24th October 2015 | Saturday
Flight Info :
- Flight (Qatar Airway) from Malaysia to Doha (transit) : 0300 - 0530 ; Duration : 7 hours, 30 minutes
- Doha to New York : 0815 - 15:15 ; Duration : 14 hours
Total duration : 21 hours and 30 minutes on air.
The time shown is subjected to the local time of Doha and New York respectively.
When I touched down at JFK International Airport with my boyfriend 'L', the date is still 24 October 2015 as New York was 12 hours behind Malaysia at that time.
Accommodation Info :
Park Slope, Brooklyn via Airbnb, this is the link of the place : https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/64649
You can get RM84 rebate for your first Airbnb stay in any part of the world by clicking this link with my referral code : www.airbnb.com/c/itan915?s=8
All you need to do is to sign up using the link above and you can start booking your accommodation for your vacation!
Honest Review of My Airbnb Stay in Brooklyn :
It was a great location and near to the subway (which is our priority when we travel). The neighbourhood is beautiful and since we arrived few days before Halloween, there were many houses already nicely decorated in the spirit of Halloween.
My host, Suzanne is a friendly, nice girl. My major concern when I travel would be the cleanliness of the bathroom. The bathroom at Suzanne's place was really clean during my stay, I believe it is always well maintained by Suzanne. The bedroom we stayed in was clean too. I appreciated the kind gesture by Suzanne in providing various sizes of towels for body and face, that was really thoughtful.
We could not get a travel sim card at the airport as we were told both L and my phone are locked. It was hard to survive without internet when we are traveling to a totally foreign place like USA, as opposed to Asia. We got lost for 1-2 hours trying to get to Park Slope with two heavy luggage. We walked a lot in the cold. It was 13°C with constant cold wind and we were both under-dressed for the weather. L even wore a short pant since it is more comfortable to rest/sleep with short pants on the plane. We should have changed into thicker clothing before leaving the airport.
We expected an elevator or escalator at every subway station but there are only available in certain stations. I was too small and weak to hand-carry my luggage up the long
staircases. Poor L as he had to get both our luggage all the way from the steep staircases at the subway station.
Since I did not get proper rest on the plane, I skipped dinner and went to bed once we reached Suzanne's place. L, on the other hand, went to explore the neighbourhood nearby and had dinner.
25th October 2015 | Sunday
Morning temperature : 14°C
Beautiful neighbourhood in Brooklyn. The first place we were heading to was Smorgasburg - Brooklyn Flea Market. It was supposed to be outdoor but due to the weather (cold), it moved indoor.
Lobster Roll from Red Hook Lobster Pound. I have been following their Instagram account for some time. I was surprised to find out that Red Hook is one of the food vendors in Smorgasburg.
Price : USD 18
Taste : 8.5 / 10
The bun was spread with butter on the inside, it was slightly crispy with the good aroma of butter eaten together with the fresh lobster, it tasted heavenly.
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Next stop : Coney Island
Transportation : Train
Coney Island is a very relaxing place and we were both glad that we came at the right time during Fall with chilly weather in the afternoon. It only gets cold in the morning and after the sunset/night time.
We tried Nathan's Famous Chili Cheese Dog, it was the BEST Coney Dog both L and I ever had. The hot dog was really good.
Taste : 9/10 ( as you can see from L's facial expression in the video above )
Address : 1310 Surf Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11224, United States
Phone :+1 718-333-2202
Brief history of Nathan's :
In 1916, Polish immigrant Nathan Handwerker started a nickel hot dog stand on Coney
Island with a $300 loan from two friends and his wife’s secret spice recipe. Today, Nathan's is
the most famous hot dog in the world, with restaurants across the globe, products in every supermarket
in America and millions of fans. And yes, the first Coney Island store is still there.
L and I found out that there is a Nathan's Famous franchise in Malaysia! It is at the IOI Mall, Putrajaya. We went and tried the chili cheese dog last week. Unfortunately, the Malaysia franchise could not maintain the standard of the chili cheese dog that we tried at Coney Island. It was bad. If I were to rate it, I would give a 4/10. The hot dog is not the same as the hot dog we tried at Coney Island. It was a disappointment.
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Next Stop : Pizza for lunch at award winning Totonno's Pizzeria Napolitana.
Address : 1524 Neptune Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11224
Contact : 718 372 8606
Quoted from the website :
The Totonno's family has been making the best pizza in NYC for over 89 years. Our philosophy is simple: as long as there's dough, we will bake you the best pizza, with the finest ingredients.Come over and see for yourself why Zagat, the New York Times, and the James Beard Foundation have awarded Totonno's Pizzeria Napolitana as the best pizza in New York City, and probably the world!
The above image credit : NEW YORK EATER.
We did not get good shot of the pizza because we did not see anyone in the restaurant taking out their cellphones or camera to take picture of the food. So we wanted to blend in and NO Asian-At-Work. Took two photos as below in a really quick manner, hence this explains why the quality of the pizza images are not so good.
Taste : 8/10
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Next Stop : Brooklyn Bridge
The above pictures show the view of the neighborhood while on the way to Brooklyn Bridge. We will have to go through Brooklyn Height. Brooklyn Height is a very beautiful neighbourhood with nice houses, people walking their dogs on the street. The environment is very relaxing, laid-back and it is also obvious that it costs a lot to afford a unit in Brooklyn Height compared to other parts of Brooklyn due to its proximity to Brooklyn Bridge.
We reached Brooklyn Height from Metro Station at around 4.30pm. However, traveling in foreign places with free and easy style WITHOUT a working internet is not easy. So we started asking around and looking for mobile shops like AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon nearby.
As we were walking to Brooklyn Bridge, we passed by Christopher Columbus statue in front of New York State Supreme Court Building, at Montague and Court Streets. I was admiring NY State Supreme Court since I am a law student. How nice it would be if I get to be an advocate in New York and live in New York!
Walking on Brooklyn Bridge at 6.30pm.
We used one hour and a half to search for simcard and finally got it. We walked past many blocks to a few mobile shops until we finally found one.
As we were walking toward the direction of Brooklyn Bridge, we passed by another beautiful park (Colombus Park) while on the way but we have no time to stop to chill or take some photos because we have to walk really fast as we were afraid that the sun is going to set and the sky will be dark by the time we reached Brooklyn Bridge.
As we getting closer to Brooklyn Bridge, temperature is around 15°C
but since we are going up the bridge (going to higher ground), it was
cold and the wind was so strong that both L and I have to take out our
gloves and wrap an extra scarf over our neck.
View of Manhattan Bridge (the one in blue) from Brooklyn Bridge (brown/wood color).
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Next Stop : Dinner
We wanted to explore the restaurants near to where we stay (Park Slope), so we have to walk from Brooklyn Bridge to the subway station. The wind was strong and it was super cold. Halfway during the walk, we couldn't stand the cold anymore and we saw Shake Shack! Our plan was to go to the Shake Shack branch at Grand Central Terminal but due to the cold, I really wanted to go indoor. Plus, I always heard that Shake Shack is the best burger in the world, as claimed by many people. There is no harm of getting more than one shake shack during our trip.
The one we found is near to Brooklyn Bridge.
Address: 1 Old Fulton St, Brooklyn, NY 11201, United States
They say that it is usually crowded and that the queue would be long. To my surprise, it was not very crowded, lucky!
We ordered ShackBurger (cheeseburger topped with lettuce, tomato and ShackSauce) and Cheese Fries + Soda for sharing since I was having jetlag, all I wanted was to go back to Park Slope for rest.
The ShackBurger is simple yet delicious with very fresh beef patty. It doesn't taste as commercialized as the burgers you eat at McDonald's, the taste is very 'homemade', this one really has the 'oomph'! We were already loving the burger and to us, it really is one of the best burgers we ever tasted so far.
After dinner, we had to proceed to the subway station but it was very windy and cold. We wanted to save on transport as much as possible since we bought 7 days unlimited metro passes. We do not want to take the iconic yellow cab cause we were afraid it's gonna cost a lot especially at night. Uber will be our last resort if subway train is too far. At this moment when we were trying to decide to proceed the cold windy walk to subway station or to call Uber, I suddenly remembered I saw the banner of another transportation app called LYFT which claimed to be the most affordable cab service. So I used Shake Shack wifi to download the app and there is this car-pooling service where the system will immediately connect us with other passenger(s) who are going to same or nearby destination. This is the cheapest service LYFT offers and there is also the normal cab service which I think is slightly cheaper than Uber in NYC.
Image credit : goodshop
What I love about LYFT is that as first time user, I get 5 free rides worth $10. That is a lot to us, if our fare ride exceed USD 10, we just have to top up the extra. It helps us save. Our main means of transportation is still the metro but we will need LYFT or Uber when we move to our next accomodation with our heavy luggage.
L and I rode our first LYFT ride with two other passengers via carpool. It is a chance to meet new people too. Upon reaching Park Slope, we immediately got ready for bed. Another exciting day tomorrow as we will leave Brooklyn and move to Manhattan for two days!
Next post : Manhattan
First~~
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year. xD
Lol, you still blog?
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!