LAST DAY IN WONDERLAND: New York City - Day Five

If you missed day four, you can read it here.

Our last day in New York was bitter sweet; I was sad to leave this amazing city but I was also so excited to not have to wake up at 6am every morning or have to go bed with aching feet every night.

Shopping

We started the day shopping again! We had a quick run in Forever 21 (I so wish we had more of these in the UK because I loved nearly everything in there) and Sephora. I’ve done another blogpost going through everything I bought in Sephora which you can check out here.

Hope Statue

I love the photos of people next to the iconic ‘LOVE’ statue in New York but to be honest, when we were there, I completely forgot it even existed! However, we stumbled across this ‘HOPE’ statue by the same artist whilst trying to find a taxi which proved to be even better as our friend’s surname is Hope. As I posted on Instagram, it was as if by magic.

On the note of taxis, a lot of people slated them to us before we went to New York but trust me when I say they are completely fine. I probably wouldn’t get in one alone but we had nothing but good experiences in the ones we used and they meant we could get around the city fairly quickly at a not too extortionate rate.

Central Park

This was meant to be overly pose-y I swear

After packing up our bags, we went to wander Central Park. I think that everyone who visits New York should visit Central Park (perhaps not midday like we did – we took a LOT of sit down breaks); it’s almost surreal that a place so quiet sits in the middle of Manhattan.

Whilst in Central Park, we first stopped at Strawberry Fields, the John Lennon memorial west of the park. Although I am not the biggest Beatles fan myself (I don’t mind their music but I also don’t listen to it regularly), the atmosphere here was great. It was just full of people sat round listening to a busker singing the Beatles and having a nice time. I loved it!

We also went on a search for the Alice in Wonderland statue. In the process, we also found the Hans Christian Anderson statue too! I again absolutely loved this place as it made me feel 8 again, not 18 and I am totally willing to take any opportunity to go back to my childhood. It was fun seeing everyone pose with the statues and discuss the memories that they had in conjunction to them.

 

We also found the sort of 'Friends' but not Friends fountain!

Overall, I loved New York and I cannot wait to go back; it will happen. I feel it’s a place that everyone should try and visit once in their life as it seriously is a place like no other. I am, without a doubt, a city person (I grew up in London and Edinburgh, would you expect anything less?) but even so, New York was somewhere where there is something for everyone! If you have the chance, visit, because you will come back planning your next return.

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!!

Oh, What A Night!: New York City - Day Three

If you didn't catch day two, check it out here!
Sarabeth’s

Knowing we had to visit the Met Steps at least once in our trip (I mean who doesn’t want to pretend they’re Serena and Blair sat eating lunch and gossiping on the upper west side of Manhattan?), we grabbed a taxi and tried to find a breakfast place near there. Although there weren’t many, google took us to this little café where we all grabbed another super yummy breakfast. The only downside to this place was that it was slightly pricier, most likely due to the location, but we gained nothing more than we got for almost half the price at Andrew’s café. If you’re in the area then this is a good place to visit, but otherwise I wouldn’t suggest you go out your way to go as there are places that are just as good for a fraction of the price.

Met Steps

Just imagining I was Blair Waldorf in a photoshoot that we had on the steps

Though we didn’t go in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was so nice to sit for an hour or so on the steps and listen to the buskers and chat. It’s such good place to chill out; and as I said before, we are all Gossip Girl fanatics so I think the Met will always hold a special place in our hearts.

Shopping

The rest of the day we just spent shopping. We quite literally shopped till we dropped as I swear all of us collapsed on the floor and beds the minute we got back to the hotel. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, here, one place we loved to visit was Sephora (we ended up going three times altogether) so be sure to check out my haul which I posted last week!

Broadway- Jersey Boys

I’m not going to lie to you, I probably spend a good 80% of my day singing Broadway songs to myself in the mirror (currently it is the Hamilton soundtrack, I am OBSESSED) so Broadway was a must when we were planning where to go on this trip. We kind of whittled it down to three shows we wanted to see and then picked Jersey Boys because it wasn’t super expensive for good seats and the theatre was literally across the road. This show was honestly amazing. The soundtrack is full of songs that you want to get up and dance to (some people even did) and the actors appeared so enthusiastic all throughout their performance.

Remember to come back to check out day four tomorrow!!