A Whirlwind Monday in New York City

We started the day off with bagels at the Brooklyn Bagel and Coffee Company, where I was astounded by the number of cream cheese flavours, from tofu spinach to almond raisin. I'm usually not a fan of cream cheese, but these kinds were so light and delicious. A mini one was enough to fill me up, so they didn't make for too expensive a breakfast either.

With bagels to go, we subwayed to an the entrance of the High Line and walked it down to the Chelsea Market. The sun had begun to come out, and I could've happily stayed on one of the benches basking in the light and reading (or sleeping) for hours.

The views mainly consisted of high rises and protest posters, with some interesting and life-like statues along the way…

The indoor Chelsea Market, not far off from the High Line, turned out to be smaller than I'd expected.

Most of the vendors sold food, but all were expensive. Though it was nice to walk around, I didn't feel too inclined to buy anything. We decided to just grab a small soup and head off to meet our tour guide from Big Apple Greeters.

I would've liked to spend much longer touring and will definitely contact the company again the next time I go. We only had about an hour, so we just took a walk around SoHo, known for its iron buildings and Belgian block streets.

From there, we made our way across the Williamsburg bridge to Brooklyn, walking around the streets until we reached the water.

There was a spot on the rocks that offered a beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline. I could've sat there for much longer than we had. Since we had a reservation for later that evening, we couldn't stay long enough for the views to sink in.

The previous day at Madman Espresso, the barista had talked to us about a nice café nearby called Devocion. We passed it on our way to the bus stop and Julie got a macchiato, which was too strong for my taste. The decor was beautiful, but the room was crowded, so we moved on to catch our bus home.

We'd made a reservation for Bar 65 on the 65th floor of the Rockefeller Centre at 5:15 p.m., which required formal attire. It was so nice to get dressed up since I usually look like a mess when travelling. For once, taking pictures wasn't accompanied by mild horror at my day old clothes and limp hair.

Bar 65 quickly became the highlight of the day. We'd chosen to go up for the view, and sunset was the perfect time to do so. We got a postcard glimpse of the city from three directions.

Inside, we both ordered drinks and fries -- which, though expensive, still came to less than one cost of admission to the Top of the Rock viewing deck a few floors up -- and enjoyed a lovely couple hours watching the sun go down. By the time we left, all the lights had come on in the city. We went out on the deck one last time, but it had gotten too cold to stay long.

Our last stop of the day was Broadway. We had gotten tickets to Chicago several weeks back. I'd never seen the show or the movie, but enjoyed it immensely, as I knew I would. Though it didn't come close to Wicked or Les Mis for me, the plot and themes were strong. I was surprised by how small the theatre was and the effects were relatively low-key, particularly since the last big musical I'd seen was Phantom of the Opera, but Chicago's story far surpassed that.

By the end of the show, I was exhausted and ready to drop to sleep on the spot. We headed straight back to my friend's apartment in Astoria. Though it was nice to see so much, I'd definitely take it easier in the future because all of these places could've been easily worth a full day.

Photos by Julie Zhang and Linh Nguyen.