Central Park, Cookie Tour, High Line Park - huge photos

I took photos for your benefit, okay.

Dawn on the plane ride.

Took an amble in Central Park. It's so idyllic. It's like a Secret Garden right smack in the centre of a concrete jungle. Central Park reminds me of the scene where Gisele breaks into song in the movie Enchanted. And Stuart Little, though I didn't watch that one.

I went on a cookie tour on the Upper West Side as well. Credits to Anna at Cookie Madness. My sister thinks it doesn't make sense that I avoid carbs like potatoes, rice and noodles, but indulge in cookies and cakes. My rationale is that the former are filler carbs, whereas desserts are nothing without the carbs. The carbs must be worth their while! On the day I went for the cookie tour, I had cookies for lunch and dinner. D:

First stop: Levain Bakery. It's a little hole in the wall bakery and couldn't fit more than ten people standing.

It's a huge, fat cookie stuffed with chocolate chips and walnuts. Not my favourite, it was a little too sweet and too substantial for me. But if you like your cookies hearty, this is the cookie for you. This cost $3.75. Argh.

Second stop: Jacques Torres.

I was stuffed with eating half the Levain cookie, so I ate the Jacques Torres cookie at home.

See how the chocolate is woven into the cookie dough? I like this cookie best. Slightly crisp around the edges, chewy and moist on the inside, and chocolate not overwhelming but perfectly complementing the wonderful texture of the cookie. I finished this in one sitting, because it was so good. This cookie cost $2.50. Argh.

Next is a black-and-white cookie, a supposedly New York trademark. This is from William Greenberg Bakery.

It is huge.

Black and white cookies are not really cookies, but are soft, sponge cake-like shortbreads iced with vanilla fondant on one half and dark chocolate on the other. I found the fondant on this one weird tasting. Everything was really sweet. I'd call the taste of this one unsophisticated and flat. This cookie costed something like $3.75. Argh. These cookies are unbelievably expensive.

I also visited several boutiques along Madison Avenue on the Upper West Side. I felt like I could be happy if I owned some of those clothes. Mmm. Oh I checked out the Commes Des Garcon boutique in Chelsea. It is uber chic and stylo-milo. Even the retail associates were dressed in Commes Des Garcon from top to toe.

I also checked out High Line Park, a newly-opened park in the Chelsea neighbourhood. It opened on June 9th. High Line park is converted from disused subway tracks.

So it is an elevated strip park.

They incorporated the subway tracks into part of the park's design. I love the great outdoors, cemented over and landscaped into harmless little sanctuaries for urbanites like me.

Deck chairs for sunbathers.

Some sort of viewing gallery, where you can sit above the traffic and watch the world zoom past beneath your feet.

Nice. This photo looks like one of those photoshopped condominium advertisements where they stick fake people walking on their rooftop gardens. I think urban planning is a really interesting career. Manhattan was meticulously planned out by city planners, which is why the grid system is so uniform across the borough. But it's interesting to note how some cities are planned, while others are born. Some cities, no matter how efficient they are, never achieve the kind of energy and vibrancy of a living and breathing city. Like Singapore. Hur.

I've also done a few other quintessentially NYC activities, like thrift-shopping, play-watching, park-strolling, subway-taking, art gallery-hopping and long distance-walking. What now? I haven't experienced much of nightlife yet - but what, go to a dive bar alone meh? Omg sudden revelation! A peep show in Times Square! Alrighteey, I will do this soon. (My sister just rebuked me for wanting to do this. She says a girl should not be wandering about these shady places by herself. Argh, there are just some things you can't do by yourself.)

Oh, the radio station Z100 ALWAYS plays the same old popular songs. "She wears high heels I wear sneakers", "tonight's gonna be a good good night", "I know you want me, you know I want you", "this love's just like a battlefield", "do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips", "good girls go bad", "fire burning on the dance floor", "she got her own thing, that's why I love her", "evacuate the dancefloor" - they reliably play these dance tracks. Stuff I remember always playing in Butter Factory. A little bit overkill lah. Then again it's a mainstream radio station, what to expect? But I want to hear maybe a little alternative, punk, indie, rock, boyband pop, just some variation.

I love being here.