Written January 2019
Day 4
Today, we were going into the city, mainly to see all of Norina’s old friends from school back in the Philippines, but also to just walk around the city some. I had been walking to walk the Brooklyn Bridge, since I had never done so before, so we decided to get a hotel nearby there to stay later that night. Our plan was to start in Brooklyn, get some pizza, walk across the bridge and then make our way over to the WTC area before making our way back. We got there around 12, so timing seemed about right.
Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass (DUMBO)
We had blue skies the whole day which was nice, but it was a bit brisk outside…so when it came to getting pizza, we decided against waiting outdoors for probably over an hr at Juliana’s or Grimaldi’s. Instead we went around the corner to lesser known Ignazio’s which may not have been wood-fired…but was still a delicious pie! Unfortunately, even though there was no wait to get in, the wait to get our pizza was super long…but worth it! We got one half pie with fennel sausage, and the other with prosciutto…sooo good!!
Ignazio’s
After we had our fill, we made our way to the pedestrian entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. We hadn’t really thought about it beforehand…but wow..it was crowded!! I was hoping that since it was a weekday it wouldn’t be busy….but I guess it was holiday times, so it really didn’t matter. Between taking pictures on the bridge…waiting for other people to take pictures…traffic on the bridge…it took us a LONG time to walk the 1.1 miles across the bridge.
Oh…and then there were the bikers on there…mixed bag of rude and understanding bikers. There was a bike lane, so I could understand their frustration…but on the other hand…you kind of have to expect that it’s going to be difficult to bike on there given the sheer volume of people. Anyways, we didn’t have enough time to go out to the World Trade Center, so just walked back across – much faster this time, since we stopped for much less pictures.
So afterwards, my parents drove and dropped us off at our hotel (and my dad checked us in since he was nice enough to let us use his free night). We didn’t have much time to relax, because we were meeting all of Norina’s friends at a restaurant in Queens at 6…so we got all showered and ready, and then made our way out to the Subway station. Thankfully, it was less than a 10 min walk to the nearest station…and we wound up making it to Tito Rad’s Grill right at 6!
We probably didn’t need to rush as much as we needed to though…we had a long table reserved for us….but it wound up just being Norina and I for close to an hour as everyone was running late. Everybody eventually showed up though, and it was great to see Norina catch up with all of her friends who she hadn’t seen in years. It was nice getting to meet them all too, and learn a little bit more about her from her friends. The food…obviously not as good as the Philippines, but still delicious nonetheless! My favorites of the night were probably the Crispy Pata and Laing, but we also has some Sisig, Tuna belly, Lumpia, and a ton of other dishes. I was SOOO FULL!!! But apparently not so full that when we went back to the hotel, I finished off the leftover crispy pata that we took home…hah!
Overall, it was a really good day of food, fotos, family and Filipino friends!
Jump to:
Xmas > Brooklyn > Manhattan > Jersey
The Dating Life of Norina and Jonathan 