Wanderlust Wednesday - A knitted bicycle in New York City

Sometimes when you're traveling it's not the monuments or the big bull on Wall Street that makes you stop and look twice. Instead, it could be guerilla knitters that have knitted and chained a bicycle to a pole. Very unexpected and very peculiar!

3 Decadent Desserts To Try in NYC

1.      Lemon Curd Tart from Three Tarts 

Three Tarts in Chelsea screams cute from the moment you enter the door. The boutique and bakery sells delightful petit tarts that lets you indulge your sweet tooth without feeling too guilty. You can sample three tarts for $4.50USD. I shared the lemon curd, pine nut and cinnamon 'apple-crumble' tart. Each featured a crust both crisp and light. The lemon curd tart was a standout with smooth lemon filling with a hint of zest and a dolloped meringue top.

2.       Magnolia Bakery Cupcakes

Famed for its cupcakes that were edible extras in an episode of Sex and the City, Magnolia Bakery now has an organized but chaotic location near Rockefeller Centre. The standard varieties are $2.75 with a generous lashing of pastel buttercream icing. Seasonal cupcakes include the Rockette Red Velvet and a one off 2011 New Year cupcake with gold flakes. Rather than eating on the street at the takeaway bakery, my friends and I took a moment to appreciate the sugary wonders by sitting down by Rockefeller Centre. This caused more than one tourist to ask, “Where can I get one of those cupcakes?”

3.       The Best Chocolate Cake in the World

This Spring Street café makes a big statement in its name – but can it deliver? I’ve tasted lots of chocolate cake, homemade and store-bought, and this cake does rate highly. It has a rich mousse top layer and a lighter, meringue bottom layer and is topped off by chocolate glaze. It’s sweet without being overpowering and is best accompanied by a cup of coffee. Is it the best in the world? As I have yet to travel the entire world, I’d safely say it’s the best chocolate cake I've tried so far in NYC.  

Wanderlust Wednesday - Central Park After the Blizzard

Snow will always be surreal to me. It’s not something I’ve grown up with or will ever be used to. So when spending Christmas in NYC and hearing that a blizzard was forecast for Boxing Day it was like something out a movie.

Then it started snowing hard and fast when I was enjoying the sales at Bloomingdales. Despite the snow, a lot of extreme shopping was happening in Macy's where it was incredibly crowded!

The next morning when I woke up the city was pure white. It was very quiet outside except for the sound of snow shovels hitting the pavement. 

To make the most of the snow day we headed to Central Park. The biting wind swept more snowflakes into our faces when we entered the west side of the park.

Snow had swallowed parked cards, decorated tree branches, covered up benches and had frozen the top layer of the lake.

Everyone who had braved the cold was making the most of it. Parents were pulling kids along in sleds and toboggans. Kids were making snow angels and screaming in delight when sledding downhill.

I've got my snood and my new snow boots to keep me warm!

NYC dogs were delighted by the snow, running around in their jumpers or snow boots. This 11 year old pooch was having a rest in the snow as his paws were starting to get sore from the freezing conditions. His owner promised him some bacon bits to warm up!

The Most Beautiful Christmas Trees in New York City

New York City has Christmas trees in every building, shop, park and sometimes even on street corners! It's a heartwarming sight to behold, particularly at night when the lights of the trees glow majestically. It may be very cold and chilly outside but every Christmas tree you see gets you into the holiday spirit.

Union Square Park

Wall Street

Trees near Ground Zero

A Christmas tree made out of broken CDs in Chelsea Market

The most famous tree of all with the Swarovski star at Rockefeller Centre

Wanderlust Wednesday - New York City

Central Park, New York City, December 2006

New York. Concrete jungle where dreams are made of...

New York City holds a special place in my heart. It's where I spent my 21st birthday. I celebrated by visiting the MET, seeing the NYC Ballet perform the Nutcracker and having a Japanese dinner.

I've blogged about NYC at Christmas before. And this year I may, just may, be spending Christmas there again. Only this time it will be Christmas Day and all the way to New Year's Day.

There's so much I didn't do on my first trip that I'm already daydreaming about, such as:

• iceskating at Rockefeller Centre
• going to a basketball game
• exploring all of Central Park
• watching the ball drop in Times Square on NYE
• eating a pretzel
• gazing into the window of Tiffany & Co
• going all the way to the top of the Empire State Building
• shopping...ala SATC style

Traveling is about...Perseverance

View over the mountains from my airplane window from my flight from Manila to Caticlan

Yesterday I went for a massage and chose an "affirmation" beforehand. For cynics, this may sound a little like hooey. Swallowing my pessimism, I shuffled the cards and drew out Perseverance.

That's pretty meaningful, I admitted to my (massage) therapist before explaining my upcoming travels and goal of working overseas.

Looking back at last week I:

• got my UK work visa approved
• handed in my resignation from my place of employment for the last three years
• made meaningful contacts in preparation for working in the UK
• finalised acommodation for my 5 week European summer holiday
• agreed to spend Christmas in NYC with my brother

All of those things, no matter how big or small, are an accomplishment or steps to achieving something major. 

I know for a 20-something, giving up work and your normal daily-life for travel seems frivolous. Friends and colleagues may look at you enviously or think you're insane. Sometimes I think maybe I am a little crazy to give up my friends, my work, my security blanket of home-life.

Yet traveling in itself is a mean feat. It requires saving money and sacrificing shopping/socialising, hours of planning and organising and leaving behind the familiar comforts of home and stepping into the great unknown.

Things I thought I'd never do? I'm selling belongings that I love and forgetting all sentimentality. I'm asking strangers for help with professional contacts and networking everywhere I go. I'm savouring things I take for granted in my home-town of Perth.

The perseverance continues... and I'm perfectly fine with that. 

Christmas in NYC

Perth isn't as Christmassy as say New York City. Sure you find decorations in the CBD streets (which this year thanks to Mayor Lisa Scaffidi seems to have taken on a distinctly traditional Nativity theme), tinsel hanging in Coles and tacky santas and reindeer in shopping centres but nothing that comes as close as to how NYC celebrates Christmas.

In Dec '06 I was engulfed in the Christmas spirit in NYC. There were Christmas markets in every park we passed through. In Bryant Park we warmed up by eating cinnamon waffles and drank hot cider whilst watching skaters glide across the ice rink. On my 21st birthday I watched the NYC ballet perform the Nutcracker at the Lincoln Center, complete with falling snow on stage.

At Grand Central Station a very special holiday hologram display lit up the walls causing even the most rushed commuter to stop to take it all in. 

And then there's Madison Square Garden. Home of the biggest outdoor Christmas tree I had ever seen. There was a strange lull surrounding the space, everyone is smiling and you forget that its cold because...well it's Christmas.

This year at home it doesn't feel so Christmassy. We aren't hosting lunch and without visitors the mammoth task of putting up the tree and its hundreds of decorations has fallen by the wayside. But I can still reminisce on my perfect NYC Christmas visit.