For our anniversary, Oliver took us to New York on a big adventure...
For someone who has only been on a two and a half hour plane journey to Portugal, going on an eight hour flight to New York was more than daunting. Turbulence scares the hell out of me and being in a big machine catapulting across the sky obviously brought out my anxiety.
However, our journey there and back with
Norwegian was fairly smooth - even though take off is always the worst! For me, I like to grip on to Oli so hard he has to pull my claws off him!
When we landed it took us over an hour to get through the border and we went on the sky train and subway.
Once we got to
Hotel Pennsylvania and checked in to our room, our smoke alarm wouldn't stop beeping, there was mold on the walls and plug sockets hanging askew off the wall. We requested a change of rooms, exhausted (it was nearly 4am UK time). We were so happy with our new room - you wouldn't think it was the same hotel!
Day One
On our first proper day we headed to
Dunkin' Donuts for the best hot chocolate ever(!!!) and croissants. After that we went on the subway to
Tribeca, where
Taylor Swift's apartment is located. Being a Swiftie, this moment was precious to me. I had stood where she stood, walked where she walked. I just wish she had been there!
After seeing Taylor's apartment we walked to the
Brooklyn Bridge, crossed it and had pizza which was only $7! We came back and walked a very long way to the ferry. We thought it would be cheaper to see the
Statue of Liberty from the
Staten Island ferry than it would be to go and see it close up! (It's worth it to just go on the ferry unless you're desperate to get a close up for those Insta posts! 😉)
After walking from the ferry, we went to G
round Zero. It is such a surreal place. You don't realise how big and wide the towers were. We went to
Times Square to get McDonald's and went back to the hotel.
Once back at the hotel we relaxed, watching Friends in America(!!!), before going out to Times Square for something to eat. We went to
Applebee's but we were so stuffed from croissants, pizza and McDonald's that we barely ate. We ended up having giant pretzels afterwards though...
Day 2
On day two we went to the
Friends Building and fangirled. Then we walked up to the
High Line and along it and saw some good art pieces, including this hilarious piece...
While we were walking across the High Line we saw the
Patrouille de France who were doing their first tour of the US. We then walked back to Times Square and saw the
Rockefeller Centre. Strolling along at this point, our legs killing us, we went to the Gossip Girl Hotel and
Grand Central. I pretty much risked my life to take a photo in the middle of the road of Grand Central.
We then went and saw the
Chrysler building and the
Empire State building and walked back through 5th Avenue to our hotel. And, of course, like the Instagram oriented person that I am, I decided I wanted a photo of the aesthetic brown Starbucks up several blocks from us. At this point I had already gone past a shop full of puppies in the window (cruel, I know. I wanted to take them all home!) and was eagerly trying to catch a look before Oliver pulled me away.
Once I had taken a photo of Starbucks, I was determined to set foot in
Barnes and Noble and to take a picture of it. It is every book worm's dream! It was at least three floors of beautiful bounded books: contemporary, fiction, non-fiction and the classics where I dragged Oli around looking at all the huge books that couldn't possibly fit in my suitcase. We then went to
TGI Fridays for the first time ever - I hadn't even eaten anything there in the UK.
Day 3
So, after attempting to go to
Ellen's Stardust Dinner for ice cream several times, we decided to wait again on our last day. We waited before and they told us the electric had cut out when we had been waiting half an hour and the queue was stretching further and further down the block. We were told this even though we could clearly see there were people still in the dinner. So on our last day we queued for about forty-five minutes before they told us they were changing the menu from breakfast to lunch and then they told us half an hour later that a group of school children would be taking up the whole dinner - bear in mind the queue was now stretching around the block. We eventually entered after freezing to death for two hours and sat down to order ice cream, just to be told we couldn't order it as it was melting. I would not recommend this place at all.
After wasting two precious hours in the city that never sleeps, we were starved and started walking to Columbus Circle and to the mall which had the most expensive cafes inside. So eventually we went to Starbucks and walked through
Central Park with a pretzel in hand. This was the coldest day we had had and we walked to
Belvedere Castle and then hobbled to the
MET (aka Gossip Girl steps). Oliver found it hard to walk after the past few days' adventures. And then we finally went to another Gossip Girl location - the
Museum of the City of New York.
Finally, we took the tube and walked past the
New York Public Library to TGI Fridays once again for lunch. This time I had a burger instead of salad and it was honestly the best burger I have ever eaten. After lunch we headed to the
Flat Iron building and then made our way back home after grabbing more Dunkin' Donuts!
Remember to follow my Instagram: @readycupcake
