I spent four days eating and chatting my way through New York City.

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

Ever since I studied abroad in South Korea in the summer of 2024, I’ve been trying to write blog posts for the little things I do, even if it’s going across town for a fun little day. When I was studying abroad in Busan my Korean teacher would show us these Naver (a Korean search engine) blogs random people would make documenting visiting parks or bakeries, and I loved that energy.

I think the Internet is a cluttered place, so even if no one reads this at the end of the day, it’s a cute little time capsule for as long as we have electricity—or my credit card stops paying for this domain. I recently started a job, at the time of typing this, and I’m finding one of the ways that I’ve continued to stay sane is by going on little side quests here and there.

Today’s blog post comes from a side quest I went on in August 2026, not too long before I’m typing this. I usually go up to New York every August to attend the Short Play Festival of the theatre I work at, and this time was my last visit to New York for a while. Basically, I won a Fulbright to South Korea and will be relocating shortly, which is so incredibly terrifying and awesome.

Anyways, on the last day of my corporate job, I hopped on a bus after work and made it into the city at 10 PM. Here’s what I did during my four days there!

Day one: Arriving, MoMA Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera exhibit, Off-Off-Broadway Theatre Festival at New Perspectives

My bus coming into the city was late on Friday, so I arrived at Port Authority Bus Terminal at 10 PM and hopped straight onto the next 3 train that pulled in at Times Square. About an hour later I was at my accommodation, and after a long final day of work and then getting on the bus, I decided it was time to just shower and go to bed.

I woke up at six AM the next day and then read a book. With the person I stayed with, we ventured up to the Grand Army Plaza Green Market and I purchased some danishes from Francesca’s, which is my favorite bakery at the market. Those danishes are always incredible.

I wanted to go to the MoMA right at opening, so I bought my ticket online in advance then headed into midtown around 9:30 AM. I arrived right after they opened and was surprised to see the line was small. Everyone flocked straight to the top floors, where the Monets, Picassos, and Van Goghs are, so I was pleased to have the bottom floors pretty much to my self.

I enjoyed the Frida and Diego exhibit, although it is a bit small and I’ve seen a chunk of the Kahlo paintings in there before. There was more Frida than Diego throughout, but what they did with the space was interesting, especially with the bed with a tree coming out of it. It symbolized Frida’s continuous health problems and struggles, which felt poetic.

I wandered around the MoMA for a bit longer before heading to the Just Salad around the corner. It feels a bit brave to eat a salad with a disease affecting lettuce, but, if we’re being honest, this salad was so incredibly mid to begin with. I finished that up then walked down to 37th Street, stopping at the Herald Square HeyTea for a mango coconut boom first.

I spent the rest of the day at New Perspectives Theatre Company, which was running their annual Short Play Festival. Basically we have six women identifying playwrights every year in a free LAB come up with a short play based on a theme, then we produce the plays so they can test it in front of a live audience.

After we held a party, we wandered back home slowly but surely. I relaxed for a bit more, showered, then passed out.

Day two: Liberty WNBA Game against the Las Vegas Aces, meeting with friends in Flushing

On my second day here, I was invited to a New York Liberty game against the Las Vegas Aces. This was my second Liberty game, so I ended up sitting in the same seats. It was such a good game, especially considering the Liberty ran up the score to over 100 points. That was really exciting to see happening right in front of me.

After the game I hopped on the 4 train at Bergen Street, then transferred at Grand Central to get on the 7 Train. My friend and I were planning to meet up in Flushing, and I managed to snag a seat on the 7 train so I could happily read my book for the next hour.

Once I arrived, I realized I was early, so then I ended up going to the jewelry store on the second floor of the New World Mall. My other friend wanted me to send stuff from there for her, so I purchased three pieces for her there as my friend arrived. I then grabbed some hotpot noodles from the New World Mall to take to Korea with me during the moving process.

My friend wanted to stop at a coffee shop, so we grabbed drinks there and wandered over to Tangram Mall. I had never seen it so busy—every time I’m around no one is in the mall, and on this Sunday it was absolutely packed and full of new stores. We wandered into a couple of the shops for a bit, picking up trinkets here and there, then headed to my favorite spot: Spring Shabu-Shabu.

This is genuinely my favorite hotpot. It’s cheap, filling, and the ingredient quality is good, making it the perfect place to eat multiple meals in one sitting. Which is exactly what I did while yapping with my friend, who, sadly, burned the bottom of her hotpot broth because of some stray fresh ramen noodles.

After that we parted ways and I made the long trek home. Good thing I had another book! I showered and passed out after yappingwith who I was staying with.

Day three: Lunch at Ayat, Cortelyou, Central Park, Qahwah House, and Koreatown

Day three was also pretty chill and basically was just meeting up with friends and people. The person I was staying with and I decided to go down to Ditmas Park to eat at Ayat, but stopped at Cortelyou to see some of the nicer houses that were located along those back streets. It genuinely felt like I was in suburbia in that neighborhood.

Our lunch at Ayat was a little expensive, but it was delicious. We split the appetizer hummus, a vegan platter, and an order of kefta. The kefta was my least favorite part of the meal, but it was still good. The vegan platter was the real star of the show here, as the cauliflower on that plate was absolutely incredible.

From there I headed to midtown, stopping at McNally Jackson to see what books they had. I was a little annoyed they overtook what used to be the Korean section with more Japanese books (I made colonialism jokes to my friend later), but I ended up picking a book from their publisher (McNally Editions) and an Iraqi-British novel.

I then walked through Central Park. I made it to the Shakespeare Garden before very much dying in the heat. It was in that moment, dripping in sweat, that I decided to venture to my next plans early. I was meeting my friend at the Columbia Qahwah House, and we yapped for about an hour or so before I had to head back downtown.

It started pouring as soon as I got off the 1 Train, so I ended up hiding in Macy’s and blanching at the prices of low quality blouses. I then sprinted across the street to H&M and proceeded to see even worse quality clothes. I don’t belong in fast fashion stores—I’ve been picky about my fabrics ever since going to fashion school.

With my boss and person I was staying with we grabbed Toseokchon once it stopped raining. I had picked out this place to eat, and my boss swore it was the best yookgaejang she ever had. I didn’t care for my gukbap, but I was also mentally comparing it to where I would get it in Busan while living there.

It was another chill night in after arriving home, except for a quick pit stop to Junior’s to pick up cheesecake for a friend.

Day four: venturing to Baltimore for a BTS concert!

Day four started quickly, as I grabbed my stuff and went to midtown. I had a 9:30 AM bus back to Baltimore, but I had enough time to stop at Bagel Market nearby, grabbed a toasted everything bagel with cream cheese and coffee, then board the bus.

I had to be back in Baltimore for a very specific reason: I had BTS tickets with my friends! Two hours after I got home we grabbed House of Kabob for dinner, then changed and ventured to M&T Bank Stadium. The last time I saw BTS was in 2018, when they toured and I bought tickets to Prudential Center, so this was such a special night.

I danced, laughed, and sung a lot. I didn’t expect that—the only time I’ve felt that free is when I saw Bad Bunny in Lisbon earlier in the year, so maybe this is a sign life has been good lately.

And that’s how my trip ended! I’m heading to Korea in a few short days, so expect some travel diaries from there in the coming months.

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