Last year, I spent my 30th birthday in Prague, which was obviously a beautiful and unique experience. Since I was traveling alone, though, I missed having someone to share it with. This year, I decided to stop putting off my visit to see Dhane at Columbia, and ask him to entertain me for my birthday.
I arrived the afternoon of April 24th (a Wednesday), and went to check in at my hotel in Midtown. I picked that area because it seemed more central to all of the places I wanted to go, but I don’t think many other casual travelers go there. Did you know that Manhattan is very big? From my hotel, it took about 50 minutes to get to Dhane’s apartment on the Upper West Side via subway, and that was only if I caught the right transfer at the right time. Many times, I took a Lyft ride instead. Manhattan is also expensive, did you know?
I went to meet Dhane and got to see his cute apartment and plants before we went to dinner. He took me to a Mexican restaurant called Cafe Frida, which was the first of several meals that made up what I would call the “Death by Food Tour”. Very good chips and guacamole and enchiladas! We also stopped by Magnolia Bakery so that I could pick up some chocolate banana pudding. My siblings frequently like to make me jealous in our family group text with pictures of some location-specific treat, like Magnolia Bakery, Neptune’s Net, Tito’s Tacos, new puppy pics, etc. This time, I have the picture! I am she with the treat!
That night, we somewhat spontaneously went to see the new Hellboy. Even as a person who enjoys bad movies (anyone see The Meg?), I would not recommend this one. The next day, I met up with Dhane for lunch at Shake Shack during his break from working on projects, then decided that I needed to see Captain Marvel to get caught up before we saw the new Avengers the next day. Turns out, I didn’t really need to do that, but I still enjoyed watching Brie Larson beat up Jude Law. How could you not? Afterwards, I visited a ramen restaurant near Madison Square Park called Wagamama. Highly recommend.
On Friday morning, Dhane and I had plans to visit a brunch spot near his apartment called Alice’s Tea Cup. It was a very cute little restaurant, like a grandma’s house, with a full menu of options for tea and scones. We then met up with a friend of Dhane’s to see Avengers: Endgame, which Dhane had been excited to see for several months. I’m not personally very invested in the franchise, but I do love Thor and enjoyed his contributions. I think Dhane liked it. After the movie, we stopped by Magnolia Bakery again, and I decided to head back to the hotel a little early, since I wasn’t feeling all that great. My throat was starting to feel sore, and I wasn’t sure if New York allergens were getting me, or if I was actually getting sick.
Surprise! The next day, Saturday, was my 31st birthday, and I woke up feeling quite sick indeed. Dhane and I had planned to meet for brunch or lunch, go see The Book of Mormon musical near Times Square, and go to a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant. We followed through on those plans, but I won’t remember them fondly as the best experiences of my life. I did sit in a booth once occupied by Jerry Seinfeld at the Brooklyn Diner, which is semi-interesting. The Book of Mormon was funny, but lewder than I expected, and poor Dhane was being very intensely squeezed in his narrow seat between me and the large man to his right. Dinner was great, at Geoffrey Zakarian’s The National, with pretty memorable brussels sprouts, buffalo wings, and steak. I didn’t feel great physically, but I really appreciated the bonding time I had with Dhane that day.
On Sunday, I had planned to go see Dhane’s professor’s film screened at the Tribeca Film Festival around noon, and then to a long-running comedy show I had been wanting to see for years. Unfortunately, I was 100% fully sick, to the point that I couldn’t leave my hotel room for more than a quick trip to the Duane Reade on the corner. I ordered a bagel and schmear from H&H via Postmates, and spent the majority of the day watching Law & Order and sleeping. Dhane came over in the afternoon to watch TV with me for a bit, and brought two varieties of ramen that I could choose from. He very generously ended up giving me both after I didn’t like the one I chose. I had planned to go to Dhane’s apartment to the new Game of Thrones with him, but this wasn’t really possible, so we watched the incredibly bleak “Battle of Winterfell” across town from each other.
The next day, I was feeling a little better, but still nowhere full health. I felt a responsibility to get out and enjoy the trip that I had been so looking forward to, but I couldn’t talk myself into getting up to go on a 2.5-hour cruise around the island of Manhattan. I later rallied and went to meet Dhane for lunch, got a New York slice at Koronet, took a picture in front of the Seinfeld restaurant, then walked up to and around the Columbia campus and took a few pictures there. Dhane had to get back to schoolwork, but his recommendation was to go to Central Park and wander around, especially the Great Lawn. It was a little cold, I was completely drugged up on DayQuil, and it was one of the most surreal and physically unpleasant experiences of the trip. I pushed through, took the subway all the way down to Chinatown to see a cheese shop a friend recommended, walked through Sara D Roosevelt Park, watched some teens practicing lacrosse, and ate dinner at the Meatball Shop. My phone died before dinner, but I luckily knew which bus I could take to get back to the hotel. All in all – a tough day, but still an interesting adventure.
Tuesday was my last day before my early flight on Wednesday, and I woke up feeling a little better and determined to do as much as I could. I paid for a second ticket on the 2.5-hour Manhattan cruise, and I enjoyed that quite a bit. I’ve been to NYC a few times but this was my first time seeing the Statue of Liberty, and it was nice to learn about the bridges and to see the lusher, greener parts of the island up north. Afterward, I met Dhane at a nice little restaurant called Dig Inn for lunch, and visited Columbia again for a minute. That campus sure is nice, I tell you what. Dhane was busy with classes for the rest of the day, and I planned to go to a taping of the Seth Meyers late night show in the afternoon, but was too tired and took a nap instead. I did manage to get a last-minute evening ticket to a movie at the Tribeca Film Festival called Plus One, and am glad that I went to see it and hear the directors talk about it. I also grabbed some dinner from the Halal Guys as a final NYC meal.
I wrote much more than I anticipated, but it turned out to be quite the trip in retrospect. I really appreciate the time that Dhane put into entertaining me and making sure I had things to do. I am very jealous that Dhane gets to live there and that there are so many things to see and do, always. Maybe someday I’ll move. In the meantime, thanks for giving me a reason to visit!