I'm back from the most amazing experience of my life, there is so much to say and tell! All you New Yorker's i must say i am insanely jealous and one day i shall be one too. I love how a quick trip can have an effect on your daily life, I learnt some life lessons, amazing shopping and the guy that got away.
Day one
The flight to New York was well, rather like any other flight, it seemed to take forever, the air hostess missed me out when giving out food, so vegetarian risotto was my only option left. My new hand luggage's zip broke after checking in.
Once we arrived, our hotel was perfect, a 5 minute walk from times square, with everything on your doorstop! Our room ( my friend and i) was a little small, but it did it's job! Bathroom was tiny, a quote from one of my silly friends " You couldn't swing a cat in here".
Later that night we went to the Rockefeller centre, which was amazingly beautiful at night with all the city lights. However I'm ashamed to say the subway easily the highlight and my regret of my night, put it this way, i got to sit next to the most insanely hot guy, who wouldn't stop asking me questions, with the most bluest eyes, tanned, dark hair and a American accent. Unfortunately i
never even got his name, before i had to get off the subway :-(
Day two
After an awful nights sleep, we walked down the street for breakfast- fruit cup, ice tea and muffin. The subways when cancelled are such a nightmare, as it meant for us,we had to walk 20 blocks to the Statue of Liberty, with a further 30 minute wait while freezing to death and my feet absolutely aching. Not moaning or anything ;-) Somehow we all missed the ferry back to New York, due to miscommunication between the group and it leaving 5 minutes early. 30 minutes later, we were walking to Ground Zero.
Ground Zero, touched my heart and honestly i cannot even begin fathom the devastation 9/11 left behind, the lives lost and the fuckers who believe the conspiracy theories. Once you see the wall with a picture of every person who was lost that day, that they have to use to DNA to identify those small bone fragments to give closure to that one family, hearing a firefighter talk about his experiences and the audio tour in which a man's son died and you see his sons uniform where the blaze ripped in right down the middle and his burnt helmet. Its seriously one of those things that breaks your heart and i tear up when thinking of those faces on the wall, a poignant moment in my life.
Macy's, well what an experience, something i would not like to experience ever again. Awful sales assistants...
Day Three
The first of the half of the morning was spent at the natural history museum, with the planetarium show was amazing, if you like space/science, if you have the time, one day have a watch. Natural history museum was bit of a let down, rather boring if you ask me. However lunch was at the most amazing traditional pizza place, its near the museum/ Dakota building.
Duane Reade near 34th street is well...amazing, i bought Essie/opi, l'oreal hip makeup, so much junk food for bringing home and the staff are pretty decent. A carriage ride around central park at night was pretty cute however i can imagine it would be alot better during the day. After this a few of us ventured our way to Times Square which it is surprisingly easy to navigate.
We ended up 40minutes early before we were due at TGI's, so MacDonald's seemed like an easy option for a drink, most of us grabbed a hot chocolate or ice teas, our feet aching, so tired and freezing. After about 20minutes a black scary looking guy, walks up to my friend, *Sam. "
Shoot I'm serious, I'm motherfucking serious, stay there I've got a fucking gun in my pocket" is the first thing we hear. Our faces drop, we crap ourselves, until we realise he's just rapping. Uncomfortable with the situation, the guy then tries to sell us a paper for $3, at first we were like "
no, we'll think about it, no thank you" etc. He then proceeds to sing"my sweet valentine" at me. Yuck, Sam gave him a dollar to go away, turns out the paper is three days old... Another guy then tried to get money from us, for the homeless.
Now don't get me started on the most awful service at TGI Fridays in time square. Try an hour wait with a 9pm booking, then a further 50/1hour before we got our actual food, it was around 11 before we got our actual food because they fucked it up. At that point we were so tired, we couldn't care less about the food.
Day 4
Finally on the 4th day, absolutely shattered we all were allowed to sleep in till 9am, Empire State on the agenda, with no rush. *Abi who had to use a wheelchair that day due to her back killing and being super tired due to her M.E. The wheelchair was actually like a golden ticket. *Abi, two other friends and moi were allowed to skip ahead the 60 people queue, the ticket guy hitting on us. We did not have to queue getting up the top, we had our own lift etc, while the rest of the group stood in queues waiting to get up hehe.
Next was the " New York Public Library", which we couldn't go in due to there being a fashion show being held there! Pretty cool to see all the NYC fashionistas. A few minute walk and we ended up in Grand central station, hello, gossip girl? stunning architecture and great cheesecake haha.
Avenue Q was our last night in New York, the broadway show was suprisingly better than expected and funnier, if a little ruder than expected haha.
Day 5
The weather changed dramatically on our last day, a blizzard decided to appear, making the trip eventful walking to Wall Street,we took a picture with the "Bull" lol. After that we went to the finicial musuem, after all it was meant to be a business studies trip. Some hottie Aussies asked me to take their picture lols. Then MAJOR shopping, century 21, Abercrombie, Victoria Secret, tourist shops and duane reade. Will do haul post next!
- Subways are suprisingly easy to navigate once you know what your doing
- We lost several people each day, down the subway, in shops and in the Rockafeller centre, due to the crazy business of NY and the disorgansiation of the teachers!
xxx
* Name changed
