday, and it would make my entire year if he met us. This amazing man took a train from Harlem and met us at 3:00 am in Columbia Circle to sing Happy Birthday to me + chat for a while. By chat I mean I just stared at him while he talked to my sister. Just thinking about it puts the fattest smile on my face. That is still the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. There are one hundred more stories I could tell you about NYC, but I’m trying to keep it light here so that I won’t go into too much detail about my trip. The atmosphere was electric as expected.
What I learned:
This is where I really embodied the art of YOLO. Before New York, I thought I was pretty adventurous, but I quickly learned I was barely scratching the surface of what it means to live once. New York taught me it’s ok to be selfish (in moderation) and go for what you want. Hey, those taxi drivers sure do! It’s okay to take risks and hustle for things. We all went out on a limb in New York; we all tried something new, and it worked out in our favor! If we hadn't left Queens at 5:00 am, we wouldn’t have been the first + only costumers at Carlo’s. If Sara didn’t email Dez, he and I wouldn’t be the best friends we are in my head today. New York was seriously one of my favorite adventures, Aneissapalooza was successful because of the YOLO queens. For that, I’m grateful for the entire New York experience!
