By Jinggoy I. Salvador

A dozen years later, I’m back in the city that doesn’t sleep. Hello again NYC! What was it like this time around? Bright lights all the way from uptown Manhattan all the way down to The Battery. It wasn’t so on the 2012 visit with Sandy’s “knockout” presence painting a dismal picture. Her arrival left much of the city, everywhere in Lower Manhattan south of 39th Street, powerless. The great divide was evident at nightfall and crossing 39th was the gateway toward darkness or light, depending on which direction one’s heading. It was like a scene from an apocalyptic movie. The superstorm, however, and its aftermath didn’t diminish the Big Apple’s delectability. I took my big bite of the city, not minding the hike down the 10th-floor apartment and up to start and end a day.

Not so, on my recent visit. It was a quick climb up my fancy third-floor room with a street view in a brownstone house in the Charlton–King–Vandam Historic District, where the largest cluster of Federalist and Greek revival style row houses can be found. I lived the Carrie Bradshaw lifestyle, or something like it, staying on the top floor of an iconic building in Hudson Square, Lower Manhattan. “She stayed in a pad. You have the entire house,” says my host, Mylene C., who, like Carrie, collects shoes and scurries along the ground stoop in different heels daily. This was where my West Side –and beyond— stories took off.

Hudson Square is charming for a number of reasons and the list starts with the beautiful brownstones. The shopping, nightlife, food, and art scenes are vibrant, and steps away from the front door, whether it’s within the area or the neighboring districts of Chelsea, SoHo, Greenwich, and Tribeca.

Nearby home are some great food choices, whatever the cuisine of preference. Here are a couple, Dominique Ansel Bakery along Spring Street for a bite of the famed cronuts, DKA (Dominique’s Kouign Amann), and chocolate croissant for breakfast (because it sells out in a flash once doors open); and along the same street, have a drink and a bite of no-frills good burgers, pies, or steaks in one of the oldest operating drinking establishments in NYC— the legendary Ear Inn, also known as the James Brown House, a 1770-built Federal-style structure, home to the African aide to George Washington during the Revolutionary War. It was a riverside property back then with the Hudson River shoreline just five feet from its front door. Today, the waterway is a block away flanking the West Side Highway, a popular path for walking, running, and biking.

Exploring the food scene further, my high school girl friends took me to their favorite Chinatown restaurant, Hop Kee, where the waiter had to stop my host from ordering more as it won’t fit the table for six. We discovered good pasta in a quaint resto in Italian Town with my hosts Rob and Mylene; and with my Davao clique, feasted on delicious slabs of 28 oz. T-bone Steak, a favorite among locals and celebrities, at the 1977-established Knickerbocker Bar and Grill in the heart of Greenwich.

In this fascinating, ever-evolving city, “been there, done that” may just not apply. There’s always a new facet to whatever has caught the heart which makes one eager to see what it is (or maybe, one can never get enough of it). It’s a love affair that lasts forever. Hallelujah to the city’s public transportation system, reliving it—and creating new ones—is effortless. Just hop on the subway. I did and made my rounds, a relaxing stroll in Central Park in the daytime and the High Line in the evening to the Museum of Modern Art, to dive into the modern art scene (I wish there was more time for MET and Whitey); Times Square at three minutes before 12 for the Midnight Moments, when art takes over the digital billboards (braved the windy winter night and voila! a computer glitch on the very evening I went); said my beaded prayer at St. Patrick’s Cathedral; sipped coffee pairing it with Magnolia Banana Pudding on a sidewalk café by Rockefeller Center; viewed the holiday window displays of the luxury shops and the stacked giant luggage of a renovating Louis Vuitton flagship store along Fifth Avenue; and checked out why the Vessel and the Oculus are viral on the net. Photogenic, yes, at least the latter has a useful purpose other than just picturesque.

While the subway was a big help in exploring, most often navigating through the city on foot was a preference –minus the aid of Google Maps. Not surprisingly I got lost, perhaps on purpose (though tiring in the end until I found my way back home) for I got to chance upon interesting areas, like Washington Square Park, a giant shiny bean sitting on a sidewalk along Tribeca, finding out after that it’s Anish Kapoor’s; and, bumping into NYC’s colorful characters like a cigarette-toting man with long fancy nails known as Marc Jacobs—just one of those days in the city. Would I have the same nonchalant reaction if it was Anna Wintour, I wonder.

Perhaps this is why New York City makes the heart skip a beat. The dynamic and ever-evolving city lives up to its name—that there’s always something new to see, new to experience waiting for those who visit. The list just keeps getting longer! The trip to the Big Apple was the shortest at three nights. I wasn’t able to do everything I needed and wanted to but the bite I took was fulfilling enough. I still said no to a Broadway show even if it was hosted (gasps, I hear), perhaps next time. Meanwhile, the unticked boxes on my list will keep the heart in I❤NY beating in me, a very good reason to head back to the city that doesn’t sleep. Soon.

How about you, what’s your NYC story?