The more I think about revised TGCF, the more convinced I am that Shi Wudu, Ling Wen and Pei Xiu were plotting a coup in the background

NYC 2017 - Birthday Celebration

This post is a little delayed but I told my aunt that I would blog about our trip so I will. One of my best friends, my sister and I decided to go to the Plaza in honor of our 25th birthdays a few years ago. We love doing tea parties so going to the plaza for afternoon tea seemed fitting. Now that we all have full time jobs we can afford to splurge every once in a while and we decided to make a weekend of it. 

Living so close to NYC (about a two hour drive), this wasn’t our first time in the big city by far. However, we did take the bus which is something I have never done before. Getting on the bus from our hometown was easy, getting on the bus at the Port Authority in NYC, not so much but more on that later. We got on the bus at around 6 pm on Friday so we didn’t have to take anytime off from work. Once we got off the bus, we were tired and ready to get to our hotel so we did the non-local thing and got in a cab. It was a good reminder of the crazy drivers of NYC. I’m pretty sure our cab driver wanted to be a NASCAR racer or in fast or furious or something. He drove so fast, cut off so many cars, and almost killed us a few times but somehow we made. Actually, he past our hotel and dropped us off two blocks past it but we didn’t want to pay for him to loop around the block and his english wasn’t great. Checking into the hotel was pretty easy and we wanted to find somewhere to eat once we dropped our bags. It was late and in the city that never sleeps, a good amount of the restaurants were unfortunately closing soon. We found the cutest little Italian place with the nicest chef/owner ever. If you’re ever in Midtown East, I recommend you check out Fabio Cucina Italiana (214 E 52nd St). The food was so good, so fresh tasting/authentic (I’ve been to Italy so I know, kind of ;)), the atmosphere was fantastic and the staff and chef were so friendly. We were there a little after close and they didn’t make us feel rushed at all. They even suggested we try the dessert. After we told the chef that we were in NYC celebrating our 25th birthdays, he gave us the desserts for free. After we left the restaurant, it was drizzling a little so we went back to our hotel and drank a bottle of wine that we brought. We had a corner room at the hotel with windows wrapping around the building so it was nice to relax with my friends, drink some wine and watch the hustle of the city. 

The next day was the day we’ve all been waiting for... Plaza day. We were in NYC and we didn’t have afternoon tea until 1 so we had to have a bagel in NYC. Luckily there was a bagel place a block away (we could actually see it outside our window). It was called Ess a Bagel and it had all the cream cheese and bagel flavors you could imagine. The line was kind of long but it was definitely worth it. Actually, we got lucky since the line was long but it was inside the building. Later and the next day, we looked out the window and the line was wrapping around the block. After we ate our bagels it was time. Time to get ready for the day we have all been waiting for since high school. We started showering, curling our hair and doing our make-up. While we getting ready, we were drinking a rose bottle of sparkling wine. We were living the high life people. Something really unfortunate happen while we were getting ready. Something really unfortunate indeed. While getting ready, I stepped on the curling iron. It burnt the bottom of my foot pretty badly but it was Plaza day. Nothing was going to stop me from going. My friend freaked out though and ran to Duane Reed (Walgreens in NYC, I’m not sure why the name is different) to get something for my foot while I put it in cold water in the tub and continued to do my sister’s make-up. It is semi funny to look back on but it has been a week and I’m on crutches so only semi. It’ll probably be funnier as time passes. Anyways, it was time to go to the Plaza. Our hotel was only a ten minute walk and we had planned to walk down 5th Ave on our way and see the fancy stores but burnt foot so... also it was raining so it was fine. We were going to take a cab but Uber was so much quicker and honestly cheaper so. However, there was a science march in central park that day so our cab driver dropped us off about two blocks away from the Plaza and we walked/limped the rest of the way. Even though I’ve been to NYC many times, this was my first time in the Plaza I’m pretty sure. It was beautiful. Afternoon tea is at their Palm Court restaurant and its pretty much in the lobby so it isn’t hard to find. We sat down and we were in heaven. It was so nice and we couldn’t believe we were there. We got the New Yorker afternoon tea. They let us switch out sandwiches we didn’t want which was good. We all got to pick a flavor of tea and the pots were huge. They have you a good amount of sandwiches, a lot of cute mini desserts and scones. We even got champagne because ya know, Treat Yo Self!! The waiter forgot about our champagne so he gave us all another free glass which was totally unnecessary because we were preoccupied with tea and food but we weren’t going to turn it down. We were so full. We didn’t finish it all. We were there for about two hours. Honestly, I think we could have sat there all day and just enjoyed the moment but we were meeting up with our friend Nina so we had to move on... to the Empire Hotel.

Nina said the Empire hotel was right around the corner and I guess technically it was but it was about a 10 minute walk in the rain... on my burnt foot so that was a little rough. Nina suggested the Empire Hotel since they filmed some scenes from Gossip Girl there. It was cool. We all got the ‘Chuck Bass’ drink which was vodka, champagne, honey and lemon water. I don’t drink vodka so I replaced the vodka with Gin. The drink was really good. We just sat there and drank our Chuck Bass drink and caught up with Nina. There was some kind of party for professor at Columbia University so at first it was hard to find a spot to sit but once we did it was good. 

After the Empire Hotel, we took an Uber back to the hotel (well to the McDonalds a block away) and got changed and went out. Nina suggested a place close to the Empire Hotel to check out but since my foot was burnt we decided to stay close to the hotel. There was a place Alicia found that had Karaoke at midnight but before that it was just a normal bar. We walked by a bar that had live music so we decided to go back there for a little and that was a lot of fun. Then we went back to the bar with Karaoke and it was a little strange. They kept playing songs we didn’t know but we sang along for a little until we were ready to say goodnight to the night. 

Sunday, we didn’t have a ton of time before the bus so we went to brunch at The Redemption. We picked it because it had unlimited mimosas (are you seeing the theme of the weekend, not intentional..kind of). The food was really good too. It was definitely what we needed since we had a long bus ride. So after brunch we headed toward the Port Authority to get on our bus. Unfortunately, we were dropped off on the opposite side of the Port Authority but we were able to get tea/coffee for the bus ride so we thought. We got to our bus at 1:50-1:55 and the bus driver informed us that he had one seat left on the bus. We were so confused since we had tickets for the 2pm bus but yet there weren’t enough seats. So we didn’t get on since we had to stick together and went to the information center where the guy said that the driver was suppose to wait until 2 to let the standby line on but he didn’t so we lost our seat. So if you ever take a Greyhound to NYC, remember to get there early, otherwise you might lose your seat. The next bus that had three seats available was at 5:30pm. This would have been alright if my foot wasn’t burnt. There’s plenty to do in NYC to waste 3 hours, Time Square was only a block away but I couldn’t walk. So we honestly sat around on the ground since there were no seats, complained then waited in line for the bus back home at 4 where there apparently wasn’t enough seats. Honestly, we were tired, my foot hurt so we didn’t do the best thing. We gave the driver our tickets and he didn’t look at the time I guess and let us on the bus. I was so nervous that we would be kicked off but we didn’t. The bus started moving and no one said anything. NYC was so much fun. I wish we could always live the high life but you know, you need money.