You had Montreal style bagels? I haven't been to NY but I much prefer the dense Montreal style to the bread shaped like donuts style. That said some of the NY style bagels that have a little texture to the outside of them are pretty good, and I'm fully aware I haven't had the real thing til I've been to NY. And I need to have that pizza for real too.
Bagels don't do much for me. I'm pretty low-carb these days so I don't eat a lot of bread heavy foods much unless it might be really good, like the only good pizza place within an hour of me.
NC Piedmont is quite bad for NYC pizza also.