A Wednesday In and Around of Central Park

Wednesday, our last day in the city, kicked off with a divine latte from Cafe Grumpy (though they spelled my name wrong) and an onion bagel with tofu scallion cream cheese from Ess-a-Bagel.

Central Park was our only plan for the day since we would be departing on another overnight bus at 6:40 p.m. Though we'd intended to check out a bit of The Met as well, we quickly realized how unrealistic that plan was.

New York City is full of wonderful places to check out, and I'd definitely recommend leaving ample time to just walk around. We continuously stumbled upon somewhere nice to sit or something cool to browse through. The Strand pop-up bookshop was one of those. For just a few tables, they had a surprisingly diverse selection, and I got myself a few buttons and a magnet.

We then entered in the southeastern corner of Central Park and meandered around, meeting some lovely views on the way. I'd love to come back again the summer when more trees are alive.

We then passed by Strawberry Fields, where a busker played guitar and sang Beatles songs. Sitting there on the benches felt like a stereotypical New York City movie moment.

Though it was far from our path, we made a large detour to see the (very flattering) statue of Alexander Hamilton and stood in front of it attempting to rap the musical's opening number.

Since The Met was right beside the statue, we popped over to see the building -- a grand sight in itself, but unfortunately didn't have time to explore inside. This place is top on my list the next time I come to New York. The large statue of Athena in the main hall got my inner classics nerd very excited.

From there, we headed to Maoz for a late lunch, followed by Levain Bakery for the most delicious gooey chocolate chip cookies. I was so full off the meal I didn't eat again until the following morning.

Boarding time came before we knew it. The bus ride home was, frankly, awful. We made so many stops along the way that it was impossible to sleep and also arrived in Toronto an hour late. I'm still trying to catch up on rest. Though I'd definitely take it slower next time, I'm already eager to go back and keep seeing (and eating) everything the city has to offer.

Photos by Julie Zhang and Linh Nguyen