Birthday Trip, New York City, May 2015 (Day 5)

Pejam celik pejam celik, I am already halfway through my NYC blog posts, you guysssss. 

You can read my entries on Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4 (if you haven't) before you continue to Day 5.

On our fifth day in NYC, we decided to visit the major tourist attractions that are listed in every single Top 10 lists you can find on the city; and by that I really mean the Empire State Building and the Top of the Rock hehehe.

10 May 2015 (Day 5)
[New York Pass activated]

- Empire State Building
- Green Fleamarket
- Shake Shack
- Central Park
- American Museum of Natural History
- Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Centre)
- Magnolia Bakery

Read online that the crowd for Empire State Building can get reaaaaally massive after 11.00am so we arrived at the building very early in the morning to avoid long queues! We arrived at the deck pretty quickly but the downside of this is that mornings seem to be very foggy while we were in NYC so we had to squint through the fog to see the view. Maybe that's why orang berpusu pusu datang at a later time? We'd really rather have a fuzzy dream-like view from the deck instead of queueing for hours and getting squashed by inconsiderate tourists, though. Hahaha.

We only went up to their 86th floor observation deck by the way, which was offered under the New York Pass, since that was sufficient for us. Kalau nak naik their 102th floor observation deck, nak kena top up.

Some friends told us that Empire State Building actually not much to look at, and that it looks and feels macam Peninsula Plaza hahahahahaha bastard sak. We didn't think so bila kita in the building ok! The architecture is very art deco, yes, but we thought that was the charming part seh! The building was built and completed in 1931 after all.

We dropped by Green Fleamarket after that but didn't buy anything except for a small bag of yummy Turkish puff pastries. Luckily that didn't spoil our appetites! We wanted to go to Shake Shack for lunch, you see, and the outlet we wanted to go to was just beside the flea market setup.

It wasn't our first time eating food from Shake Shack actually, we've tried the ones in Dubai International Airport before - we think their food is pretty good, just that their insanely long queues in NYC were a little unjustified because we've tasted better burgers elsewhere. Still, worth a trip if you ever have some spare time in NYC. 

Ordered our Shake Shack lunch as takeaway so we can makan sambil lepak at Central Park (also because their dining area dah takde tempat duduk kwa kwa kwa). Central Park is as bustling and as vibrant and as full of character as I imagined it to be, by the way!!!!! I loved strolling down Central Park, loved it even more when I laid down my picnic mat to have lunch and lepak. So many people to see, so much beautiful greenery to appreciate, and we didn't even have to break out much of a sweat macam kalau kat Singapore parks. So what if Botanic Gardens is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, kalau baru masuk 5 minute je ketiak dah banjir!!!

Thank God we chose to go NYC during spring/summertime! Have I mentioned that all the flowers around the city were ga-ga-ga-gggorgeous?!?! One of our couple-friends travelled to NYC in winter and they said Central Park looked miserable and dead, so kesian. Anywaaaaaay, we packed up after that and headed towards the American Museum of Natural History, which was within walking distance from our spot in Central Park.

Post-visit verdict: we were not impressed at all by the American Museum of Natural History sehhhhh. Ni semua hype Night at the Museum aje ah ni! Hahaha. Saliheen and I love museum visits and can take very long to finish rounding one museum but we both agreed that the nature of most exhibits in this museum were probably not our thing, and we thought the trip was so-so. I did quite like the dinosaur exhibits and human origins and culture halls, though.

It was late in the afternoon when we left the American Museum of Natural History, so we decided to take a train down to Top of the Rock. Friends have told me that I will enjoy the Top of the Rock more than the Empire State Building and this turned out to be very true!

If you're ever in NYC and can only choose one observation deck due to time and/or budget restrictions, I recommend opting for the Top of the Rock, even though their 67th and 69th floor observation deck is lower than the Empire State Building's 86th floor deck - mainly because it is modern, has transparent glass panels to peer out from, has more space for you to walk around AND you can see Central Park and the Empire State Building from Top of the Rock.

Anyway, since we were at the Rockefeller Centre area, we decided to drop by at a nearby Magnolia Bakery to purchase their popular cupcakes and banana pudding!!!!! I had high expectations because having a cupcake from Magnolia Bakery macam dah jadi a quintessential NYC thing to do gitu. Also grabbed our takeaway platters from a nearby Halal Guys foodcart and walked back to the hotel to have our dinner in our room.

From left to right: Small tub of banana pudding, Hummingbird cupcake and the classic Red Velvet cupcake.

Sad to say Saliheen and I didn't really enjoy the cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery :( The cupcakes were dry, and their icing wasn't outstanding. I honestly feel like our local Fluff Bakery punya cupcakes lagi maut seh. Maybe locals in NYC prefer drier cupcakes? I don't know. What I do know is the history of Magnolia Bakery so I guess it's all just the hype of its history instead of their cupcakes actually being sedap gila or anything like that.

I must say we regretted buying their banana pudding in a small tub though, because *that* shitz is da bombz dot com!!!!! SEDAP GILA KE APE!!!!! Thanks to my pelacz friend Azrul for recommending that to me!!!!! Kau tengok ah berapa banyak exclamation marks aku dah pakai!!!!! Hahahahaha. Needless to say both of us made return trips to Magnolia Bakery to borong their banana pudding in large tubs, itu pun laki bini bergaduh nak makan sebab tak nak share HAHAHA. Maybe I should search for their recipe online and try to replicate eh......