New York - 24 hours and I am in love

In the start of october my boyfriend and I had a quick stop in N.Y. before we was going home to Denmark from a vacation in Puerto Rico.
We only had 24 hours between our flights (!)
We had chosen a stopover here, since none of us had been in N.Y., but we had heard a lot of stories, so it would be nice to experience the place and get an idea of ​​whether it was a go or no-go for us. We both were very skeptical, because none of us love city-breaks (and all the people/tourists), but I can assure you that New York took us by surprise.!

Despite the fact that we had neither warm enough clothes and that we lived right next to a ghetto environment, we were as you can probably read in love with the city from the first sight.

We stayed: on E 107th St, it is very close to Central Park and walking distance (if you are young) to downtown. But it's not the nicest area to be a turist.

We arrived: very late in J.F. and got an überdriver very quick. He was the best! I will strongly recommend über and lyft to all, when they are visting N.Y. Our driver was able to answer all of our questions about the city and he we was very helpful all the way.
We arrived at our (shared) apartment. We had booked months before through airbnb. Our host was a young girl who was studying in N.Y. and earn money by renting out four apartments/rooms (!).
It was fine, but not the best experience. Next time, if we only have a couple of days, we will sure wait to we arrive and then stay on a hotel, the price was actually lower and we could have stayed were it all happens, but now we have seen "the real N.Y." ;-)

We ate: on a small bar the first night. It is fantastic to come at midnight to a city and be able to get some real food!
The next day we got up real early, picked up a cup of coffee and walked all the way trough Central Park to downtown. It's an amazing place with "alot" of animals, dogwalkers, a marathon and so on. There was so much going on!

We was walking around the city, so we was able to see the most important N.Y.-things like The Empire State, Times Square and so on.

We hope to get back to the city, that never sleeps very soon, but we need some advice, all the good advices, that is not in a "The trip goes to" book!

• Where to stay, nice areas, nice hotels (max. $100 for a doubleroom) and so on?
• Where to eat?
• What to see?
  Hope to hear from locals and turists, what was your favorite spot?