I was very fortunate to have New York City as my next door neighbor while attending undergrad at Hofstra University, and took full advantage of this for interning and adventuring. As my friend Hallie had not visited the concrete jungle since our early high school days, we were sure to schedule a weekend away now that she's living so close in DC.

We booked our train tickets, airbnb (first-time experience), and Broadway shows, and were off!

I arrived a day early, so I explored a bit on my own before meeting up with Hallie.

I had never been to the Belvedere Castle in Central Park, but boy were the views from the top pretty! (Fittingly, Belvedere translates to "beautiful view" in Italian.)

Fall in New York City is the absolute best, and these colorful leaves are a sign that cooler temps are well on their way.

Things in Midtown certainly weren't as quiet...

But I managed to find Hallie in the crowd, and we zipped uptown to Morningside Heights to visit the behemoth that is Columbia University.

As we're both only recent college grads ourselves, we were able to blend in with the students at the club fair.

We didn't want to spend any time indoors on this perfect day, so we ventured downtown to the Meatpacking District via subway to climb up on the High Line.

The High Line is a park that was constructed in 2009 on top of disused subway tracks. Nearly 5 million locals and tourists come to walk this suspended park each year. Be sure to check out the newly opened Whitney Museum of American Art at the south end of the park. And across the street is a fantastic restaurant called, "Bubby's" that is well worth a visit!

Fortunately our rented airbnb was just blocks from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, so the next morning we started our day with a dose of culture.

But how could we resist taking the long way through Central Park?

This is the grand Temple of Dendur that was built in Egypt around 15 BC. It was disassembled and relocated to the Met in 1978 under representation of Jacqueline Kennedy in order to save it from being submerged by a local lake.

After making our way around the rest of the museum, we headed up to the Met's rooftop cafe for some refreshments. The clouds set a stormy mood as we took in the skyline jutting out from the tops of Central Park's luscious treetops.

Our last evening in the city was spent enjoying the BEST show I have ever seen. Seriously. Hamilton is incredible! Telling the life story of Alexander Hamilton, this hip hop musical is immensely entertaining. Lin-Manuel Miranda currently stars in the production he wrote and composed. If you can somehow get your hands on tickets (the show is sold out every night through December), DO NOT MISS IT!

I've been busy traveling back and forth between Washington DC and New Jersey for my full time position with The College Board, and I have many more travel plans coming up in the next few months: Austin, TX, Paris, London, and (tentatively) Southern California! So I hope you'll continue reading as I blog about my adventures!