New York, New York- It's a hell of a town....
I have just returned from the city that never sleeps (aka New York) & I wanted to do a post about my lovely time in the city.
For people who are reading this who aren't subscibed to my youtube channel or who just don't know, my bf brought me for Christmas tickets to New York, which was SOOOOOOO amazing & generous of him :)
I have never flown on a long haul flight (the furthest I have been is an hour & half flight to France & that's as far as I've ever gone!) so for me this was a huge challenge in it's self, as I thought I would get bored/restless & I was scared of the whole turbulence thing. So we had to wake up at 4am (yes, I know it's disgusting!) to get to Heathrow for three hours before our flight, it was actually ok getting up this early & we went through security v.quickly. I was keeping my eyes peeled all the time for celebs/editors/fashionistas, as it was the first few days of New York Fashion Week. We flew with Virgin Airways, which I must say was THE most nicest airline to travel with (even though I have never flown with any other big airlines, my bf told me that they were the best. Way better then BA, who he flew with last time he went to NY!). We upgraded our seats for £30 for more legroom (not to first class!) and it was a very comfortable/enjoyable flight. I watched three films- Never Let Me Go (AMAZING), The Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud & Eat, Prey, Love. The food was actually good (they gave us ice cream as a snack!) and the time went by quickly.
New York itself?
Well, I am absolutely in love with this city.
My first thoughts were that it would be really overcrowded, polluted and hot. However I was very surprised, as it was not as busy as I expected, (even during the rush hour times & in tourist spots) the air was extremely clean and the subway was no where near as hot as the London tubes (as I had been commuting to London for the whole week previous).
So what did we get up to?
On the first day our plan was to stay awake for as long as we possible could, so we were adjusted to NY time (makes sense right?). So we got to the hotel at 2pm and left our bags there as check in wasn't til 3pm, and decided to go & have something to eat as it was roughly the time we would normally be having dinner in the UK. We went to a place called Cafe Metro & I munched on a chicken salad and a strawberry lemonade, which was reasonably priced & v.yummy. After an hour we walked a few blocks back to the hotel and checked in, unpacked, had a little relax (no sleep!) & went to explore the area that we were in. We basically walked around 5th avenue & went to Time square for the first time, as well as checking out the cool architecture that the city offers! So after exhausting ourselves from walking we made our back to the hotel and had a good 13 hours sleep!!!! & we woke up at 5am the next day & enjoyed a scary quiet New York streets at 8am on a Sunday!!
Grand Central Station
At the Mac Counter in Sacks
Grand Central Station Market
Rockefeller Center
Central Park
Sunday was another packed day as we woke up early, found an amazing place for breakfast called Pax (that we actually ended up going to for breakfast every single morning !). I had pancakes (my first ones ever!), a pot of plain yogurt with fresh fruit & granola & a green tea :) This kept me fueled up for another fun filled day of walking around the city, (yes we walked literally everywhere!) where we did a spot of shopping on 5th avenue again, visited Grand Central Station, saw Rockefeller Centre, Radio City, walked through a small fraction of Central Park & to make my bf happy (as he LOVES anything technology-fied & Apple) we went to the Apple store!! I must say it was lovely & cold (queue my ear muffs!) & Central Park covered in snow still was so beautiful. By the way if your looking for YUMMY, fresh food you HAVE TO check out Grand Central Station market- for me it was like pure heaven!!! & the cupcakes are to die for!!!
Flatiron Building
New York Public Library
Washington Square Park
Red velvet Cupcake
Outside Carrie Bradshaw's Flat!!!!
Time Square
M&M World
Monday was Valentines Day, which i also nicknamed it Carrie Bradshaw Day & it was lovely spending it in this city. We made a pact that we would not buy each other expensive presents & in the end we settled for buy each other cupcakes!!! I got for him a chocolate cupcake with real cream in the middle & for me he brought me two red velvet cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery on Bleecker Street (the one Carrie & Co go to in SATC). I don't know what it is about NY cupcakes but they are INCREDIBLE!!! The frosting is what makes them amazing, does anyone know what their secret is?! So we had another fun packed day- We walked all the way to Greenwich Village, had lunch in Washington Square Park (just some bagles!), then went on a SATC tour to find the bakery & also as I was walking, by pure luck, I kept looking down the roads to find the bakery and thought "these houses all look like Carrie's." & literally just a few blocks away from the bakery, we found Carrie Bradshaw's flat!!!!!!!! (with thanks to the iphone, free wifi & google!)
So I thought that was quiet romantic in itself. Then we just kept walking and ended up back in Timesquare (again), & as it was Valentines Day they had this Ken & Barbie event going on all over the city & we found this rather random & if not freeky exhabison of real life Ken's standing in boxes!!!! (tbh they all looked like Abercrombi & Fitch models!!) What freeked me out even more was what the guys, who were running the event- were saying to try to get people to have their picture taken with them, lines like "go and unbox your perfect Ken"- I believe were used!! After that we just had a nice quiet dinner in a restruant and headed back to the hotel.
Statue of Liberty
American Idiot @ St James' Theatre
Tuesday was Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island Day, so we spent the whole day there. It was MEGA cold and windy & there were times when I thought my face would freeze & fall off, but enough of the dramatics, the day was extremely intresting. The whole history behind the two places and espescially with Ellis Island, it felt completly suriel to be there & almost like stepping back in time. In places it felt quiet irry, as the restoration of the whole bulding felt very much like it looked over 50 years ago. We were both going to look in the records for our great grandfather's, who both came to the island- however we went to the wrong library & arrived 15 mins after it had closed!!! After we were back on dry land we walked to ground zero (which is really no longer ground zero) & just took in how the the site is moving on & the heeling is taking place. & as we were back in Timesquare again we went & got half price tickets to see American Idiot- which was INCREDIBLE!!!
China Town & Little Italy
Empire State Building
Green Tea Frappacino & Iced Green Tea Lemonade @ Starbucks
Chicken Ceaser Salad Pizza @ Bloomingdales
The next couple of days were just a little bit of sight seeing here & there. We visited China Town & Little Italy, as well as the Empire State Building & of course even more shopping!!
The hotel where Serena Van de Woodsen's Family live in Gossip Girl
Apple Store
Pastrami & Salade Bagle
Roosevelt Hotel 45th East, 45th Street ♥
Our hotel room (excuse the mess!)
Our last day we didn't do anything exciting, just more shopping on 5th avenue & spent the day in Central Park as the weather was like a spring day- clear blue sky, a small cool breeze and warm. We stayed at the Roosevelt Hotel, which is so beautiful and in general a great place to stay in. It is in walking distance to everywhere you would want to go and just I can't write anymore about how amazing it is because I would just be writing it's amazing all the time!!!
We were both extremly sad to leave New York, not just because we had such a great experience, but also because we both fell in love with the city. It offers so much to the traveller as well as to it's people and it is a place that I think i could easily call home. The draw to New York is, for me, an even bigger draw then other cities like London or Paris. I will be going back there soon (when my bank balance has recoperated!) & one day in the future I hope that I will be able to call it home, at lest for a small part of my future.
If you've been to New York how was your experience?
Love,
Elle xoxox
♥
P.S If you want to see what I brought whilst in New York, check out the video below :)
