I went to Ikea for the very first time. From the elaborate displays to an unexpected Christmas feast, here's what surprised me.

The closest Ikea to my apartment in Manhattan is in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn. I was hoping to take the free Ikea ferry that goes from two Manhattan ports straight to the Ikea storefront, but it only runs on weekends.

It ended up taking us about an hour total to get there, via two subway lines and a 30-minute walk.

Maybe it was the long walk to get there, or maybe it was the giant welcome sign and 10 giant multicolored Ikea flags blowing in the breeze outside.

Looking at the giant parking lot and garage in front of me, I was reminded that most people probably don't arrive at Ikea on foot.

Once I started off along the intended route through the store, there was no end in sight. I'd heard that Ikea designs its stores with the intention of making customers see every single thing, and this definitely felt true.

My roommate had to leave early and told me she practically ran through the entire store on her way out.

I really appreciated the effort Ikea makes to help customers visualize how pieces might look in their own house or apartment.

When I sat down at an elaborately set dining table I felt like I was in someone's actual home — someone with impeccable interior design taste and a lot of time on their hands, that is.

My roommate and I kept remarking to each other how our entire apartment could fit in some of the store's staged living rooms.

It seemed like a lot of work went into more than just the furniture layout.

For example, this framed photo was on the wall of one of the staged rooms as decoration, and I desperately wanted to know its backstory. Whose idea was it to create an octopus costume, hire a child model, and stage this photo shoot? As far as I can find, Ikea doesn't sell an octopus costume. It also made me want to buy the octopus plush, which Ikea sells, so clearly the marketing worked somehow.

"Daniel is a single guy living with a cat in a rented postwar apartment in Brooklyn," the sign reads. "He starts his day with a good cup of coffee every morning. He loves to follow the latest nutrition trends and before leaving to go to work he makes sure he has his favorite smoothie or shake. Living in the city can be expensive and his motto is 'make the best out of what you have.'"

There was no context for this sign as far as I could see, and I have many questions. Is Daniel real? If so, who is he? Is that picture in the Ikea store actually him? Who wrote this description? Was it Daniel?

As per the description, Daniel does seem to be making the most out of his space.

Before visiting the store, I associated Ikea more with inexpensive starter furniture and expected more barebones designs you might see at home with a college student. While there were plenty of inexpensive (and plain) options, there were also a lot of pieces I genuinely thought were pretty or had interesting and unique designs.

I knew that Ikea sold giant blue bags — they're a common sight in New York City, especially at the laundromat. I did not, however, know that Ikea sells bucket hats made out of the exact same materials.

Although I'm not sure I would've loved the long trek through all the other parts of the store as a child, I know I would've loved looking at all the stuffed animals.

For some reason, I wasn't expecting Ikea to sell this kind of wall art.

IKEA hosts a Swedish Christmas feast called Julbord each year at every one of its stores, and we happened to go the day of the event. It supposedly requires registration in advance, but we asked around and luckily, were able to buy three tickets at the store.

For only $20, we each got a ton of food at the all-you-can eat buffet — and it was delicious. I can only imagine the regular Ikea cafeteria food is pretty good too.

I had no idea Ikea sold food outside of its restaurant, but I saw the store's iconic meatballs, smoked salmon, different types of cookies, candies, muesli, cinnamon rolls, sodas, and many more grocery-type items for sale.

We had arrived at Ikea around 2:30 in the afternoon. When we finally made our purchases and got back outside, it was almost 9 at night.

Between the 30-minute walk to and from the subway and walking through the store itself, I also got a ton of steps in — about 23,000 total for the day.

Here's the shopping list we went into the store with: "small lamp, laundry bag, meatballs, kitchen brush."

Here's what we came out with: a small lamp, two special light bulbs for the lamp, a laundry bag, a kitchen brush, a measuring-cup set, a measuring spoon set, a wooden spoon, two suction cup hooks, a small cutting board, a trash can, two boxes of food saver bags, a packable tote bag, a set of silicone food savers, a kitchen utensil holder, five foldable storage bins, and one piece of questionable art about what defines "family" (as a joke).

Overall, I really enjoyed my day at Ikea, but it's a bit hard to justify just going on a whim, especially when you don't have a car (like me) and can order pretty much anything you need online.

Since I'm not moving in the near future and probably won't need to do a big shopping trip, I'm not sure the next time I'll return.

But as soon as I next need to go furniture shopping, I'm sure I'll be back. And when I return, I'm buying that octopus.