New York City is known as the concrete jungle, full of skyscrapers that tower into the sky, streets filled bumper to bumper with taxis and people covering the sidewalks hurring from one place to the next. It’s the king of all king cities in the United States lining the island with a skyline that can’t fit in one photo lens. 

When it really comes down to it though, Manhattan is only a mere 23 square miles. Compare that to back home in  Seattle which is 143 square miles and suddenly the island feels a lot smaller. It starts to feel even smaller when you compare densities. Seattle sustains about 7,300 people/ per square foot (2009) compared to almost 28,000 in New York City. Start doing the math a little bit and it’s enough to start to kind of make you go crazy. The hustle and bustle is what makes this city so great and inspiring, which on most days I enjoy. Sometimes you just need a little change of scenery, where ever you may live. Normally, I’d just hop in my car and drive down some country roads or some of the roads through the hills in Portland if I started to feel a little claustrophobic, but here it’s not really an option. Instead, you have to make a plan of where you want to head and jump on a packed bus, subway or train to your destination. 

The cool thing about the east coast in general though is that everything is so close! If I want to hop on a train and go to Boston or Philadelphia for the day it’s only a couple of short hours away. This is something I haven’t really been taking advantage of yet, especially since winter started, but something I will definitely embark on in the spring and summer. Besides leaving the island to go on vacation to Florida I haven’t even left the island. You may think, why leave there’s more than enough to entertain you there. You’d be right, but as I mentioned before sometimes you just need a little change of scenery and I was definitely feeling that way this Saturday.

So, I decided to head across the Hudson to Hoboken, New Jersey. I’ve had a lot of friends mention it, but have yet to make it out there so I decided this weekend it was time to make it happen. So I headed downtown on the subway and transferred to the PATH train, which connects New York transit to New Jersey across the river. The PATH was easy enough to find and at $1.75 a ticket it was a cheap adventure. 

Once I made it across the river I walked out of the subway and headed down a couple of blocks to the waterfront. It was a cloudy, but beautiful day and there were plenty of joggers running around by the water. It was pretty cool to be down on the waterfront actually looking over at New York instead of being in it with some nice skyline opportunities, kind of like in Brooklyn. After I walked around the waterfront for a little bit I just started wandering up through the streets. Let me say that Hoboken is so cute! It was quiet, homey, and the buildings were painted brightly or at least the part that I was in. Eventually I made my way to the main street, Washington Street. There, I saw a huge line headed all the way down the block, and then across the street and down another block. I saw a Verizon store and wondered if people were waiting for the new iPhone, but then I realized it was right next to Carlos Bake Shop aka Buddy’s bakery from Cake Boss. I’ve heard plenty about this place from Faithidoo because of her love for it, so it was pretty neat to be standing in front of it. Of course I had to call and let her know! Although, I wasn’t determined enough to stand in the possibly 4 hour wait line. Maybe next time. 

I stopped by Starbucks and used my free Birthday drink and then continued throughout the streets clearing my mind and just taking in new scenery. I also decided on what apartment I would live in if I were to live in Hoboken. It was this cute little pink building with patios (see picture!). I spent a couple of hours walking around and then heading back to New York before dark so I decreased the chance of getting lost. I did have one more stop before heading home though. 

Good old Forever 21! Thank you Kayla for the giftcard for my Birthday. I decided it was alright to do a little shopping since I have hardly done any since moving here. Check out my pictures to see my new dress, skirt, and shirt! Very excited about them all. Once I checked out of there it was back uptown and onto dinner before heading out with friends on the UES to finish off the night!