1. Take the Staten Island Ferry. The ferry runs for free from downtown Manhattan to Staten Island every half hour. It has amazing views on the East River and Upper Bay, and even runs right next to the Statue of Liberty. We would suggest taking it in the evening after sunset, watching the city pass by in the dark and seeing it all lit up is breathtaking.
   
2. Go to Chinatown! If you’re looking for a cool place to see with good food and exotic markets, look no further. Chinatown has everything and a great atmosphere at that. There’s good Vietnamese, Chinese, and Korean spots down here. And some Chinese bakeries to get some sweets at too. There’s also fruit stands on the streets selling a lot of exotic fruits that you don’t normally see at your local supermarket. You can buy dragonfruit, passionfruit, and even durian, (if you don’t know what it is, look it up) etc. Also don’t forget to hit a good pho spot there.
   
3. After Chinatown, go to Little Italy! Obviously Little Italy is strewn with cafes and restaurants. The world of Italian food is your oyster here, but just a word of advice for those who don’t know, don’t eat at a restaurant where there is a guy trying to get you to come inside, they’re always the worst. Also there’s one really good bakery called Ferrara that we would recommend. Regardless if you’re hungry or not, it’s a cool place to check out, it feels like old New York.
4. If you’re doing some sightseeing, hit Times Square early in the morning before it gets crowded. Aga and I got there super early just to take a couple pictures and pretty much no one else was there. I felt like Tom Cruise in Vanilla Sky in the opening dream scene.
5. People watch, especially in the Subways and on Wall Street. You never know what you’re going to see in New York, but you do know it will always be weird. New York probably has the highest weirdos per capita than any other city in the world, at least more than I’ve ever seen. Just sit back sometime, keep your eyes peeled, and enjoy the free show, wherever you happen to be in the city. Aga and I also had a fun time doing this is in Washington Square Park.
   

   

6. Go eat some udon noodles at Raku. This was a recommendation from one of my good friends, and he definitely didn’t disappoint. They have 2 locations, one in the East Village (we went here), and one in SoHo. When you walk up they don’t even have a sign outside, there’s usually a wait up it’s well worth it. They have delicious udon noodle soups for really reasonable prices, especially for NYC. Go to Raku.
   
   

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7. If you like beer, go check out the Good Beer shop. This was also a recommendation from my same friend. They have the obvious craft beer stuff, but also have some local stuff to New York that’s really hard to find outside of there. It’s located right next to the Ukrainian Village, so you can get some borscht and then some beer. Always a good deal, and don’t worry Joe, I’m gonna send you that 4 pack still.

So guys, this is just a short list. This wasn’t Aga or I’s first time in New York. Of course there’s a million things to do there, and all of the tourist sights and destinations. This is maybe for some people that aren’t just sightseeing, but looking for places to go and enjoy, just hanging out for the day. Aga and I had our best time in New York cause we weren’t sightseeing, we had nothing really planned, just woke up super early and hit the city. We walked literally everywhere, except in to and out of the city. We did like 18 miles or something crazy like that, it was definitely a different view of the city, walking all the way thru it.