Central Park

Central Park is where residents of New York City, as much as every other visitor from various parts of the world actually, gather to take a big, deep breath - as doing so anywhere else in town is practically close to poisonous. 

But once you are in Central Park, you'll see it's too heavenly a place to demote to purposes of healthy inhaling alone. If a whole entertainment industry alone had not stamped Central Park as the most prominent New York City landmark on an entire universe's memory; you'd have hard time believing that while strolling through the lovely alleys alongside the Bethesda Fountain, you're actually still in New York.

  

Known after its most renowned resident John Lennon, The Dakota.

Had John Lennon lived to this day, this is the famous Strawberry Fields he would see every morning from his apartment window.

Lennon's spirit seems to be lingering here still

Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory

Need one more reason to head down to Brooklyn and walk to the Brooklyn Bridge Park?

The answer to that would be the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory.

Brooklyn

What New York stands for in your mind could really be Manhattan. Don't worry, that goes for nearly everyone else traveling your same road. But Manhattan's not it - at least not all of what there is to experience once you are all the way in New York. 

Here, I obviously won't be advocating Harlem or the Bronx or anywhere else I practically haven't made the time to see for my own eyes; but what I will insist on would be that Brooklyn deserves some bit of your attention. And maybe half of one of your days. 

Here's a route for beginners:

Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge is obviously a bliss; but I don't suggest you risk getting a serious cold if it's winter time. Just take the subway and walk down the beautiful Cadman Plaza Park to reach the Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Cadman Plaza Park

Brooklyn's New York's biggest borough. No wonder its streets are  evidently much wider.

Brooklyn Bridge 

Audience enyoying the southern Manhattan view from down below.

The city skyline from the Brooklyn Bridge Park

A familiar silhouette, anyone?

Manhattan Bridge

Bryant Park

Bryant Park might be one of city's most multi-functional recreational spaces: Performers change from ice-skating amateurs in December to fashion models during New York Fashion Week - not to forget its permanent pop-up store staff residents. That's probably why all New Yorkers find something to love about Bryant Park.

5th Avenue

'To shop' or 'to window shop'... would murmur Shakespeare's lips if his path ever crossed Manhattan's infamous 5th Avenue.

Cartier

Henri Bendel

Louis Vuitton

Bergdorf Goodman's famous Christmas window displays

Bouchon Bakery @ Columbus Circle

Granted you'll find loads of nice bakeries in town without any direction. The next thing we need featured on this blog is probably not another pastry shop.

But I just can't let any sweet tooth out there go past Bouchon. Everything they hold is simply grand.

Bleecker Street

This is one street in New York whose fame and glamour by far exceeds its lenght; Bleecker Street stretches downward from Meatpacking to Greenwich Village and will end before you fully grasp how beautiful and inspiring it was and how badly you wish you lived there. 

Not more than a few hundred meters as a whole, Bleecker Street basically is the compilation of a couple of opulent designer shops, a Magnolia Bakery, after which the street's pretty much famous- hail to SATC!, and of course the 'can't-go-without-mentioning' SIX independent stores by Marc Jacobs - special attention for Bookmarc and Little Marc. My personal regards to the person who can walk out of the total six of them empty handed.

But never mind the stores. Bleecker Street's not about shopaholicsm (just made up). You simply need to get there to get the good feeling.

Children's stores are particularly adorable at Bleecker Street

Apple Store @ Meatpacking District

When you are a Turkish traveler abroad - and especially if you're subscribed to a blood-sucking GSM operator - finding free wi-fi is a blessing at times of getting in touch with home - and pretty much anyone else physically out of reach.

Still, visiting an Apple Store always has a bit more to it than simply checking your e-mail, facebooking, tweeting or skyping. (Those of you who've seen - or heard, for that matter - the Apple store on 5th Avenue has been to the living proof of that).

But my tip is a bit on the unconventional side: I will suggest you manage pulling your eyes off the iPhone's infectious retina display screen and take a look around when you are to the Apple Store at Meatpacking District.

Chances are slim you'll ever see another one with such cool, industrial and un-white setting again.

The Beatles. Now on Itunes. Hail to thee.

Pastis @ Meatpacking District

Check out the beautiful, elegant and certainly not the most swanky French restaurant in town Pastis whenever you can find a free table. After all, you have all the time slots laid out before you from a delicious breakfast fest to an exquisite midnight treat. And trust me, so many people who'll recite almost these same words if asked cannot be all wrong.

Meatpacking District

Meatpacking District is unarguably one of the most distinctive spaces New York has to offer. The confined, little neighborhood to the west of 9th Avenue x 14th Street might have witnessed one of the most peculiar forms of transformation in history from one industrialization phase to the next: meatpacking to luxury retailing. Indeed, a short look around will leave you wondering what sort of twisted, subliminal correlation might actually exist between the art of butchering cattle and marketing top-notch designer bags.

The Standard Hotel - otherwise known as the coolest hotel in town - where rooms facing the Hudson don't have any curtains.