Adventures in New York
Hello everyone, how's everything going?
Just a couple of weeks ago, I went to the United States of America, state of New York, to see if everything is actually worth all that fuss.
Let me tell you now, it is.
We arrived late on Sunday night, the queue to go through border force was long -- waaay too long -- but we ended up making it. Getting to the hotel wasn't easy either, the driver showed us first hand why we should be afraid of driving in New York. Now, I don't know if it is an American thing or a New York thing, but that was some really dangerous driving.
We managed to get to the hotel in one piece (and we were also the last ones in our minibus to be dropped off) and went to the reception to collect the keys to our rooms. Me and Jack were on the 20th floor, while Brittany (Jack's sister) and Gil (their mum) were on the 21st floor. The view from the rooms were amazing ~ and we were literally staying on the room just bellow them so we had pretty much the same view. We all agreed we were too tired that night to do anything so we just got ready for the night and went to sleep.
For some reason, I thought the room would have been bigger than it actually was. It's not like the room was small, it was just very compact. With just about enough space for one person to walk around the bed at a time. The toilet's walls were also so thin that you could pretty much hear every single noise on the other side of the door.
I managed to sleep a few hours. I sleep until about 2am and was up for a few hours and then woke up again about 5am and didn't sleep anymore. Jack, obviously, slept like a baby. We went to McDonalds for breakfast and oh my God, I was not expecting their large drinks to be so big. To anyone who hasn't been to the US before, our large drinks are the same size as their regular drinks.
As it was Brit's birthday, we went to Carlos's Bakery as well since she loves it. I ended up just getting a cookie with sprinkles on it, and it was delicious!
We ended up going to the Empire State Building first and it was quite interesting. The queues were sooo long though! We were told that the New York City Pass would give us VIP access, but when we got there, it turned out we didn't. So when we finally went up to the 86th floor, the view was absolutely breathtaking. We could literally see the whole city and a bit more.
We ended up not being able to stay outside for long as the weather was quite bad and it started to rain soon after we got there, but at least I did manage to get a few good shots of this incredible view!
After that, we went to Macy's. We were hungry, but we still wanted to have a look inside and experience it. I ended up going to the makeup section and getting one of Nudestix's products (which I'm super happy with, I got one of their Magnetic Luminous Eye Color Pencil and it is soooo worth it).
As soon I purchased it, I ended up leaving and me and Jack met Brit and Gil outside. Then we decided to take the bus (one of them tour guide buses) and we went to the see the Statue of Liberty. We got off a Battery Park and had to wait for Brit and Gil to meet us there as they were apparently told by someone that they were in the wrong place to take the ferry. We ended up eating lunch before we went on the ferry and we enjoyed it quite a bit. The ride wasn't very long but we managed to see the Statue of Liberty as nicely as possible and still see the Brooklyn Bridge a bit later. We were on Staten Island for a bit and then made our way back to Manhattan.
After that, we decided to go back to the hotel for a little bit. There was still a bit of rain and we (read: me) were getting a bit cold and wet. That was when me and Jack decided to get a subway pass so we could go around more easily (we got a 7 day pass for about $32 each, which turned out to be great for us).
When we finally got to our room, I ended up changing into a different outfit. And while we were waiting to go out again, I was nearly falling asleep so I decided to put some makeup on and use the Nudestix's eye pencil I had just bought. I absolutely fell in love with it (I promise I will make a review of all the products I got in New York in another post ~ this includes all of the things I bought, from clothes to makeup!)
When I was ready, we wended up going back out to Madame Tussauds instead of going for dinner, as we weren't very hungry yet and still had some time to kill (we had booked The Ride and were absolutely looking forward to do it).
Madame Tussauds was quite close to where we were and we had access to it with out NY City Pass so me and Jack quickly got through. Soon enough, all four of us were inside and we started roaming through the hallways. We were slightly disappointed when we left. We were expecting there to be a lot more American celebrities than there were and it was a little bit underwhelming. When we finished going through, we still had about forty-five minutes before The Ride, so we did end up going to a restaurant for dinner. I had a chicken soup which was absolutely delicious!
I must admit, we didn't actually have very long to eat and still be out in time for The Ride so we rushed through the meal to make sure we were there early and made it to the front row. Let me explain The Ride... It is, essentially, a party bus. They have 49 people riding on that bus, and 2 extra people explaining where we were and giving out some cool facts about certain places. All the while, they were giving random shout outs to Brit (because when we booked it, she mentioned it was her birthday so they would do just that! and she also had to pay for that.) The Ride was definitely entertaining and it made sure that we were enjoying it by giving us street performances, a guided tour and some new memories.
After that, we went back to the hotel to rest and get ready for...
We started the day by going to Applebee's for breakfast. After breakfast, we had already decided we were going to the 9/11 Memorial, so we could go to the Museum. Me and Jack took the subway, and it literally took us about fifteen minutes to get there. We ended up having time to go shopping, walk around for a bit and even take some pictures while we were waiting for the rest of our group. Sadly, Jack and I ended up not going inside the Museum.
The queues were too long. We literally waited for an hour just to collect our tickets, by then Brit and Gil were nearly done with the tour of the Museum and we still had about an hour wait until we actually made it through the doors. We decided to go to the World Trade Centre instead so we could go to the toilet and sit down for a bit. We were slightly disappointed with the Westfield shopping centre as it did not have a food court!
Instead of going back to the hotel or to a restaurant, Jack and I decided to go to the American Natural History Museum and have a look around. By the time we got there, we were so tired that even just looking around the exposition felt long. We went through as much as we could, while we waited to go to the showing we had purchased. We saw the Dark Universe, which showed us more about Space and just how much there is still unknown about the rest of it. We were so grateful to sit down and relax in a dark room, we were so close to falling asleep as well, but in the end we made it. We went through the Dinosaur exposition and saw the little bits and bobs we wanted to see, like the Hall of Asian People, the different Mammal Halls and the Fossils Hall. We only regretted not having enough time to explore every single section of the museum because it was all so worth it and amazing, but it would have taken a whole day for us to do it all.
We then decided it was more than time to eat so we made our way to Chinatown. We had decided we wanted to experience eating in Chinatown, so we googled some places and ended up finding one that was both nearby and well rated. The restaurant was enormous! The food absolutely delicious, but the portions were a bit too big for us. We hadn't realised just how much we were being served so we ended up ordering a little bit too much.
After lunch, we made our way out of Chinatown, which we found a little underwhelming in comparison to Chinatown in London. It felt like it lacked the spirit and it was just another street, with just a lot of Asian stores in it.
We then made our way to the Brooklyn Bridge. It took us nearly an hour until we finally crossed the bridge. It was an amazing experience, but unlike the previous day, the weather was much nicer and I was absolutely not prepared for nice weather! I was wearing a hoody, and a long sleeve top underneath it *sigh* it could have been worse, but I just wish I had a full bottle of water with us.
The view, once again, was absolutely amazing. I kind of wish we had actually managed to explore a bit more of Brooklyn and Queens, but we were both too tired after walking the bridge. We ended up just taking the subway back to the hotel and rested for the night as we weren't hungry.
Jack and I nearly went to a Broadway show but ended up just going to sleep early that night.
Which leads us to....
On this day, we went to an outlet centre. We took a bus to Woodbury Common for a shopping spree. Some of us got a lot more than others, we all managed to get a least a few things from there (as I mentioned before, I will make another post with pictures of everything I got from there).
The shops were a bit of a mix of good and bad. Some of them were absolutely amazing with great deals on and others were a bit dead. They barely had anything and we were disappointed with what we did find. Which was such a shame, we managed to spend most of the day there anyways, and then we were so very tired once again.
We ended up just going to Times Square so we could look around and maybe shop a little bit more. Obviously, I went to Sephora as soon as I saw it. I ended up spending about an hour there as it was so busy and I wanted to ask someone to help me find the right shade of the foundation I wanted. I left the store with my little Sephora bag and I met the rest of the group. We then tried to find some nice clothes for Jack, but he wasn't really liking anything.
So just before we went for dinner, we ended up seeing a bit of a street performance by apeklannyc (check out their instagram!) which was so funny until we walked past another group doing the exact same routine #akward.
Just before we went for dinner, Jack went to one of the shops and got himself a top from New York Yankees. He also got a hat to match it. After dinner, we then went back to the hotel, and Jack and I considered (once again) going to see a Broadway show, but ended up not going.
It was another early night for us...
We knew we only had so much time that day to go around and do the last bits of shopping or looking around so I went to nearly every shoe shop I could while I looked for the pair of shoes I saw on Pinterest before the trip. Needless to say I didn't find the shoes that I wanted anywhere. From Adidas, to Nike and I even went to Sketchers, and decided to try my luck at FootLocker as well... But absolutely nothing.
I ended up, however going to Sephora again to pick up the last bits that I couldn't find the day before.
We were so tired when we met up with Gil and Brit in Central Park, I decided to quickly go to Pandora and get a Reflections bracelet to remember the trip by but it took us so long to find the bloody store! Literally walked all around the same block twice!
There, we decided to ride bikes near Gil and Brit who were sitting on some sort of carriage that someone was peddling for them. We rode for an hour and enjoyed the views and even managed to get a nice pic here and there.
Overall, this was a great experience. We managed to go to a lot of places and experienced so much in the short amount of time we were there.
After that, it just felt like a very long journey to the airport, and from there to the UK felt even longer. We were all so jet lagged that it was a joke. But nonetheless we enjoyed every single aspect of this trip and will definitely remember it forever.
I am so grateful for being able to go out there and go through everything we did. I am even more grateful that I had Jack next to me all the time, because it made this whole experience even better.
Thank you Brit, for letting us tag along with you! Hope you enjoyed your birthday trip just as much as we did.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I went to the United States of America, state of New York, to see if everything is actually worth all that fuss.
Let me tell you now, it is.
We arrived late on Sunday night, the queue to go through border force was long -- waaay too long -- but we ended up making it. Getting to the hotel wasn't easy either, the driver showed us first hand why we should be afraid of driving in New York. Now, I don't know if it is an American thing or a New York thing, but that was some really dangerous driving.
We managed to get to the hotel in one piece (and we were also the last ones in our minibus to be dropped off) and went to the reception to collect the keys to our rooms. Me and Jack were on the 20th floor, while Brittany (Jack's sister) and Gil (their mum) were on the 21st floor. The view from the rooms were amazing ~ and we were literally staying on the room just bellow them so we had pretty much the same view. We all agreed we were too tired that night to do anything so we just got ready for the night and went to sleep.
 |
| The view from our room |
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| Look how big the bed was! :) |
...Day Número Um
I managed to sleep a few hours. I sleep until about 2am and was up for a few hours and then woke up again about 5am and didn't sleep anymore. Jack, obviously, slept like a baby. We went to McDonalds for breakfast and oh my God, I was not expecting their large drinks to be so big. To anyone who hasn't been to the US before, our large drinks are the same size as their regular drinks.
As it was Brit's birthday, we went to Carlos's Bakery as well since she loves it. I ended up just getting a cookie with sprinkles on it, and it was delicious!
We ended up going to the Empire State Building first and it was quite interesting. The queues were sooo long though! We were told that the New York City Pass would give us VIP access, but when we got there, it turned out we didn't. So when we finally went up to the 86th floor, the view was absolutely breathtaking. We could literally see the whole city and a bit more.
 |
| Empire State Building, y'all! |
 |
| How amazing is this view? |
 |
| So many tall buildings... |
As soon I purchased it, I ended up leaving and me and Jack met Brit and Gil outside. Then we decided to take the bus (one of them tour guide buses) and we went to the see the Statue of Liberty. We got off a Battery Park and had to wait for Brit and Gil to meet us there as they were apparently told by someone that they were in the wrong place to take the ferry. We ended up eating lunch before we went on the ferry and we enjoyed it quite a bit. The ride wasn't very long but we managed to see the Statue of Liberty as nicely as possible and still see the Brooklyn Bridge a bit later. We were on Staten Island for a bit and then made our way back to Manhattan.
 |
| This is the view we had on the Ferry |
When we finally got to our room, I ended up changing into a different outfit. And while we were waiting to go out again, I was nearly falling asleep so I decided to put some makeup on and use the Nudestix's eye pencil I had just bought. I absolutely fell in love with it (I promise I will make a review of all the products I got in New York in another post ~ this includes all of the things I bought, from clothes to makeup!)
When I was ready, we wended up going back out to Madame Tussauds instead of going for dinner, as we weren't very hungry yet and still had some time to kill (we had booked The Ride and were absolutely looking forward to do it).
Madame Tussauds was quite close to where we were and we had access to it with out NY City Pass so me and Jack quickly got through. Soon enough, all four of us were inside and we started roaming through the hallways. We were slightly disappointed when we left. We were expecting there to be a lot more American celebrities than there were and it was a little bit underwhelming. When we finished going through, we still had about forty-five minutes before The Ride, so we did end up going to a restaurant for dinner. I had a chicken soup which was absolutely delicious!
 |
| Captain America and I :) |
 |
| My soup! |
I must admit, we didn't actually have very long to eat and still be out in time for The Ride so we rushed through the meal to make sure we were there early and made it to the front row. Let me explain The Ride... It is, essentially, a party bus. They have 49 people riding on that bus, and 2 extra people explaining where we were and giving out some cool facts about certain places. All the while, they were giving random shout outs to Brit (because when we booked it, she mentioned it was her birthday so they would do just that! and she also had to pay for that.) The Ride was definitely entertaining and it made sure that we were enjoying it by giving us street performances, a guided tour and some new memories.
After that, we went back to the hotel to rest and get ready for...
...Day Número Dois
We started the day by going to Applebee's for breakfast. After breakfast, we had already decided we were going to the 9/11 Memorial, so we could go to the Museum. Me and Jack took the subway, and it literally took us about fifteen minutes to get there. We ended up having time to go shopping, walk around for a bit and even take some pictures while we were waiting for the rest of our group. Sadly, Jack and I ended up not going inside the Museum.
The queues were too long. We literally waited for an hour just to collect our tickets, by then Brit and Gil were nearly done with the tour of the Museum and we still had about an hour wait until we actually made it through the doors. We decided to go to the World Trade Centre instead so we could go to the toilet and sit down for a bit. We were slightly disappointed with the Westfield shopping centre as it did not have a food court!
Instead of going back to the hotel or to a restaurant, Jack and I decided to go to the American Natural History Museum and have a look around. By the time we got there, we were so tired that even just looking around the exposition felt long. We went through as much as we could, while we waited to go to the showing we had purchased. We saw the Dark Universe, which showed us more about Space and just how much there is still unknown about the rest of it. We were so grateful to sit down and relax in a dark room, we were so close to falling asleep as well, but in the end we made it. We went through the Dinosaur exposition and saw the little bits and bobs we wanted to see, like the Hall of Asian People, the different Mammal Halls and the Fossils Hall. We only regretted not having enough time to explore every single section of the museum because it was all so worth it and amazing, but it would have taken a whole day for us to do it all.
We then decided it was more than time to eat so we made our way to Chinatown. We had decided we wanted to experience eating in Chinatown, so we googled some places and ended up finding one that was both nearby and well rated. The restaurant was enormous! The food absolutely delicious, but the portions were a bit too big for us. We hadn't realised just how much we were being served so we ended up ordering a little bit too much.
After lunch, we made our way out of Chinatown, which we found a little underwhelming in comparison to Chinatown in London. It felt like it lacked the spirit and it was just another street, with just a lot of Asian stores in it.
We then made our way to the Brooklyn Bridge. It took us nearly an hour until we finally crossed the bridge. It was an amazing experience, but unlike the previous day, the weather was much nicer and I was absolutely not prepared for nice weather! I was wearing a hoody, and a long sleeve top underneath it *sigh* it could have been worse, but I just wish I had a full bottle of water with us.
 |
| there's me sitting on the bridge, nearly halfway through it |
Jack and I nearly went to a Broadway show but ended up just going to sleep early that night.
Which leads us to....
...Day Número Três
On this day, we went to an outlet centre. We took a bus to Woodbury Common for a shopping spree. Some of us got a lot more than others, we all managed to get a least a few things from there (as I mentioned before, I will make another post with pictures of everything I got from there).
The shops were a bit of a mix of good and bad. Some of them were absolutely amazing with great deals on and others were a bit dead. They barely had anything and we were disappointed with what we did find. Which was such a shame, we managed to spend most of the day there anyways, and then we were so very tired once again.
We ended up just going to Times Square so we could look around and maybe shop a little bit more. Obviously, I went to Sephora as soon as I saw it. I ended up spending about an hour there as it was so busy and I wanted to ask someone to help me find the right shade of the foundation I wanted. I left the store with my little Sephora bag and I met the rest of the group. We then tried to find some nice clothes for Jack, but he wasn't really liking anything.
 |
| Avengers: Endgame Poster |
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| Detective Pikachu Poster |
Just before we went for dinner, Jack went to one of the shops and got himself a top from New York Yankees. He also got a hat to match it. After dinner, we then went back to the hotel, and Jack and I considered (once again) going to see a Broadway show, but ended up not going.
It was another early night for us...
...And Day Número Quatro started!
We knew we only had so much time that day to go around and do the last bits of shopping or looking around so I went to nearly every shoe shop I could while I looked for the pair of shoes I saw on Pinterest before the trip. Needless to say I didn't find the shoes that I wanted anywhere. From Adidas, to Nike and I even went to Sketchers, and decided to try my luck at FootLocker as well... But absolutely nothing.
I ended up, however going to Sephora again to pick up the last bits that I couldn't find the day before.
We were so tired when we met up with Gil and Brit in Central Park, I decided to quickly go to Pandora and get a Reflections bracelet to remember the trip by but it took us so long to find the bloody store! Literally walked all around the same block twice!
There, we decided to ride bikes near Gil and Brit who were sitting on some sort of carriage that someone was peddling for them. We rode for an hour and enjoyed the views and even managed to get a nice pic here and there.
Overall, this was a great experience. We managed to go to a lot of places and experienced so much in the short amount of time we were there.
After that, it just felt like a very long journey to the airport, and from there to the UK felt even longer. We were all so jet lagged that it was a joke. But nonetheless we enjoyed every single aspect of this trip and will definitely remember it forever.
I am so grateful for being able to go out there and go through everything we did. I am even more grateful that I had Jack next to me all the time, because it made this whole experience even better.
Thank you Brit, for letting us tag along with you! Hope you enjoyed your birthday trip just as much as we did.
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