Earlier this year, i went on Part 1 of my American Adventure to Florida with my boyfriend, only a few months later Part 2 with my family for my 21st birthday came around so quickly! So here we go, here is my trip to the Big Apple, New York City...
Day 1- after a painful goodbye cuddle to my doggy, I was ready for my long day of travelling. I'm not the best flyer but I do know how to cope when i don't feel well but today I was feeling very good considering it was the first time I was experiencing connecting flights. A short journey from Newcastle to London Heathrow and then a quick turn around for our next long flight to JFK. I occupied my 7 hour flight by watching films, Monsters University, Frozen and Deadpool- from one extreme to another! After a long 1hr 40mins waiting in immigration, we were finally on our way to the hotel just off Times Square. We checked in 9pm local time so we had been awake for a while and the tiredness was starting to kick in as i didn't sleep on the flight. We went for some food in the restaurant opposite our hotel and then had a browse through Times Square. Big mistake when you're tired- it was so busy it was frustrating! I'm not the best with large crowds, especially when i was so tired so I really didn't take all the sights in and appreciate Times Square. I just wanted to go to bed!
Day 2- Time for our first full day in NYC! Its worth mentioning that i have been to New York before back in 2012, my parents came in 2006 but my brother has never been. We decided after breakfast to go on the downtown open top bus tour so we could get to see all the sights and get our bearings on Manhattan. We saw on the news that morning that there was a storm expected to come during our visit, so because today was a nice day we decided to visit the Statue of Liberty on the boat cruise- we opted not to go on the island itself because there isn't really anything there apart from the statue, so the boat cruise took us around the statue offering plenty of photo ops. 
My brother was desperate to go and see Wall Street so we ventured further into the financial district and ended up at Ground Zero Memorial Centre. This was emotional. This had changed so much in the space of 4 years. 2 infinity waterfalls had been built in place of the 2 towers with all the victims names engraved around the stone, it was honestly hard not to cry. I didn't take any pictures out of respect (the people with seflie sticks should have really had some as well) but it was emotional. After a long day we attempted to venture up to the top of the Rockefeller Centre but decided against it and went for food instead. I kid you not, we went to a place in Hells Kitchen and it was one of the worst places I have ever eaten at. We left in a bad, tense mood back to the hotel.
Day 3- Once again, in fear of the storm brewing, we decided to do another sight seeing activity based on the weather in the morning. The Empire State Building! I love this place, not so good for those with vertigo, but you just get to see everything and its pretty awesome...
After this, we decided to do the uptown bus tour around Harlem and Central Park. I honestly couldn't tell you what it was like cause the tour guide was so boring i fell asleep! I found out the previous day that I would be going to see School of Rock the musical at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway which i was super excited for, we ended up back in Times Square where we had some food fairly early before the show. One thing we did forget before booking our trip was that it was Labor Day Weekend, a public holiday. Times Square was full of tourists and SO busy! It got to the point where we would try anything possible to avoid the Times Square area as much as we could because it was that busy, it was hard for us all to stick together. And lets not speak about the number of con artists targeting tourists- sunglasses and resting bitch face are a must for your packing list. Before I knew it, it was School of Rock time! I'm not gonna say too much about it as I have done a full review here, all i was say is that it is worth a watch.
Day 4- Another day, another bus tour. This time we got a tour of Brooklyn. Brooklyn is another borough of New York City but is most definitely the biggest of the 5, with a population of almost 3million people it is one of the main residential areas of NYC. And from seeing only a tiny part of Brooklyn it does seem like a very lovely place to live. After this short but sweet tour, we decided to have a wander around Battery Park and then have a walk up along the west side of Manhattan on the High Line Walkway which has been developed from an old rail road. It was actually a really nice walk where you got to see New Jersey at sunset. That's right, sunset. I don't know where the time went on this day, i do know i got sun burnt quite badly though. This is shown in my Madame Tussuad's pictures, we visited there on the evening and i have to admit I was abit disappointed that more celebrities that were advertised wern't there. I cant stand false advertisement, clearly.
Day 5- The last full day, the day that we were all excited for... Shopping! I added another Hard Rock Cafe shot glass to my collection before making our way towards Herald Square where Macy's is. From there we would head up 5th Avenue. To be fair, i didn't really buy much! I spent $100 in Sephora very easily and treated myself to a Burberry lipstick in Saks thanks to a very good sales assistant who knows how to do her job well... Apart from that i treated myself to a Michael Kors purse as a birthday treat and some Lindt chocolates because they're my fave. But all the shopping takes it out of you and by 6pm we were done for the night and ready for food. We often ate at little Irish bars close to our hotel just because their hospitality and food was great compared to the extortionate prices you would pay in Times Square.
For our final evening, I really wanted to take my family to see Grand Central Station; I watched a BBC Documentary about the place the night before we travelled and there is so much history to the train station and it was absolutely worth the visit. Its fair to say that my parents were pleasantly surprised by the place, we even ended up staying for a drink in one of the bars! It was a lovely way to end the night as it was surprisingly quiet while we were there but it was still great to feel the atmosphere.
Day 6- Home time, it was the last morning of our trip :'( one thing that we wanted to do which we hadn't done already was go to Central Park. We bought some Dunkin Donuts for breakfast (how healthy!) and took them into the park. Well we could only stay for just under 2 hours and I bet we didn't even get to see a quarter of the park, it is so big! But it is really beautiful. But then it was time for the long, overnight and turbulent flight back home.
New York is like marmite, you either love it or hate it. Luckily, I love it-especially downtown New York. The atmosphere, the people, its contagious. If you avoid all the tourist spots and live like a local New Yorker. Of course get your bearings, but i do regret not going on the Subway or getting the free ferry to Staten Island. Whatever your opinion, you need to visit New York at least once in your life.
Have you been to New York? What are your favourite sights in NYC? Let me know in the comments or Tweet me @Elisa_A__
Elisa x
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