Cold breeze.  Snow smokes.  Light winds.  Black coats.  Pretty manequins.  And one million lights.

It was early winter in November; it was my third time in the big apple, but with only myself this time.  No, I wasn’t afraid of travelling alone.  I was actually glad to spend three days wandering about the city by myself.  Remembering how I walked about central Paris alone for a day reminds me of that carefree feeling that I had.  What’s more, New York in this Christmas season truly feels like it brought me back to lovely Paris.

Amazing but true, I walked up and down Fifth Avenue and somehow found myself at the giant Christmas tree of Rockefeller Centre for all three days.  Fifth Avenue is fantastically magical and fabulous.  The shop windows are opulently decorated for Christmas; the manequins are dressed up as if they were all going to a Christmas balls with Cinderella, the Victorian buildings are clad in their fancy lights - Bvlgari has two blazing diamond serpents crossing over it, Cartier has a huge red bow wrapping it, and Saks Fifth Avenue has turned into a giant screen for its light shows.

I remembered that first hint of feeling that I got as I saw a glimpse of Rockefeller Plaza from a distance.  It’s so unbelievably beautiful that your heart literally skipped a beat and you had to hold your breath for two seconds.  I’ve read in travel magazines and seen photos of Rockefeller Centre in Christmas, but seeing it with your own eyes and being able to soaked in the atmosphere is surely different.  Millions of tiny silver blue lights dotted the trees, gold and silver flags surrounded the ice skating rink, and in the middle stood the 80 foot tall Christmas tree that is lighted with 45,000 LED lights.  Not forgetting the dense sea of people flooding the plaza.  And now I finally know why it is a New York legend for Christmas.

Ironically, even after being in New York for  several times, I visited Grand Central Station for the first time this time round.  High ceilings, gorgeous paintings, huge and tall windows, people streaming around, and nostalgia.  It’s interesting too how a train station becomes so famous and now, half of it has turned into a shopping plaza and food hall.

I guess one of my distinct moments of wandering alone in this big city is having dinner by myself too.  And this actually makes me think on how to be strategic about it so that people will not be looking at this girl and asking themselves, “why is she eating alone”.  I decided to go to a small Japanese place where they have bar seating for solo diners and where the waitresses are friendly and kind enough to talk with you.  Oh, and the food was homely too.

My friends have been asking me what’s my favorite food that I had while in New York this time.  The Mille Crepe Cake by the sophisticated Lady M is definitely it.  ”Mille”, which means thousand in french, is really the apt name for the cake.  It was a cake that is made of a stack of thousand layers of crepes with light creme filling in between the layers, making the cake soft, moist and very delicate.  If I had known that the cake could not be left outside the fridge for more than two hours, I would have made pre-orders for the frozen ones and take all the trouble and hassle that it would take to bring the cake back to Berkeley, or even back home to Singapore for my Mum.

And so, what do you do when you’re alone in New York on a Friday night?  My regular Friday nights in Berkeley have always been filled with friends, food, desserts, hours of talks and countless laughters.  This night was contrastingly different.  I visited the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and I thought it was a good choice visiting a museum alone.  It allows me to spend more time on the pieces that interests me and just browse through or skip those that don’t.  I love the courtyard at MoMA too because it’s so serene, artsy, classy and modern at the same time.

On the third day, I spent my morning walking up and down Upper East Side.  The stores in Upper East Side along Madison Avenue are lavishly decorated too, but in a different tone than the ones on Fifth Avenue.  The stores here are quieter in their decorations and are more elegant.  My favorite shop windows are the ones at Ralph Lauren House, because they are super editorial and high fashion.  Another of my favorite is Tiffany & Co, which surprisingly, many people did not take note of, and probably that was part of the reason why I like it.  Their petite window caught me right away from afar.  It has a shadow of Cinderella and her prince charming at the background and the elegant rink on top of the classic Tiffany blue and silver box.  Happily ever after?

That afternoon, I had brunch at Via Quadronno.  The cafe was petite, tucked in a corner of a residential street away from the polished Madison Avenue.  It has a wooden interior with quaint furnitures and it certainly reminds me of Florence.  And no, I didn’t have to dine alone this time because the table beside me was friendly enough to ask me to join them.  And so that was my brunch of cold cut panini along with conversations with the east siders over cappuccino.

And of course as I had told my Mum the previous night, my purpose of going to Upper East Side is to get the legendary macarons by its very own inventor, Laduree.  It was pleasant to know that there were no lines outside Laduree that afternoon.  When I was there few months ago in Spring, my brother and I had to queue two blocks to get into the pastel green shop.  And like the other shops in the neighborhood, Laduree decorated their shop windows too for Christmas with gold, black and India green.

And as I walked down Madison Avenue, leaving the serenity of Upper East Side in this Christmas season, I can’t help but feel that tinge of sadness.  New York has been one of my favorite cities. My Mum told me that I seem to have a fate with the city, since I’ve been here twice in a year (and all my expenses paid for).

Dear New York, see you in January? xoxo.