New York City

Before I went to Princeton, I stayed in New York City.

Before landing in NY, I saw this website called newgothcity.com that tells of all of the Goth stores and hotspots there (La Carmina's blog also gives NYC Goth stores and clubs). I printed the map they provided of Gothtown, and marked all the places I wanted to go to.

 The first Goth store we went to was Gothic Renaissance, which is pretty easy to spot due to the huge gargoyle at the entrance. GORGEOUS store. Their clothing looked high quality, they had a very nice variety of clothing and jewellery. The store was gorgeously decorated, and the music they played was very nice. I absolutely loved the clothing, it was gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! I cannot stress enough how beautiful the clothing is in this store! However, in terms of service, the employees were a bit gloomy. They would ask me with a sort of bummed tone if I wanted any help. Also, my travelling partner, S, was not in what many consider "Goth" attire... She was wearing some blue jeans with tennis shoes, and she and I noticed that one of the employees stared at her weird due to her ungoth attire. Not very nice! I suggest this clothing store to everyone, but the employees need to be a bit more friendly.

Second store was Enchantments, a witchcraft store or as S referred to: "Una botánica chic". As I entered and quickly turned my head, I saw a tiny shelf in the corner with an inverted pentagram and Satanist paraphernalia. Though this made me cringe a bit, the employees were very friendly people and were always there in case we needed help. It had a wide variety of ingredients for your potions and, of course, the store had the very pleasant smell of incense. There were Ouija boards, many Wicca supplies, and lots and lots of herbs. The look of the store gave out a quite earthy and natural feeling. It felt like those magic stores you see in fantasy films. There was even a gorgeous white cat and another black one that for a moment S and I thought were fake. They were so nice and soft~. And of course, S and I will never forget the fertility candles in shape of penises.

 

The third store was Obscura Antiques and Oddities. How I loved this store! It was indeed odd, with many taxidermied animals and old pictures of strange things! The only problem would be that it was a bit small and cramped, considering that it had quite a concentration of people. But I do suggest this store if you want some good ol' weird furniture and home decor. 

The fourth store was Vampire Freaks. I have heard something along the lines that it was like a second Hot Topic. I completely and utterly disagree. First of all, even though the clothing's beauty and quality does not match up to Gothic Renaissance, it was WAY more pretty and higher quality than Hot Topic's clothing. It was actual Gothic clothing, no Justin Beiber or Lady Gaga t-shirts anywhere. Not a lot of brightly coloured clothing, and there was barely any clothing that would be considered normal or boring. The CD section did not have ANY mainstream music like 3OH!3 or Lil' Wayne. It was pure Goth and Industrial. As for customer service: EXCELLENT! The guy there was very friendly with me and S, he said he visited Puerto Rico and  he loved our cemeteries. He adored how all the headstones went all the way in terms of decoration and size, since NYC has only small tombstones. We chatted with him for a while, and he randomly gave a lot of VF pins! He suggested some nice restaurants that would fit my taste, stores and clubs. THAT is what made me enjoy being in the VF store more than Gothic Renaissance.

The stores I wished I could have visited but couldn't:

Trash and Vaudeville

 

Halloween Adventure

Sadly, I did not have the time to go to all the stores I wanted or go to any parties or clubs. I had to go to Princeton the next day... Still I enjoyed my stay at the Hotel 17. Hotel 17was wonderful. An ideal New York Hotel: it's homey and comfortable, but not too glitzy or expensive. If you're coming to a beautiful city that you're going to spend the whole day exploring, why are you spending so much money on a fancy hotel room?! All you need is a bed and a bathroom, and you're good to go. The staff was very nice and friendly, always there when you need them. Some people get annoyed because of the shared bathrooms, but I don't find it to be a problem, honestly. Since not everyone woke up, peed and bathed at the same time, there was no line to the bathrooms and there was barely any people in the hallways. Though I'm not suggesting that you walk around naked (Unless you're an exhibitionist, then whatever floats your boat).
 
So, in conclusion and cliché, I ♥ New York.

To any of you Goths out there that have gone to New York or live there: do you suggest any other stores? And what clubs and parties do you suggest also?