My most recent trip to New York City was in February for a week with Magazine Interest Group. MIG is an Ed2010 group that allows college students to work toward a career in the magazine industry. We were able to visit eight publications including Harper's Bazaar and Buzzfeed, but let's start from the beginning.

We got into the city on Wednesday afternoon. We had the rest of the day to run around wherever we wanted before our first day of meetings with publications on Thursday morning. We spent Thursday and Friday in meetings, then had the weekend to explore the city again.

GETTING THERE

Caroline and I traveled to New York together for this trip, so we decided to fly into Newark, NJ and take the train to the city. This was a pretty easy experience, but I will say that coming back from Manhattan to Newark wasn't as easy. We had a very early flight out of Newark, so we caught the first train out, and we probably could have planned a little better. My biggest suggestion would be to ensure you know your way around Penn Station, triple check your departure time and leave with enough time to get to the airport.

The assigned platform will not appear on the screens in Penn Station until the train has arrived, so this is where it got confusing for us. But we made it, and the ride back to Newark was very short!

THE FOOD

...the most important part of New York City, right? ;)

On our first night, the majority of the group walked to Black Tap, a craft burger bar. There are a few in the city - we went to the one on 14th (they don't this one listed on their website, but I promise it's still there). Black Tap is usually a pretty popular place as they gained some popularity through social media for their outrageous milkshakes.

We had a group of about 12 people, and we only had to wait maybe 20 minutes. It wasn't too bad of a wait for such a large group. The one thing you should know about this place is that everything is huge - the milkshakes, the burgers and the sides too. Everything is giant, but it is also so delicious so you might just eat it all anyways.

We decided to pair up for the milkshakes. As you can see, they are just as extravagant as I mentioned, and you can probably see how they got so popular on social media. And even better - they are just as good as they look. Sometimes things like this can be overpriced and not taste very good, but that was not at all the case. Everybody loved them, and they left us feeling full and happy.

After our first meeting on Friday morning, we met up with the past president of MIG at Scnipper's on 8th Ave, right beside The New York Times Magazine offices. It was another great burger place with so many different options. I would definitely recommend this one as a lunch spot because it is quick, easy and so tasty.

Chelsea Market ended up being one of our favorite places. We walked to Chelsea our first day in town then went back Saturday morning for brunch at Friedmans - another really great place for brunch. We had originally gone back to Chelsea Market because we both wanted to go back to Sarahbeth's for brunch, but it turns out that the Sarahbeth's in Chelsea Market is a walk-up with mostly pastries and quick eats (something good to know). We wanted a sit-down place, so we hopped over to Friedmans and were not disappointed.

Burger bars and brunch aside - Caroline and I found some other great places for dinner and dessert. We spent an afternoon in Brooklyn after meeting with a few producers at VICE, so we grabbed dinner at a tiny Mexican restaurant and dessert at the cutest bakery.

BROOKLYN EATS

The Mexican restaurant was recommended to us by one of producers we visited with, and it was called La Superior. They had some really great tacos that were relatively inexpensive!

And for the dessert... we came across Martha's Country Bakery on our way back to Manhattan. They had the most dessert I've ever seen - not to mention every different type of dessert possible. It took us forever to take it all in and make a decision, but we ended up getting a slice of the cookies & cream cake and the espresso ice cream.

Doesn't it just look to die for? And of course, we finished every last bit of both. Brooklyn definitely treated us right with both of these places. Neither of us had ever visited Brooklyn before, and I will definitely be going back on my next NYC visit.

FUN FINDS

My favorite part of this city is that you are able to go back to those tried and true places you love, but you will always stumble upon something new and lovely to add to your list of favorites. That's exactly why I make sure to document every trip to the city - I want to remember those lovely places and keep the list growing.

Anytime I'm in the city, I try to walk most everywhere. We use the subway or Uber if we need to go a long distance or get somewhere by a certain time, but I love walking because it allows you to see everything (people watching is at its best in NYC, too).

Walking between two of our meetings with a little time to discover something new, Caroline, Tim and I stumbled upon this book store. It was a tiny little bookstore, but it was packed full of every genre of book you could think of. It was one of those places you would want to spend hours in - getting lost and learning more about what this world has to offer.

It was located on 4th Ave, between 12th and 13th St. If you're really wanting to make an afternoon out of it, hop across the street to Think Coffee and grab the world's best vanilla latte (or at least the best one I've ever had in my own 20 years).

THE MAGS

Because this post has officially topped my last one as the longest of all time, I will post a separate blog post all about the publications we visited and what we learned at each. That one has the potential to be quite long too :)