This one is all about New York City travel! We’re taking a trip to The Big Apple also known as the The City that never sleeps, New York City! 

NYC is a global tourist destination with more things to see and do than you could possibly fit into one, two, or even three or more trips! It’s a place to be seen, experienced, and done again and again. So whether this is your first NYC trip or you’ve been many times, there is always more to see and do here.

Before visiting New York City figure out where you want to stay, the highlights you want to hit, and then get ready to walk and explore.

We talk about our New York City Trip:

• Our NYC travel experiences
• Things to know when visiting New York
• How to use the New York City subway
• Things to do in NYC (there’s A LOT!)
• NYC rooftop bars
• Where to eat in New York
• Getting to NYC via the 3 airports
• Honorable NYC mentions
• What to know before you travel to New York City
• And so much more!

New York City Travel – Episode Transcript

2 (54s):
Hello fellow travelers! Welcome to this weeks episode of the Travel Squad Podcast and Felice happy new year guys

3 (1m 5s):
Happy new year!

2 (1m 7s):
Today, we are exploring New York City.

4 (1m 16s):
The big apple baby NYC is an iconic American city. There are so many things to do and see, and attracts tourists from all over the world

3 (1m 26s):
Of tourists from all over the world. We were looking into our listener analytics recently and were completely blown away by how many listeners we have around the world tuning into our episodes every week. People in

4 (1m 38s):
Quebec, Ontario,

2 (1m 39s):
Colorado,

3 (1m 41s):
Arizona,

4 (1m 42s):
Cusco

2 (1m 43s):
SCO, Hong Kong,

3 (1m 44s):
Scotland,

4 (1m 45s):
And jolly old England.

3 (1m 47s):
And so many more places. We can’t even name them all. You know, we just appreciate you guys listening to us. We fucking love that we have listeners around the world in places we haven’t even been. And we want to hear from all of you. So if you guys could go to our Instagram and comment on our latest posts and tell us where you’re from, we would fucking love it.

2 (2m 4s):
And we just appreciate you guys. So thank you.

5 (2m 6s):
I think you guys, I personally have been to New York twice once when I was in high school. And again, when we came home from Africa, Jamal and Dana plus our friends, Josh and Anna, we did a weekend get away in New York city. And although we haven’t been as a squad, we have each been to New York.

3 (2m 23s):
The only time I’ve been to New York was a couple of years ago. I went there for a work trip. We were doing this PR stunt where we hijacked the line in front of the apple store of people waiting to get the new iPhone in New York city, fifth avenue stores, the biggest and best one, but that was only a one day campaign. And so I was able to extend the trip throughout the weekend and kind of explore New York with some of my coworkers and then a bunch on my own, which was so fun.

5 (2m 47s):
So let’s get into things to know about New York city.

4 (2m 50s):
The first thing I would say is that New York is a very walkable or very easy to get around using the subway or mass transportation. New is very huge. So when we say walkable, we’re not talking about walking the entire city, but it is easy to walk from neighborhood to neighborhood. If there it’s within close proximity, but to get from one borough to the next, whether it be Manhattan to Brooklyn, et cetera, you definitely do want to take the subway. And speaking about the subway, they are relatively affordable. Each fair to take as 2 75 per trip. And New York does offer a couple packages where if you’re going to be staying a week, you can buy a week unlimited use Metro card for $33.

4 (3m 33s):
So you can either pay as you go. Or if you’re going to be there a week, definitely do that $33 for an unlimited card.

5 (3m 40s):
I think we’ve all written the subway in New York, right? Some crazy stuff can happen on there.

4 (3m 44s):
Oh, we’ll get into that later. But you always hear the subway in new York’s notorious for crazy people. Sometimes

2 (3m 51s):
I actually tried to ride the subway with Brittany, but every single stop that we went to was closed. Do you remember that?

5 (3m 56s):
Oh yeah, that was strange.

2 (3m 58s):
So actually I’ve tried to ride the subway and the subway wouldn’t let me write it.

4 (4m 2s):
You’ve been there before, before that time. You never wrote it.

2 (4m 5s):
I’ve written the subway though, before. Yeah.

5 (4m 7s):
Was w we did end up writing it and finding our way home.

2 (4m 10s):
We did.

3 (4m 11s):
This was one of the tips that my friend Colin that lives in New York wanted to mention is that the subway has crazies, but it’s part of New York.

5 (4m 19s):
It’s part of the experience.

4 (4m 21s):
You can just go to YouTube and search crazy New York city subway. And I’m sure you’re going to find a plethora of

3 (4m 27s):
Things. Did you guys see, they put like a full-on Thanksgiving dinner in the subway recently and they had a full on meal. No Funny what’s

2 (4m 37s):
Pizza rat.

3 (4m 38s):
Are you serious?

2 (4m 39s):
I have no idea what pizza rotted.

5 (4m 41s):
I don’t either.

3 (4m 41s):
This episode is not sponsored by pizza rat, but it really shouldn’t be the subways in New York are really well known for having rats. And there was this rat that took a slice of pizza and like someone got it on video, just carrying around a piece of pizza and it became pizza rat International sensations. Okay.

5 (4m 58s):
Wow. So one thing that we are known for is talking about bathrooms, and then he works city. They’re like no public restrooms anywhere.

2 (5m 8s):
Yeah. When we were there, I don’t know who I think I had to pee really bad, probably. I don’t know, whatever. So anyways, there is this nice hotel that we’re passing and I’m like, oh, let’s just use the restroom in there. And Jamal kind of got his panties in a bunch because he was saying that, no, we’re not going to be able to, they’re going to have it locked. And I was like, you know what? Just have a little bit of faith. So I asked where the restrooms were and they guided me to where they were at. And then we just stood outside, waiting for someone to come out of the bathroom and opened the door. And when they did, I was like, oh, okay, thank you. And I walked in and I peed

5 (5m 38s):
Because it was locked and only supposed to be used by hotel guests.

4 (5m 42s):
And only hotel guests have the code to get into the restroom. So I wasn’t completely wrong. But at the same time, I guess Cena showed, if you’re persistent, wait in front, somebody is either going to go in or come out and, you know, just hop right in boom, but be aware, no public restroom.

3 (5m 59s):
Another thing you should know. And it would be pretty obvious about New York is that everyone’s on the move. Whether that’s walking, getting somewhere, they do have Uber’s and whatnot. But because there’s so many people and everyone’s on the move, it can take a while to get from point a to point B.

5 (6m 12s):
Even when you’re walking, I remember Zaina and I, we needed to walk like half a mile, which is not far at all. And it told me that it was going to take us like 40 minutes or something to get half a mile down the street. And Zane is like, no, we’re going to get there faster than that. But really it did take us pretty much that whole amount of time to get there, because it was just so crowded and we could barely move.

2 (6m 33s):
Yeah.

4 (6m 34s):
I feel like you guys were adding to the tourist traffic jam because new Yorkers don’t walk that slow. So you guys were probably stuck in, you know, oh

2 (6m 43s):
No, no,

4 (6m 44s):
No. I know. I know. But it just, in general, there’s a stereotype that you can tell who’s a new Yorker, not by how fast they move on the streets. And that’s what I’m saying. If it was only half a mile and took you 40 minutes, you are behind the tourist traffic.

2 (6m 57s):
Seriously. We’ll in fact, I’m surprised that Brittany say in half a mile, because my first thought was really, it was only half a mile because it took for ever, because you just couldn’t get around people.

4 (7m 6s):
Another thing about New York is that there’s the misconception that it’s smelly or there’s a lot of bums. And when we were there, we’d really didn’t experience that. Yes, we definitely did see homeless people. I don’t know if we were in the wrong neighborhoods, but if you’re in downtown Manhattan, you probably going to come across some, but there wasn’t as many as I was expecting to see based on the stereotype. And we weren’t there during the hot summer months when they say New York smells like smelly garbage. So I didn’t experience any of that. And I don’t know if it’s just a misconception, but if you don’t go during the summer, I don’t suspect you’re going to have that. Oh, new York’s a smelly city experience.

3 (7m 44s):
Pleasantly surprised you should also know that New York is just not Manhattan alone. There’s actually five boroughs that make up New York city. You have the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten island.

4 (7m 55s):
Yeah. And the boroughs, you can almost equate them to counties. So they’re their own independent like cities counties, but yet all together, the five of them make one city, New York city.

3 (8m 7s):
And then within each of those boroughs, they have different neighborhoods. So for example, within Manhattan, you’ll have Greenwich the village, which is like the NYU neighborhood. You have so ho and then you have

4 (8m 17s):
Becca, Jay Z.

3 (8m 21s):
So there’s a lot to see within the pockets of New York.

5 (8m 25s):
So there’s so much to do in New York city. I mean, just walking the city is something to do. The city is so walkable and central park. There is a ton of trails, so much to see within the park

3 (8m 37s):
Walking the city is like what? The draw of New York, walking through the different attractions that people watching the buildings are beautiful. Just being in the city, the energy there’s like half the fun

2 (8m 48s):
When we were there, Jamal, Brittany and I, with our other friends, we walked across the Brooklyn bridge, which we’ll get to, but then we took a subway. And then when we came out from the subway, we were pretty much like in the middle of the city. And it was so magical when you just step outside and all of a sudden you’re in that energy. And it’s just, it’s undescribable. The energy that you get from the city.

4 (9m 9s):
Yeah. We took the subway from lower Manhattan because it can, we walked across the Brooklyn bridge and then we took it from lower Manhattan. And then we stepped out into times square as a matter of fact. So just seeing that for me, for the first time was exciting. It reminded me of the time that Brittany and I were in London and we got out of the subway. And when we stepped out, we just saw big Ben and parliament. It was just like an exciting feeling of like, wow, I see this all the time. And here it is. And that’s what I felt when I got out in time square.

3 (9m 34s):
Yeah. I remember walking from the apple store on fifth avenue through times square, you can see the empire state building and the flat iron building. And there’s all this history in all these buildings and beautiful. I want to go back

5 (9m 46s):
Zayna and I did a lot of walking in New York city, Jamal and our other friends went to a Yankees game Susanna and I took our time exploring. And we actually walked by Taylor Swift’s house as well. You

3 (9m 57s):
Can always look in at famous people’s houses,

2 (10m 1s):
Heidi and yeah. And then if we had more time, I would have loved to do a gossip girl tour. I love Chuck bass and Blair Waldorf.

3 (10m 12s):
I would actually love to do one of those hop on, hop off tours in New York. If I ever went back, that would be when I go back,

4 (10m 18s):
I saw tons of buses for that. I wish that’s something that we did again, when Brittany Zayna and I were there, it was at the tail end of our South Africa trip. So we just pretty much did the highlights. And I guess you could say that is a highlight, but I wish we actually did that. Get a good lay of the land and then explore from there. That would have been a good thing to do. And that’s a good thing I recommend for a lot of people to do on any other place that you go. If they have a hop on, hop off, do that. Brilliant. I have done that in several cities and then explore on our own after getting the lay of the land.

3 (10m 51s):
Yeah. One of the things I did when I was there and I was lucky that I was there for a short time with someone that’s a local there or is from there. So he knew a lot of insider information and locals only kind of places. So one of the places that we went to one evening was the Highline park in the meat packing district in New York city parks are, they’re interesting because it’s just a concrete jungle. And then where they do have parks, they get really creative with them. So this one, you walk up a set of stairs to get onto a former railroad track. And this is what they’ve built the park on. So it’s an elevated park that has this walkthrough. It’s very serene. There’s a lot of greenery places to sit and just enjoy the day or that evening.

3 (11m 34s):
And it’s just a really cute little park that doesn’t take up any of the concrete or buildings or any of the stuff that’s all around New York.

4 (11m 40s):
That sounds really unique, which I saw something like that. You said that was in the meat packing district.

3 (11m 45s):
Yeah. I’ll definitely check that out if you’re there

5 (11m 47s):
And I’d have to check it out once I go back. Yeah.

3 (11m 49s):
Yeah. And that’s actually, one of the things I love so much about New York is there are just to sit and enjoy life and people do it when the weather is decent. People are just out just enjoying New York city.

2 (12m 1s):
Yeah. You know, anywhere you go in the world, internationally, people have parks and people hang out in parks, but that doesn’t necessarily happen in the United States. But you know, in New York city, it does

5 (12m 12s):
Even in central park, I was surprised because I saw someone sitting on a park bench, reading a newspaper, and it’s something that you would see in a movie. And just to see it in person was like, oh wow, this really does exist.

4 (12m 23s):
Well that, or you were in the park and you see binge tables that are checkerboards or chess boards and people out there doing that playing cards. So the parks are really lively, but speaking of central park, there’s lots of stuff to do in some of the parks themselves, such as museums,

2 (12m 39s):
You can have things to do inside the park is at one point when we were searching for a bathroom, there was a chess house. So we went inside the chess house to see if there was a bathroom there and there wasn’t at least that we could see. But anyways, you know what I mean? Like they have homes in the middle of central park built for the sport of chess.

3 (12m 56s):
When I was in New York city, I stopped into central park to have a nap because of

5 (13m 4s):
You’re like one of those movie,

3 (13m 6s):
I was just at one of the museums and I’d been out late the night before exploring New York city nightlife. So I was kind of tired and I had a few hours to kill. So I was like, all right, I’ll just go here and take a nap and beautiful love to walk through New York city. There’s so much greener, which is so contrasting from the skyscrapers and

4 (13m 25s):
The jungle.

3 (13m 25s):
Yeah. Which is really nice. So I found myself laying down on the grass, enjoying a little rest while a group of people were playing Dungeons and dragons right next to me, Came over and was like, in case any flying concrete balls come your way. Like, don’t mind us. We’re just playing Dungeons and dragons. Like, okay, time ago,

5 (13m 46s):
You mentioned that you went to a museum earlier, which museum did you go to?

3 (13m 50s):
I went to the met, and this is the metropolitan museum in New York city. It’s very famous for the met gala that happens every year. It’s also just an amazing museum, a lot of really cultural artifacts, paintings, art pieces. Also what you should know, a little squad tip for you is there is no set amount that you have to pay when you go there. They have a recommended amount of something in the thirties, I believe, but I paid 12 bucks to go in and you can pay $0. It’s up to you. What you pay.

4 (14m 21s):
That’s very interesting because when we were there, they were charging. But if you said you were a New York city resident, it was free

3 (14m 28s):
And then just didn’t do it. Right. They will act like it’s an expectation. But if you go up there and give them what you have, they’ll just give you the,

4 (14m 34s):
We’ll. See, I told that to Brittany too, because we didn’t want bad karma out in the world, but nobody there is selling you the tickets. It was all on a machine and then people are collecting it. So they we’ve gone more recently than you. So they may have changed it, but it was either you’re a New York city resident. You’re a child, you’re an adult. And if you’re a student or a student and based on that, that’s how much it was. But they didn’t

3 (14m 57s):
Too many people were cutting them short. I’ve also heard that you can nap there. I

5 (15m 1s):
Didn’t know that either. Did you nap there?

3 (15m 3s):
No, I saved that for the central park,

4 (15m 5s):
But that was the museum that we went to as well. And I liked the met and we went there more specifically because it was in central park. It’s on the edge of central park, but in central park,

2 (15m 16s):
Upper east side.

4 (15m 17s):
Correct. And one of the things that I enjoyed most about it, and I’m surprised you didn’t find out about it is there is a rooftop bar on top of the met, but you didn’t miss out on too much. They were like $15 for a 12 ounce canopy,

5 (15m 34s):
But there was a beautiful New York city skyline in the background. So great for picture taking right there.

4 (15m 41s):
You’re five stories up. So you’re not really, really high, but you do get to see everything going south into Manhattan. And like I said, you’re on the edge of central park. So you get to see into the park as well. So really, really beautiful view from the top.

2 (15m 55s):
Yeah. And you know what, although the beers are like, what, $15 Kim, you would have been so proud of Jamal because Jamal and Josh were crushing it. How

3 (16m 3s):
Much did you spend?

4 (16m 4s):
Well,

2 (16m 5s):
Jackie,

4 (16m 7s):
That’s very true. But when Josh starts to buy drinks, he doesn’t stop buying drinks. So he bought, I think, two rounds and then I ended up getting one round, but we were drinking along the way, walking through the park and a few other things

3 (16m 21s):
I am very proud of. Yes,

4 (16m 23s):
I knew you would be. But there are a lot of other museums in New York other than the mat. The mat, as Kim mentioned, is famous because of the met gala. A lot of people go to it because it is in central park. However, you can go to the museum of modern art, the American museum of natural history, the Guggenheim, which I really wanted to go to. But again, such a short weekend, we didn’t have a lot of time. They have Picasso’s and other famous paintings in the Guggenheim. There is also the September 11th Memorial museum and that’s actually at ground zero. We didn’t go into the museum itself when we were there, but we did go visit ground zero and the Memorial site that they had there.

5 (17m 4s):
So the first time that I went to ground zero, I was in high school. And this is probably in 2006, I would say. And I remember that it was just a big hole. There was nothing. There, there was a huge fence around the area. And we went up these stairs to look over, but all it was was just construction pit, basically. So going back now, several years later, it is so different. It is now like an eight acre park to commemorate the loss of the trade center. And all of these victims lives, you know, there’s the museum, which we didn’t go into. And there is a one world trade tower that has an observatory. We also didn’t get to see that, but it would be something I would like to see, but what was the highlight of it for me, was to go to the two pools and there’s waterfalls cascading into them.

5 (17m 53s):
And it symbolizes the loss of life of the attacks and the waterfalls are there to mute the sound of the city. So it makes it a really serene place to be. And around the falls, they have carved every victim’s name. And if it’s their birthday, they place a white rose on their name.

3 (18m 12s):
Oh, that’s so sweet. I didn’t get to go to the Memorial when I was in New York. But when I go back, that’s definitely on the top of my list to see,

5 (18m 20s):
Definitely should be.

2 (18m 21s):
I was there in 2008 and I saw it, but it’s so long ago at this point that I don’t really remember what it looked like, but when I hear Brittany talking, I feel like it was still in construction and it was just a bottomless pit. But yeah, it was just so surreal. And I just feel like there are no words because of just what took place there and how emotional it is.

3 (18m 42s):
Where is it in the city?

4 (18m 43s):
It’s in lower Manhattan because the original twin towers were in lower Manhattan. They’ve rebuilt the one world trade center now. So there’s a whole brand new world trade center building. It’s not a twin tower, but the pools that Brittany was talking about, the one acre ones, there’s two of them to represent the two towers themselves. And that is the Memorial park around the area.

3 (19m 3s):
I see. So it should be an easy thing to add on to the list of Macies went in the city,

4 (19m 8s):
Speaking of time square, we were talking about it earlier, riding the subway and coming out and seeing it, but we didn’t really touch upon it too much. And I just want to say times square is to be seen and you’ll see it for literally five minutes and be amazed. And then you’re out of there because there is nothing to do in times square, other than look at times square. Kim seems to have a different opinion.

3 (19m 29s):
I do have a different opinion. I stayed in times square for probably two hours.

5 (19m 33s):
Wow.

3 (19m 35s):
Because it is the place you see in movies and it looks exactly like you would imagine it just the digital billboards ads everywhere.

4 (19m 43s):
Well, I was excited when I came out of the subway inside, but the novelty

3 (19m 46s):
It’s exciting. And then they have this area where it’s kind of like an auditorium seating standing kind of an area where it can walk up and you can get better views of it. There’s people sitting there, standing there, just there, and you can take pictures, just be amongst all of the hustle and bustle and the craziness. There’s tons of weird people dressed in characters like Batman or Elmo that are dressed up that want you to take pictures with them and then obviously pay them for it, a dollar, whatever. And I loved it.

4 (20m 14s):
That’s like if you’re in Las Vegas on the strip, they have the characters they want tips for, or the Hollywood walk of fame. They have the characters

3 (20m 21s):
Like real New York city there,

2 (20m 23s):
But you know, they don’t have in times square

4 (20m 25s):
Bathrooms.

2 (20m 26s):
That very good Jamal. The second thing is TRL

4 (20m 32s):
Ms. Carson daily,

2 (20m 33s):
I know total request live. So guys close your eyes for a second and picture this you’re in New York city for the next time. And you’re coming out of the subway right there in times square. You step on the pavement, you look up and you see this huge, huge, huge ad for the Travel Squad Podcast. Alright, manifest that you guys were going to make that happen.

5 (20m 59s):
I know we

3 (20m 60s):
Went

5 (21m 0s):
Two times square during the day and yes, it was beautiful with all of the ads and billboards and everything. But I remember when I was in high school, we went at night and it was so cool to see being lit up and to be a high school or at that time, like, oh my God, I’m here in New York city. It was so cool. Yeah.

3 (21m 17s):
Also this isn’t just about times square, but taxi cabs are just like, you would see them in the movies in New York city. They’re everywhere. So to have the backdrop of time square with all the billboards and the digital ads and then taxis driving through, it’s just like, you feel like you’re in a movie.

2 (21m 32s):
I remember when I was there in 2008, I was with one of my girlfriends and it was to visit her dad. And we were about to get into a taxi. He opens the door and he tells the taxi driver where we’re going to go. And the taxi driver immediately drove off. So it’s almost like, you know, he almost fell because he’s holding onto the car and the car, the car door kind of shuts itself. And he looked at me, he said, let that be a lesson. Wait until you get into your taxi to tell them where you want to go. Because if it’s not going to make them money, they’re going to refuse you, not everyone, but,

3 (22m 3s):
And also hail the taxis. Like you see in the movies where you put your hand up in the street and they stopped. And that is so cool.

5 (22m 9s):
Did you hail one day

3 (22m 10s):
Many? Yeah, I was just doing it left and right. I didn’t even need to get in one. I was like,

5 (22m 17s):
Just seeing if you could do it,

3 (22m 18s):
Actually, there was one point because I was there for this event for my work. It was kind of crazy. And we had to jump in a cab really quick to go to a different location. So we jumped in a cab and we were following another one and we were like, whoa, that taxi. And he just like took off following the other card.

5 (22m 32s):
That is like something you see in the movies. Well, there’s so much to see in New York and there’s nothing like seeing it from above. So did anyone go to the top of a tower or building and look down?

3 (22m 44s):
No, but that’s definitely something I regret not doing.

2 (22m 47s):
I’ve been to the top of the empire state building. Same

5 (22m 50s):
Here I went when I was in again on the high school trip that I took, I did go to the top and got a great look of the city. But I do hear that there is a really good view at the top of

3 (22m 60s):
Top of the rock,

5 (23m 1s):
Top of the rock. I hear that there’s really good views of central park from there. Yeah.

3 (23m 4s):
If I had more time when I go back, I’m for sure. Doing that.

4 (23m 7s):
And by the rock we’re talking Rockefeller center, not Dwayne Johnson.

2 (23m 13s):
Yeah. So, you know, okay. So I did go to the top of the empire state building. And again, this is when I was with my girlfriend at visiting her dad and he was able to buy the tickets that morning online. So when we got there, we didn’t have to wait in line or anything like that. So assuming that’s probably still the same, save yourself the time, buy it online. Yeah.

4 (23m 33s):
I would love to go to the top of either the one world trade empire, state building Chrysler building one of the big tall ones, or even now that you guys are saying this top of the Rockefeller center, but we just didn’t get around to it. And that’s thing. I just want to let everybody know you’re not going to be able to do everything you want to do in New York. Granted, we were there for a short amount of time. Your vacation may be longer, but there’s no way that you’re going to fit in everything you want to do in New York city into one trip.

5 (23m 59s):
Did anyone take a ferry on the trip?

2 (24m 2s):
I’ve been to the statue of Liberty and Ellis island. Oh, sorry. I think I had to take a ferry.

5 (24m 9s):
Yeah.

2 (24m 10s):
So long ago.

4 (24m 11s):
Well, when you asked that question, Brittany, are you talking from Manhattan to Staten island itself? Because there is a Staten island ferry because Staten island is more the residential area. I heard you like the visit, the Staten island go this time of year.

5 (24m 24s):
I was just asking in a generality, but I remember I took a ferry just to take a ferry. And on that ferry, we did get to see from afar, the statue of Liberty.

3 (24m 33s):
Was it the Staten island ferry? Cause I took that one too. And it’s the same thing I

5 (24m 37s):
Think so. Yeah.

3 (24m 38s):
Yeah. So that one’s free. If you guys don’t want to pay to go to the statue of Liberty, you can get on, I think it’s near the Dumbo area, but I could be wrong. So don’t quote me on that. But you get on the free ferry. It comes, I think every 30 minutes it takes you to Staten island. You’ll see the statue of Liberty from afar along this route. You get off the ferry, you get back in line in Staten island, get right back 10. And

5 (24m 58s):
That’s exactly what I did.

3 (25m 1s):
And it’s pretty cool. It’s very cool to see it from afar. But I would love when I go back to do it, Xena did and actually go to it.

2 (25m 8s):
So no one has been to the statue of Liberty, except for myself.

4 (25m 10s):
Hopefully the little one who’s been on the island, that houses lady Liberty.

2 (25m 14s):
So anyways, for the statue of Liberty or lady Liberty, you can’t go to the crown. Like at least I wasn’t able to, at that time, I don’t know if That

4 (25m 25s):
You used to be allowed to do it. And then they stopped after nine 11. And I think after a while, then they redid it. So now you can go to the top. And I was reading, even though I didn’t get to do it, they were saying, if you go on a hot day, it could be up to 10 to 15 degrees hotter inside the crown than on the outside. And it’s very cramped in there. So it’s not even very desirable to do

3 (25m 47s):
On a hot

4 (25m 48s):
Day. Yes. Like if you’re there mid summer in July, I mean, it’s going to get hot

3 (25m 52s):
When I was there. It was in September and it was also very hot.

5 (25m 55s):
And we went to Jamal’s Anna and I, we went into September as well, but we also got to see view the, the statue of Liberty when we were crossing the Brooklyn bridge. Did you walk that Kim? I did. It was great. I love that there is a portion for pedestrians and a portion for cars. That is so great. Yeah. We stayed in Brooklyn. So we loved that. We were just able to walk over the bridge and drop us right into Manhattan.

3 (26m 17s):
It’ll take you about what’d you say a half an hour.

2 (26m 20s):
It was really crowded.

4 (26m 21s):
I wasn’t going to say, yeah, it’s not that far of a walk. Granted. It does span the Hudson river, but at the same time, you can’t go as fast because it is so crowded with people walking. So it does take

3 (26m 35s):
’cause you’re walking from Brooklyn to Manhattan. You’re going to have views. So you’ll likely be stopping to take pictures.

5 (26m 40s):
Yes. Taking pictures of the city, taking pictures of the statue of Liberty in the background, everything,

3 (26m 46s):
Definitely something you want to do.

4 (26m 48s):
When you went to the statue of Liberty Santa, did you go to Ellis island?

2 (26m 51s):
I did. And that’s the one thing that I wish I had more time and I would love to go back and spend more time on Ellis island. Tell me,

3 (26m 59s):
Yeah. I don’t

4 (26m 60s):
Know anything about Ellis island Zena.

2 (27m 2s):
So Ellis island was what was it like the island of tears? I think it was because when people were coming from Europe migrating to the United States, in order to get into the United States, they had to pass through Ellis island. And so people are making these long trips with nothing in their pockets, just hoping to come to the United States. And if they didn’t pass the test, if they had lice or whatever, they would be sent back on a boat to where they came from. And they just spent forever on that boat. And so it’s just a Memorial of all the people who immigrated were on the boat or whatnot. And then it’s a great opportunity to see, like, if you have any history there, if you have any relatives and growing up, one of my favorite books was the orphan of Ellis island.

2 (27m 44s):
And just, I don’t know, it was just so excited to be there after reading that book. So many times hearing about this place and just there’s so much history. And that’s why it was like the island of tears. Yeah. Because families would be separated. People would have died by the time they got there. Obviously this was like in the early 19 hundreds. So I love Ellis island. I know, right. Throwing a surprise curve ball out at you guys,

4 (28m 7s):
Any of the books where people would write their names because they have the books where people would write their names passing through. And it’s a place where a lot of people changed their true ethnic name to more American sounding names when they were there just as well, because it’s like, what’s your name? And then they would change it to something.

3 (28m 23s):
Is there a name? I know there’s some names that I can’t think of any off the top of my head, but mean royalty in other countries that they may have came from. And that wasn’t their last name, but they changed it to

2 (28m 33s):
That. Interesting. Interesting.

3 (28m 36s):
And be whatever you want in America, The American dream baby.

2 (28m 41s):
But you had to pass through your inspection

3 (28m 43s):
First, as long as you don’t have lice, you can do whatever you want. Jamal, you went to Yankee stadium. How was it?

4 (28m 49s):
It was great. I did go to Yankee stadium. As you know, Kim, I am a big baseball fan. Hopefully our listeners know that as well. The Cena and Brittany, not so much. And when we were new,

2 (29m 1s):
I wanted to go. But Brittany didn’t. And so I went with her.

4 (29m 5s):
No, I know

5 (29m 7s):
She didn’t want to go either. She was like, no, let’s go home.

4 (29m 12s):
So as I said, we were there with our friends, Josh and Anna. They’re big baseball fans as well. Bad news is they’re Dodgers fans. I know I’m going to let that one slide pretty trashy to be a Dodger fan. I go giants. But yes, we wanted to, for sure, go to Yankee stadium while we were there to go to such an iconic stadium. It’s not the original. That was the house of babe, but they rebuilt it to be, to an extent, almost like an exact replica, just new. So for me, it was an awesome experience and we definitely enjoyed the game, had a few beverages as well, and It’s close to knocking off my MLB bucket list of the stadiums I want to go to.

4 (29m 54s):
Yankee stadium was one. I have two more to go Fenway and regularly. So when we’re back in Chicago, we need to do Wrigley for sure. But

5 (30m 2s):
He saw the outside.

4 (30m 3s):
I did see the outside. I want to see a game at us.

3 (30m 6s):
Yes,

4 (30m 6s):
Yes. I could care less about any of the other stadiums, not going to lie. I want

3 (30m 10s):
To go to all the stadium.

4 (30m 11s):
It would be fun, but if I didn’t wouldn’t matter, but Yankee stadium, I was really stoked across, off my list.

5 (30m 16s):
So I do want to back up, let’s talk about you getting to the Yankee stadium. You took the subway and you have a good story.

4 (30m 22s):
Yes. This, this one. So as we were talking earlier, when we were saying about the subways and crazy things that can happen on there, we had split up from Zayna and Brittany. So it was just me, Josh and Anna go into Yankee stadium. And we took off from lower Manhattan. After we had actually gone to wall street to see the bull, which we have to get back to that story. But at the same time, we had gone to a beer garden and all had some beers together before we parted ways. And when I was on the subway started to creep in on me that I really had to piss really bad from all the drinking we had done.

4 (31m 4s):
But I did catch a firsthand experience of a crazy New York subway situation. This one person got on as we were going down the line, it kept getting more and more crowded because clearly we were on the line to Yankee stadium. Everyone was going to the game and this guy comes on, it looks normal as can be sits down. And he starts reading from the Bible, which isn’t necessarily bad. We always see a lot of people preach good for him, for his faith and his beliefs. But I almost felt so bad cause it’s like, he’s really, really trying to hear. And no one is listening to him, but I was listening to him because I was like, wow, this is an experience. I see this

3 (31m 41s):
All the time.

4 (31m 42s):
Yeah. And I was excited to hear it, but he was saying how he used to be a big executive on wall street. He walked away from like a $2 million annual salary gig because he realized that it was evil, corrupt, but he was just going nonstop for 35 minutes. And no one was listening

3 (32m 1s):
To him. Kane is one hell of a drug

4 (32m 3s):
That’s if he was on it, which

3 (32m 5s):
Book was he reading

4 (32m 5s):
From? I don’t remember. I was having, I was listening, but at the same time panicking because I really had to pee and I was debating getting off with Josh and Anna would be like, I got to pee. I’m going to piss her on the tracks or run outside and do something. But at the same time, I was captivated to continue listening to

3 (32m 25s):
That’s funny. When I was on the subway, there was people doing like a dance show on the cart.

4 (32m 30s):
That would be a

3 (32m 31s):
Good, nice little performance for you too.

4 (32m 33s):
Well, you didn’t see a performance on the subway, but when we had gotten off the subway, we did see those break dancers when we were still in Brooklyn. And remember that. So we’ve watched that show for a little bit. So if not on the subway, that’s another thing about New York. You’re always going to catch people doing street performances, musicians, dancing, et cetera.

5 (32m 51s):
Even in the subway, tunnels, people are set up with their music, their instruments, singing, dancing, break dancing. You can find it all in the subway.

2 (32m 59s):
When I was in Mexico city, this is like the first time that I went, every single stop, someone new came on to sell something. And then you go to the next stop they got off. And someone else calm, like their turn Chiclets tissues, EV you don’t even need to go on the store. You just go on the subway and wait for the stop.

5 (33m 15s):
If I could change two things about the New York subway, I would say the smell inside the subway stations and how hot it gets down there. Because in summer it can get really humid and musty. And the other thing is that they have no public restrooms down there. So when we were in Japan, we use the subways and they did have public restrooms there. And they were so nice and so convenient. And I loved it. Yeah. And clean

3 (33m 38s):
Difference between Japanese and new Yorkers.

4 (33m 41s):
Well, I said I was debating going out and pissing on the tracks because there’s no bathrooms in the subway station

5 (33m 47s):
And judging you right now. I

2 (33m 48s):
Really wasn’t gotten caught on camera.

4 (33m 50s):
He wasn’t going to piss on the tracks.

3 (33m 52s):
He wouldn’t be on you.

5 (33m 53s):
So that same day that Jamal went to Yankee stadium. We also went to wall street. I think he mentioned briefly. And Jamal had something he really wanted to do with the wall street bull.

3 (34m 5s):
They didn’t involve the balls.

4 (34m 7s):
It

5 (34m 7s):
Didn’t involve

2 (34m 8s):
Really quickly though. So what did you do for the whole bathroom? Like how did you manage?

4 (34m 13s):
I waited till we got to Yankee stadium and outside of Yankee stadium, there’s a McDonald’s. And I told Josh and I was like, peace out guys. Like I’m running to McDonald’s. And like I said, no public restrooms, so, well, no, it is public, but they have codes, you know, to keep people from just, I don’t know, doing drugs in there, sleeping in there. No. Yeah. I guess a non patron, but I did what Zaina did. And I had waited for the person to come out, like when she had to go to the restroom down the town and they came out of the hotel bathroom. I did the same thing, but I was really, really lucky. Otherwise I would have been like, yeah, I’m buying something. But even then, I don’t even know if I could wait in that line. It was so crowded in there because everyone’s trying to get food before they go into Yankee stadium.

4 (34m 55s):
So I made it what

2 (34m 56s):
An experience. Sorry. I just, I had to have the Indian,

5 (34m 58s):
Well now we have to get back to the balls and Jamal’s face from

4 (35m 2s):
Yeah. So I wanted to go to wall street. I just wanted to see the charging bull that they have outside of wall street. It’s very iconic. I felt to me, this was a very New York thing to do very touristy. But at the same time, I still wanted to see it.

3 (35m 16s):
I’m so mad that I didn’t know about that. Cause I did go to wall street, but I

2 (35m 20s):
Didn’t know that

3 (35m 21s):
There’s a bull. No, the bull wasn’t on my radar. I didn’t do my research well enough for this.

4 (35m 25s):
Do you know why it’s a bull? No. When the market’s doing good, they call it a bull market. When the market’s doing bad, they call it a bear market. So the bull is there probably as I

3 (35m 35s):
Want it to be a bull,

4 (35m 36s):
They want it to be a bull market. So anyway, We ended up going there and everyone’s taking photos with it. And I told Josh, I said, Josh, let’s take a photo, but it’s like cradle the balls or do something like completely crazy with it. Cause everyone’s taking photos and we had to wait in line. So Josh and I, when it was our turn we got in there, I forgot who was taking the photo, whether it’s

5 (35m 59s):
Climbed under the bowl.

4 (36m 0s):
Yeah. We climbed under the bull and we both grabbed each one testicle and we were like, cupping it doing mock licks

2 (36m 7s):
Of

4 (36m 7s):
It. Maybe it will. Maybe it won’t. We’ll see about that.

5 (36m 11s):
Thank you. Like put your tongue out and you got real

2 (36m 15s):
Up close

4 (36m 15s):
And personal, but you

2 (36m 17s):
Did not put your tongue on.

4 (36m 18s):
No, no, no. I was doing mock looking. Of course I wouldn’t put it on it.

2 (36m 22s):
Yeah. Just, just in case he listeners that you want to recreate the infamous photo of Jamal. He did not put his tongue on.

4 (36m 28s):
Well, I told Josh, I said, if you take this with me, I’ll probably frame it, which I haven’t printed and framed it yet, but I need to. But yeah. That’s one thing that I did. I know it’s kind of stupid the photos, but it’s funny to me, the crowd loved it. When I got up from the ground with Josh, I said, sorry, everybody that you guys had to see that, but everyone was laughing. They seem to like, it

5 (36m 46s):
Was that after you. I mean, I know this had been after you had a few drinks, but did this idea come to you while you were drinking?

4 (36m 53s):
No, I always knew. I wanted to kind of do that.

2 (36m 57s):
I always knew you wanted to create a bowls of ball. I just

4 (36m 59s):
Wanted to take a funny photo in front of something. Very iconic. Yeah.

2 (37m 2s):
Yeah. Because it really, everyone is taking like nice pictures with them. They’re by the bull. So, I mean, you brought a little bit of that.

4 (37m 8s):
Just interesting. They’re all taking it of the balls. They’re not taking it from the front of the bowl. They were all lined up and you guys can attest to this, taking photos at the button with its balls hanging. So I just said, why not up it up a little bit and do what I did.

2 (37m 22s):
Yeah. And then I just, one tip is it’s very crowded there to get a picture. So don’t be afraid to push your way to the front be aggressive. So before we even got to the bull, we had been enjoying some beers around the corner at a beer garden. We just happened to stumble upon it. So we went inside and next thing you know, we’re buying rounds and chugging and having a Scholly time. Kim, you would’ve been proud.

5 (37m 44s):
Dammit.

4 (37m 45s):
Yes. Now, if you went to Africa, you would have been on this NYC.

2 (37m 49s):
I just remember. Okay. Cause I can chug a beer like nobody’s business. And at one point I lifted my beer and Josh was saying how his heart stopped. And he was like, oh my God. I thought Zaina was about to chug and make me look like a pussy over here. Cause Josh was like halfway full and I was completely full. And he thought that I was about to check it right then and there. And I’m like, no, no, no, no, no, man. I need a break.

4 (38m 9s):
And that beer garden is exactly why I was struggling to hold in my urine on the New York city subway going to Yankee stadium.

2 (38m 15s):
Yeah. You know, I was actually really proud of Brittany because I didn’t realize that cause Brittany doesn’t drink that much. I have not seen her drunk, not drunk, but tipsy. I can’t remember times that I seen her tipsy new

4 (38m 28s):
Orleans and my wife sound boring,

5 (38m 29s):
New Orleans. The time that I was wearing the Chevy’s hat

4 (38m 36s):
Thanksgiving,

2 (38m 37s):
I can’t get rid of that shit. Picture the worst picture of Brittany and I ever. But it’s the best. So Jamal and Josh and Anna left to go to their game. And so Brittany and I are leaving to go do our own thing, but we want to send ourselves a postcard. So we went into a souvenir store and you tell the story Brit,

5 (38m 57s):
Well, I wanted to get an ornament and a postcard. And Jamal left me with that daunting task of picking out the ornament by myself. No Suzanne. And I get our postcards and then we also wanted to get a stamp as well. And I think he only had international stamps and I couldn’t decide if I wanted to just pay to get the international stamp or if I should go find like a post office and mail it myself or what I should do. So I kept changing my mind and Zeno was watching the transaction. So what did you see?

2 (39m 34s):
I was just like, oh my gosh. I don’t think probably since you wore that Chevy’s hat, when you were 1921, Have I seen you tipsy and I’m standing there watching you fumble, trying to decide whether or not you want to stamp and you look so confused and she’s kind of stuttering too. And I’m like, Brittany’s tipsy. I have never seen Brittany like this. Yes. She was struggling trying to decide whether or not she wanted a stamp and she couldn’t get her thoughts out. Did we

5 (40m 5s):
Get the

2 (40m 5s):
Stamp? We did. I think we did.

4 (40m 7s):
We did because it came and I said, you bought an international, It’s an international stamp.

5 (40m 13s):
And we had just come back from South Africa. And so I had been used to buying international stamps and I was like, oh wait, we’re in New York. Now we don’t need an international stamp. But that’s all he has

4 (40m 23s):
Excuses. Don’t defend yourself a lot of

5 (40m 25s):
Decisions to be made. I understand. Yeah, there was a lot of decisions to be made, but one thing Zan and I wanted to do after we split up from Josh and Anna and Jamal was go to a deli because

2 (40m 37s):
Yeah, not even just a deli, right. A Jewish deli in New York city. That is my dream. So

5 (40m 42s):
We found one, it was called cat’s deli,

2 (40m 45s):
Which is super famous.

5 (40m 46s):
And the one thing I would say is it is overpriced, but it is an experience when we went in, it was completely crowded. You have to pretty much know what you want and stand in like these massive lines,

2 (40m 59s):
Not even a lot, like they usher you to a corner and you’re standing in like a waiting area.

5 (41m 5s):
Right. And they give you a ticket. And so when your tickets called, you can go up an order and then you either decide if it’s going to be to go or if you’re going to sit down and it’s so crowded in there that Zane and I didn’t even get our own table. We were at a share table with other people. And I think for the sandwich we got,

2 (41m 24s):
Which was a Reuben, it was

5 (41m 25s):
Like $22. And it didn’t even come with fries

4 (41m 29s):
Just for one sandwich

2 (41m 31s):
For New York, wasn’t even toasted. Oh yeah.

4 (41m 34s):
They don’t toast their bread. You no I’m saying that. That’s one thing that they don’t do is they don’t toast bread. It’s very common for it to just be the, like the meat and bread and that’s it.

5 (41m 43s):
And the fries were like seven or $8 Zane and I split the meal and it was big enough to split, but it was kind of pricey, but it was worth the experience.

2 (41m 52s):
I’m glad that we did it. Cause like I said, I really, really, really wanted to go to a Jewish deli. And this is an authentic Jewish deli. It’s one of the most popular ones there. When Harry met Sally was filmed there. A lot of famous people have been there. Their pictures are up on the walls and I just really wanted to do it. And here in San Diego, we do have an authentic Jewish deli, DZ, Akins. And I love the Reuben sandwich there and they do toast the bread. And for me personally, I prefer DZ Akins and it does come with French fries. And I think it’s about like 15 or $16, but that’s okay because it’s the experience and it’s New York city. And I’m glad that we did it

4 (42m 27s):
All day, all

2 (42m 28s):
Day

4 (42m 29s):
Away. Delicious,

3 (42m 31s):
Continuing our conversation about food in New York city. There is a lot of good food. The favorite thing that I ate in New York city and these guys may disagree with me, but it’s the whole law guys. Food cart.

5 (42m 43s):
Yeah. I think we have differing opinions

3 (42m 45s):
On that. It was so good. They have a whole bunch of these carts in the main areas of Manhattan and the lines get very long for them too. So you go up and you order the cart and I think they have lamb chicken. You can get PETA kind of sandwiches or you can get a plate for about six bucks, much less than the Jewish deli. And it’s a big round plate of this orange rice. And I got chicken comes with PETA salad and you can put this garlic, white sauce all over it. And just a teeny bit of the hot sauce because it is really, really hot. Let’s just put little dots all over it. That’s all you need. I really

2 (43m 18s):
Liked the

3 (43m 19s):
White sauce. Oh my God. So good.

4 (43m 23s):
The garlic sauce is good, but being the fact that my dad’s middle Eastern, his garlic sauce is pretty good. You know, you were hyping up polo

3 (43m 30s):
Guys

4 (43m 31s):
Specifically went to go get it. And it was good. No doubt. In my opinion, is it worth an specific trip to go find that food cart?

3 (43m 40s):
You don’t need to go look for it. You’ll see them all over.

4 (43m 42s):
There’s several of them. Yes, because they are food carts, but it is

3 (43m 46s):
Yes.

2 (43m 46s):
Oh yeah. I had to look at Jamal and Brittany mom. Dad. Yeah.

4 (43m 50s):
It’s a chain. So they have multiple the location that we found, maybe it was an off day. I don’t know it was good food, but I, like I said, I didn’t think it was anything exceptional. But speaking of that hot sauce, I did feel bad because I put some of it on, well, I didn’t put a lot of it on, well I did, but not enough to mess it up to be the why I don’t think it was. That’s why I say feel bad is some of that hot sauce was on some of the rice and it fell. And I saw pigeon eat it. I was like, if I’ve died on this poor little pigeon,

3 (44m 27s):
I ate that at two in the morning, on the street in New York. And it was the best thing I’d had that whole weekend. Cause that’s

4 (44m 32s):
Probably why

3 (44m 34s):
I wasn’t drunk. I just gotten in town and it was bomb.

2 (44m 38s):
Well, we went there because we specifically said Kim told us that we have to go to the Hallel guys. And we went there for you, Canada.

3 (44m 46s):
They actually have brick and mortar locations. The closest one to us as an Irvine, which is about a two hour drive. And I have thought seriously about driving up there on multiple occasions. Haven’t done it yet. But I plan to, I still think a

2 (44m 57s):
Lot

5 (44m 58s):
About your palette.

4 (44m 59s):
You know what Kim, I hope you go. And you come to the realization.

3 (45m 2s):
I’ve heard that the brick and mortar locations aren’t as good. So that wouldn’t be fair. Okay. So moving on from hello guys. Another thing you have to eat in New York city is New York city pizza. Of course you do eat a lot of it.

4 (45m 16s):
We landed. I said, that’s the first thing we’re going to do. We checked into our Airbnb, dropped off our luggage and we’re like, let’s go get some New York city style pizza. And we did. We were staying in Brooklyn, fucking delicious. I don’t remember the place that we ate at, but nonetheless you must try New York style pizza

5 (45m 34s):
Pies. Did we

4 (45m 34s):
Get well, Josh and Anna can eat. So

2 (45m 37s):
I

4 (45m 37s):
Think they got quite a few and then ordered like breads, what was it? Breadsticks? What did they eat? Salad,

3 (45m 42s):
Full pizza. I would get pizza by the slice.

4 (45m 45s):
No, we got full pizza and ate like,

3 (45m 48s):
And the slices are big and you can go. It doesn’t matter what the name of any pizza shop is. They’re all good. Just go into one after another, after another and keep eating them. If you want to get a standard cheese pizza, you can find them for just a dollar. If you want more toppings, the price kind of goes up. It’s very reasonably priced. One of the pizzas that I tried was a very unique style pizza, the artichoke pizza. And I found this in the village neighborhood of New York of Manhattan. And there’s a place there that’s really well known for. It’s also on the strip where there’s a lot of bars and it’s the NYU area. So there’s a lot of drunk people eating pizza on the street. But if you see this place, artichoke pizza, go in there and try one. That’s really good.

4 (46m 27s):
That’s the name of the place? Artichoke pizza

3 (46m 29s):
Sign outside will say artichoke pizza. And if you Google it, it will come up.

4 (46m 33s):
I’ll tell you what came next time. We’re all in NYC. I’m going to take your records because I trust that that’s probably good overhaul all guys.

3 (46m 41s):
I would take whole guys any day over the artichoke page.

2 (46m 45s):
You guys it’s been, but they’re all good. It’s I’ve had pizza and like, all I want right now is a pizza

3 (46m 52s):
Pizza.

2 (46m 52s):
Yes.

5 (46m 53s):
There’s so much to eat in New York. And I remember one of the nights we couldn’t decide on what we would eat as a squad. And we convinced Zayna that we should have ramen that night. And Dana was like,

4 (47m 3s):
It took a lot of convincing. It was almost, you know, well, before we get to what you said, I just want to say it was almost like a Kim in Chicago situation. Oh no,

3 (47m 12s):
I would not eat mushrooms.

4 (47m 13s):
Zayna wouldn’t eat ramen saying it wouldn’t eat wrong. And we finally convinced her and now Zayna, can’t stop talking about how much she loves ramen.

2 (47m 20s):
I wouldn’t go that far, but I do. I really like men. Yeah, here in San Diego. It is dynamite. That’s what I really, really good

3 (47m 29s):
Episode ramen places in San Diego.

2 (47m 31s):
Maybe we should. But like when we were in Japan, I was like, oh my God. Ramen is so good. How can you ever get tired of ramen?

4 (47m 38s):
Yeah. In New York city,

2 (47m 40s):
After New York city. So there I am in New York city and everyone wanted ramen and I’m like, oh, you guys, I don’t like ramen. So eventually I folded. And like, I was like, okay, let’s get ramen. It was so good. I know.

5 (47m 51s):
Good. It was,

2 (47m 53s):
I don’t know. I was just making an assumption that I don’t like ramen. I thought I didn’t like ramen, but you know what? It’s not top ramen. So

3 (47m 60s):
I love top ramen, actually.

5 (48m 4s):
Any more food places that you want to talk about?

3 (48m 6s):
I went to a Chinese food place when I was there and I can’t remember the name of it, but New York is really well known for its Chinese food. So if you’re there, do some searching, ask around and find a Chinese food place and try the Chinese in New York

4 (48m 18s):
For the reason why you liked time square, because you said it made you feel like you were in the movies. If I was to eat Chinese food in New York, I would want to eat it in a restaurant. I would need someone to deliver it to me in a box On my couch. Well, not my couch, the Airbnb, his couch or hotel room or something that would make my Chinese food, New York experience. Excellent.

3 (48m 40s):
Hail a cab and then get some Chinese delivered.

2 (48m 44s):
We’re just get it to go. One thing about the restaurants that we did go to is it’s so small and I get that right. Manhattan is a very tiny island. So many people you’re fighting for space, but you know, like when we were there eating the ramen, I felt like we were sitting on top of each other and it’s not a complaint. It’s just an observation that, you know, places are really small. Yes,

5 (49m 6s):
Kim, did you hit up any rooftop bars?

3 (49m 8s):
Oh, you know it,

5 (49m 9s):
I know

4 (49m 10s):
A girl one at the met though.

3 (49m 12s):
No, I missed that one. I had to go nap in central park. So I missed it. I went to the James hotel. There’s a rooftop bar up there. Very cosmopolitan type vibes at night. A lot of people, what you’d expect, you know, people in heels, people drinking $20 drinks, beautiful skyline views all around. You

4 (49m 31s):
Sounds like New York.

3 (49m 32s):
Very, very pretty, also went to a, another hotel. It was the Trump Soho hotel. And there’s the rooftop bar called the bar. Do you? And there’s a little pool up there. I went up there during the day. I only went there because my coworker that I was on this trip with his cousin worked there. So he got me to go up there and I changed in the spa there and they had a big day. So that was my first day experience. Did you use it? Oh yeah, absolutely.

2 (49m 58s):
What did you think? I love it. I fucking,

4 (50m 0s):
When you’re in Lebanon, you can be rocking the days, all day,

2 (50m 7s):
Say the day all day.

3 (50m 9s):
So that was a cool place to just lay in your bikini by the pool and have a margarita before moving on. Okay.

4 (50m 14s):
Very nice. Well, we talked a lot about transportation in terms of the subway, catching taxis, walking, et cetera. One thing we didn’t touch upon though, is the airports in New York. There’s technically airports that you can fly to within the vicinity. One of them is a New Jersey and then two of them are in New York. So the first one we’re going to go over is JFK or John F. Kennedy international. This is new York’s main airport in terms of most international, most domestic flights, et cetera. However, it is the furthest away from downtown New York area. So

3 (50m 51s):
The one I flew into when I stayed in Soho and it was a hundred dollar Uber to the airport.

5 (50m 56s):
Oh my God. It was

3 (50m 57s):
Like rush hour. Yeah. And I think about 45 minutes to the point where on the way in, we got out of the Uber and walked with our suitcase on the street because we were stuck in traffic.

5 (51m 7s):
Wow.

4 (51m 8s):
Yeah. So JFK, honestly, I would do that one as a last resort. I mean, if your flight, especially if you’re going international best rate or something is out of there. Okay. But if you are flying domestically, I would recommend going to LaGuardia, which is their second airport. So JFK is in Queens and LaGuardia is also in Queens, but LaGuardia location is a little bit more central. But if you are going to New York, want to be immediately close to Manhattan. If you fly into Newark New Jersey, which is just across the river, I would say that that airport is the closest to downtown

5 (51m 46s):
Newark was the airport that we actually flew into. We had a stopover because we were flying internationally and we took an Uber from Newark to JFK leader.

3 (51m 59s):
Nice. Any thing else that we didn’t do in New York, but maybe want to mention to people that may be visiting New York?

4 (52m 7s):
Yeah. One thing that I really wanted to do, and again, this was just more so time constraint and traveling with people and knowing it wasn’t necessarily their priority, but I do want to go to Coney island one day just for the novelty of it, if you will. And obviously also the history I would love to go to Coney island and Coney island is pretty much New York. City’s seaside, amusement park, if you will. So they have a rollercoaster, they have rides, et cetera. It’s pretty much there. Like I said, classic seaside amusement park.

3 (52m 38s):
Cool. I would also like to see the fearless girl statue. It used to be in wall street right in front of the bowl, but they’ve moved it to the stock exchange area. And it’s just another kind of bull statue that has meaning behind it. And just a cool thing to check out.

4 (52m 52s):
She was there when we were playing with the bull balls. Yeah. We did see her. I didn’t even know they moved her. Wow. Okay. Okay. She was there. So we saw her on 45.

2 (53m 2s):
Yeah. I would love to do the gossip girl tour.

4 (53m 4s):
You said that earlier.

2 (53m 6s):
Okay. Well, I’m going to say it again. I love gossip, girl. You guys, I would love to do that tour.

5 (53m 11s):
I would love to climb to the top of the statue of Liberty. I hear that it’s about 20 floors up to the top. I would love to do that.

4 (53m 19s):
I would like to do it too. But like I said, when we’re talking about it, from what I’ve read online during a hot summer day, not necessarily so much, but I would like to go in there. I think it would be fun to do. And I know I mentioned Coney island earlier. I do want to go to the top of either the one world trade empire state building or one of the other super tall skyscrapers.

2 (53m 38s):
I would like, I know I’ve already mentioned this, but just to reiterate, I really want to go back girl. Yeah. Okay. Three things though. I would love to go back to Ellis island. Like I really, really want to do that. And then number two is I would like to go to the met gala,

3 (53m 56s):
Which just goes to show you, you can visit New York many times, and there’s still going to be things that you want to do that you didn’t get to.

5 (54m 3s):
Is it your favorite time

2 (54m 4s):
Of the

4 (54m 11s):
We’re into the new year? And we still don’t have our official jingle music. So I love our little spontaneousness.

2 (54m 18s):
I think

4 (54m 19s):
It’s, I think that’s better than a solid music jingle because I’m always looking forward to every week. What the fucks came going to do. That’s a little dark.

3 (54m 31s):
Oh man. Well, this question that we have, we’ve been picking questions that people are asking specifically about destinations. We’re talking about in that episode, but we do get some questions that are just about travel in general. So we want to start incorporating some of those as well. Brittany, what question do we have this week?

5 (54m 48s):
So Samantha from NYC reshot to us and she asked us, what do you miss most about home when you travel?

3 (54m 56s):
Oh, I know. I don’t even need to think about this. And I miss my dog. I miss her so much. I think about her every day. I miss her cuddles.

4 (55m 5s):
I love him. Ima turn me into a small dog believer. I used to not be a small dog person. I love him up.

5 (55m 12s):
What about Justina?

2 (55m 15s):
I don’t really know.

3 (55m 16s):
I know what you, you would say.

2 (55m 18s):
Whoa, tell me

3 (55m 19s):
Just like your routine being in your own house.

2 (55m 23s):
It was just about to say what to say. I don’t think that there’s any right. You really do. I don’t think that there’s anything specific that I miss

3 (55m 33s):
Say that has some issues sometimes

2 (55m 37s):
Stage fright when I’m away from home. But yeah, like I do like routine I’m I’m very go with the flow guys. Like I’m very good at going with the flow, but I like my routine and I like what I know. And so I think that’s the thing that I miss. And I live by myself. I have my own space. And so when you’re going from having your own space and doing whatever you want in your own time, even if it is structured, it’s not hard, but it’s just different. And I miss routine, but I like to travel. I’m not going to stop so I can like live routine life. I

3 (56m 9s):
Feel the same way. No.

4 (56m 10s):
Well, I’m going to feel like a bad animal parent, if I don’t say agent Bauer, now that Kim has said Emma, but yes.

2 (56m 17s):
Agent power

4 (56m 17s):
Agent Bauer is my most handsome male kitty cat that you’ve ever seen in your life.

3 (56m 23s):
Cousin.

5 (56m 24s):
Yes.

4 (56m 25s):
He should be a cat model. He just doesn’t have the temperament for it. If he did, I’d be a millionaire just from the whoring out agent Bauer to like cat advertisements. Cause he’s so cute. But other than him, I would have to say I miss my bed. I know that sounds so. I don’t want to say stupid, but it’s very cliche, but I really do miss my bed. I always always enjoy traveling, but there’s nothing quite like coming home and sleep in the first night in your bed that

3 (56m 52s):
You bought at the San Diego fair. Yes.

5 (56m 56s):
I would have to agree. I’m miss my bed the most when I travel. And also I know what I’m getting when I shower in my shower, like sometimes water pressure isn’t right. And other places. I don’t know. I just like being home in my own routine, lounging on my couch in pajamas and like, you know, spread Eagle, whatever I want to do. Yeah. I just like the comfort of home. Yeah.

3 (57m 18s):
Oh, you just made me think of something funny. When I was in Florence, Italy, I used their shower and it was some janky Diaz, shower

5 (57m 26s):
Showers out there. When you travel, I

3 (57m 27s):
Pulled the handle off that you used to remove and wash yourself and it broke. So then from then on the shower, wouldn’t hook back on. So I would have to hold it. And then I would, if I need to wash my hair, I’d have to put it down. It’d be spraying everywhere,

5 (57m 42s):
Rough life out there. Right.

2 (57m 45s):
Another one that I thought I’ve actually just now is sometimes you don’t get extra blankets. Right? You have what you have and

3 (57m 52s):
Pillows.

2 (57m 53s):
Yeah. Yeah. You know, like I have extra blankets in my closet if I needed, if it’s too cold or whatnot. And I just remember when we were in Chicago, it was a very thin blanket on top of me and it was cold and I was lying in bed thinking to myself, man, I wish I had another blanket.

3 (58m 8s):
So I want to close us out of this episode by reading one of the reviews that we recently got. We’ve been getting a few reviews lately and I fucking love them. This one is amazing. So this review comes from bond, Jody. It says, and I’m going to read it exactly like it’s written you guys. I’m like really ready to plan some trips with my own Travel Squad though. I’m like really smart. Now the best part of this podcast is the genuine love and friendship. These humans share,

5 (58m 36s):
Ah,

3 (58m 38s):
That is the foundation of a great trip and boil boy does that shine through in their podcasts. In addition, their trips are legit too legit, too legit. I’m a quit my job and just travel by literally planning my next trip with the help and inspiration from the squad. The critics have it. We want more Travel Squad Podcast.

2 (59m 1s):
I’m Jody. So make sure you guys leave a review for us and maybe we’ll read yours on the next one, rate us five stars. And it just really helps other people discover our podcast. We love hearing from you as well. So please engage with us.

3 (59m 16s):
Thank you so much, everybody for listening. Hope you enjoyed this episode about NYC.

4 (59m 22s):
Please subscribe to our podcast, leave a review and tune in every travel Tuesday for new episodes.

2 (59m 27s):
And if you aren’t already be sure to follow us on Instagram at Travel Squad Podcast, send in those questions.

5 (59m 34s):
Yeah. Stay tuned for next week’s episode. We want you to pack your bags and grab your passports because we are taking you to Africa.

10 (59m 43s):
Don’t miss it like I did.

5 (59m 47s):
Bye everyone. Bye