WII SPORTS?: New York City – Day Four

If you didn't catch day three, you can check it out here!

Our fourth day in New York was HOT and humid, I’m talking like 35˚+ weather. We don’t get things like that in the UK and we were for sure not acclimatised.

Statue of Liberty

One thing I would say about going to the Statue of Liberty is to go sooner rather than later as there are huge queues all day and you do not want to be stuck in those midday. I would also say to pre-book your tickets as this acts almost like a fastpass does at Disney and you get to skip a large proportion of the queue. I think our time at the Statue was slightly short lived due to the fact that our backs were literally wet with sweat and humidity but it was still such an amazing place to go.

We booked tickets online to go to the pedestal (tickets for the crown were sold out so if you are going to NY and desperately want to go to the top, book early!) so once we got to the island we joined another queue and made our way up. I would definitely say to go if you are going to visit the island anyway as it gives you a good view of the Statue itself as well as a great view of the Manhattan skyline which cannot be missed!!

9/11 Memorial

The One World Trade Centre, the only photo I got of anything near or around the 9/11 memorial

Next we made our way to the 9/11 memorial, something I don’t have any photos of because quite honestly it didn’t feel right (it made me feel sick the amount of people smiling and taking selfies). I am well aware that events like this happen worldwide, especially recently, but there is something about being in the place where it happened and seeing all the photos of everyone with their families or the videos of people running out of the building, that hits home. I think in the UK, we don’t have many of these attacks luckily which is why the MP Jo Cox being shot made such a huge impact, so seeing something like this in real life was such an important but harrowing experience. The best way I can describe it is with the words I said as we were walking away “in the best possible way, I hated every single second of it”.

Baseball: New York Yankees V Boston Red Sox

I genuinely was loving everything about this moment!

This was hands down my favourite experience from the whole trip. The game started and I’m not going to lie, I had no clue what on earth was going on; we genuinely relied on Lauren’s previous Wii sports addiction to guide us through the rules of the game. However, the atmosphere was electric! From the 10+ Mexican waves to the constant chanting and YMCA, it felt like some kind of party with thousands of people. We also somehow got on a Subway carriage in which a load of people decided to bring a radio and have a dance party on so it made the night so much fun! Seriously, whether you’re into sports or not, grab a ticket to a major league baseball game and you will love it!

Stay tuned for our last day tomorrow!!

WELCOME TO NEW YORK : New York City- Day One

I love reading about other people’s trips and so I thought I would tell you, in depth, about a recent one I took to New York City (honestly one of the best trips I have ever been on). One tip I would give, if you are thinking of going, is booking everything well in advance, including any trips to the Statue of Liberty or Broadway etc because tickets sell out fast (I will talk about the CityPASS option which we used in tomorrow’s blogpost which worked out well).

Flying

We flew with Thomas Cook Airlines and honestly, it was really pleasant. On the flight outbound, there was lots of legroom and staff were really helpful. On both flights, I took two carry-on bags (one was my handbag and the other was a larger cabin bag) which I know sounds slightly excessive but I had everything I needed to make the trip comfy.

In my handbag I just had things such as my phone charger (a must for long haul flights as most have USB charging ports and you can be asked to turn your devices on when you land) and my passport etc, basically everything I needed to keep close. I also had my IPad but I found that I didn’t even use it as the inflight entertainment was more than enough.

The cabin bag, on the other hand, had a pair of shorts I changed into on the flight and things like clean underwear and a spare pair of clothes in case my luggage got lost. I also took sun cream and makeup (I know makeup isn’t for everyone but it killed an hour or so and make me feel slightly more human once I had it on) so that I could get off the flight not looking like I had just spent 8 hours in a plane.

Airport to Hotel

To get from the airport to our hotel, we used a service called GoAirlink, a service I probably wouldn’t recommend. After waiting nearly an hour and a half in JFK, we had a highly rude driver whose bus actually broke down after 20 minutes of driving. Though the second driver was much more pleasant (he put the radio on loud so we could party on the bus), we would have saved a lot more time and money had we just hopped in a yellow cab.

Hotel: Novotel Times Square

The hotel was honestly amazing. Located a stone’s throw away from Times Square, this hotel boasted large rooms with amazing views and staff who were always smiling and happy to help. Given the location and the fact it was a 4* hotel, it was also not extortionate and meant we were literally across the road from the Jersey Boys theatre (the show we had decided to see on Broadway).

Grand Central Station

After walking through Times Square and seeing the Ghostbusters cast get out of the car from the film (!!!!!), we walked to Grand Central Station. I feel like whenever people think of Grand Central, everyone links it to different things, movies they’ve seen on the TV; for Lauren and Lucy (the girls I went with) for example, all they could think of was Gossip Girl. Me, however, I could not erase the scene from my head from Madagascar where Melman (the giraffe) gets his head stuck in one of the clocks in the terminal. It still confuses my why that is the thing that came to my mind.

Dinner: Naples 45

Say hello to the largest pizza I have ever seen!! It was huge!

For dinner, we ate at Naples 45, just round the corner from Grand Central and boy was it amazing. If you ever find yourself near grand central around dinner time, seriously pop here and you won’t regret it. It’s full of yummy Italian food and I think I can speak for all of us when I say we all went home happy.

We also saw the end of Manhattanhenge! I had no idea this is what it was or that it was happening until the day after but I got a few pictures.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my first day in NYC! I will be posting each day we went there daily for the next few days so look out!