A long weekend across the pond: my New York City blog post!

Hello ladies and gentlemen!

You may remember me mentioning that I was going to spend the weekend in New York with my Mum as an early 21st birthday treat (my actual birthday is during uni term time so we had to go early). Well, that weekend has been and gone...and it was amazing! So I'd like to dedicate this blog post to filling you in on everything we got up to in the Big Apple! I invite you to live vicariously through me and enjoy a "virtual" long weekend in the city that never sleeps!


Day 1 - Friday 12th September 2014

Speaking of sleep, going to New York for a long weekend is one of the very few things that really justifies setting your alarm for 4:45am in my opinion! We had an early morning flight booked from Heathrow Terminal 5 to J F Kennedy Airport on Friday morning and all I can say is that the Starbucks I had as soon as we got through security was much needed! 

After a quick coffee and some breakfast we wandered around the shops at the airport. Terminal 5 has the best selection of airport shops that I have ever encountered. No other airports beat it...but Hong Kong International came close!!

I've had my eye on the Jo Malone Oud and Bergamot Cologne Intense for ages but have continued to try and convince myself not to buy it for months as its pretty darn pricey! I spray it on myself every time I get the chance and love it more each time.

Unfortunately, it's essentially a pound a millilitre in the Jo Malone shops across the UK. So, I was ecstatic to find that there is a duty free Jo Malone store at Heathrow Terminal 5. They sell the 100ml cologne intense fragrances for £80 instead of £100, so that's a pretty big saving. 

I no longer had the will-power to resist it, so I begrudgingly handed over my debit card and left the shop with a smile on my face and my new perfume wrapped beautifully in a bag which was hanging on my arm as I boarded the plane. I wore it every day whilst I was in New York and I still love it - totally worth it! You can read more about it or buy it online here.

  
The flight was around seven and a half hours and I spent most of it enjoying the movies that the inflight entertainment had to offer ('Blended' and 'Maleficent' were fab) and immersing myself in a book my friend Rachel (through her Grandma - thanks Rita!)lent me, it's by Graeme Simsion, it's called The Rosie Project and it's brilliant! Read it if you can!

http://thefriendlyshelf.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/author-qa-graeme-simsion-the-rosie-project/

When we touched down at JFK there was a surprise awaiting me! We went through the doors into the arrivals area to be met by a suited and booted man holding a card with my name on it. I was totally expecting to walk straight past all the fancy drivers and jump in a cab so it was all a bit of a shock! Especially when the driver took us into the car park and showed us to a limo! Yes, a huge white stretched limo...

This is my "OMG I'm in a limousine when I'm supposed to be in a cab...what is happening?!" face!

I definitely did not have my head hanging out of the window for most of the journey to the hotel...I was cool, calm and collected...just like the totally not posed picture below shows...erm...

So yeah, that whole experience was awesome and we arrived at our hotel, the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Times Square, in style!

Our hotel by night!

View from our hotel room!

We arrived there around 1pm so we still had a full afternoon to explore. We walked along Times Square and then visited Bryant Park, which has a lovely view of the Empire State Building beyond the line of trees, before hitting the shops!

We went to Abercrombie and Fitch, Henri Bendel, Saks, Karen Millen, Tiffany and Co., Sephora and Nike. I'm so glad I saved up for this trip so I was able to do all of the nice shopping that I wanted! 

The day's shopping

At Abercrombie and Fitch, 5th Avenue

With some policemen on Times Square

With my Sephora purchases!

Here's a close up of my Nike purchases, some new gym wear and some Nike Free Flyknit 4.0s (from Foot Locker) which I adore - so bright and colourful and again, way cheaper in the U.S than they are in the U.K! 

And of my Sephora goodies! 

Left to right: Benefit They're Real Mascara, Pink Beauty Blender, Tweezerman Pointed Slant Tweezers, Sephora Liquid Eyeliner and NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer in shade 'vanilla' (most of these are repurchases but I'm excited to try out the Beauty Blender)!

Once we'd finished emptying our wallets along the streets of New York, we wandered over to West 55th street in search of Yakitori Totto, an up and coming Japanese restaurant in Manhattan. It did not disappoint, the tuna sashimi and barbecued beef were out of this world!

We were absolutely knackered after our meal so we headed back to the hotel to catch up on some much needed sleep - jet lag is a killer! 

Mounted police on Times Square

Goodnight Times Square!

Day 2 - Saturday 13th September 2014

We were up bright and early on Saturday morning ready to head out for our first full day in the city. Me being me, I had scribbled out a little itinerary for the weekend. For Saturday daytime, I had planned trips to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum and to the Ellis Island Museum of Immigration.

The Freedom Tower, 1 World Trade Center

One of the memorial pools

The museum was very moving and interesting. Having already visited the memorial pools in 2011, it was great to actually learn more about what happened on that fateful day just over thirteen years ago. 

A preserved piece of the structure of the twin towers

The last column

Human remains of some of the victims of 911 are stored behind this wall

Remains of the "Survivors' Stairs' down to Vesey St.

A fire truck that got destroyed during 911

A piece of the communications antennae that fell from the North Tower

The last column again - you can see how vast the inside of the museum is here!

The museum contains many restored remains of the twin towers and provides personal accounts from victims of the attack and their families. It's not for the faint hearted and at times it really is a bit of a tear jerker, but it's definitely worth doing if you find yourself in Manhattan. "Honor. Remember. Reunite".

After our visit to the 911 memorial, we headed (through the pouring rain I might add) towards the ferries to Liberty and Ellis Island for the next part of our day.

We caught the ferry over to Ellis Island and wandered around the museum of immigration there. 

The audio guide system they have is great and you can learn a lot about all of the people that arrived in America and were sent through Ellis Island (and sometimes detained)before being allowed into the country. 

A word of advice - the museum is currently undergoing some restoration after it was hit by hurricane Sandy. They are getting all of the climate control systems working again so the artifacts can be preserved properly, so a lot of the things you might want to look at there have been sent off to other museums whilst the repairs are going on. 

Although we may not have seen as much as we anticipated, it was still a worthwhile visit. Above and below are pictures of the Registration Room where all of the immigrants would have been taken upon arrival on Ellis Island. 

On the ferry out to Ellis Island we passed by Liberty Island, where I managed to take a quick shot of Lady Liberty, she's really quite cool, an true icon of New York!

Once we were back on solid ground in Battery Park, we headed for an early dinner in Little Italy! As we walked along Mulberry Street, we realised we'd walked into the middle of a festival! It just happened to be the same festival featured in the Godfather 2 - The Feast of San Gennaro (you can read more about it here). 

We found a lovely restaurant to eat at called Sofia's and the food was great! We had mozzarella in carrozza to start and I had a really nice spicy tomato spaghetti dish with pancetta for my main course whilst Mum had lasagne- yum!

After dinner we made our way back onto the subway and up to Times Square, ready to see Cinderella the musical at the Broadway Theatre. 

It was an absolute disaster getting there. We came out of the subway at 42nd Street and Broadway so we knew we were on the right road...whether we had to walk down towards Times Square or further up Broadway was a different question...

My theory was that we should walk further up Broadway but as we weren't completely sure, we went into a shop to ask. Obviously we were stupid and trusted their directions and ended up on a wild goose chase/tour of New York's theatre district...in the rain!!

They had sent us in completely the wrong direction so we arrived at the theatre a few minutes late, despite allowing plenty of time to get there. If only I'd have trusted my own sense of direction (which, admittedly, is usually rather lacking!). Hindsight is a wonderful thing...

Anyway, we got there in the end (looking rather bedraggled I must say!)and the show was brilliant! I'd definitely recommend going to see it if you're in New York - it's a very nice take on the story with a lovely twist, some great actors and plenty of comedy! You can buy tickets and read more about the show here.

Day 3 - Sunday 14th September 2014

When Sunday morning came round it was time to hit Central Park! We hired some bikes and headed into the park and we couldn't have had a better day for it - the weather was beautiful!

The Loeb Boat House

We hired the bikes for 3 hours so had plenty of time to cycle the whole park which covers 50 blocks of Manhattan. 

Mum on a bike!

Mum wanted to do a selfie!

Whilst we were sat on one of the benches by the lake, a couple walked past us walking one bulldog on a lead and pulling another one behind in a trailer - only in America! He looked very happy though...

A bulldog enjoying it's 'walk'

It really is a beautiful park and it's almost unbelievable that you're still in Manhattan, the concrete jungle with all of it's hustle and bustle!

The Jackie Kennedy Onassis Reservoir

We had a great morning seeing all of the sights hidden around the park. Central Park plays the backdrop in many movies, so it was great to see it all in real life! I also thought the bike rather suited me...

After we'd (much to my disappointment) returned the bikes, we refuelled at Starbucks, ready for an afternoon of shopping and sight seeing! 

I bought a new frappuccino cup for my morning smoothies (a post on the smoothies is coming soon!)and some Refresher sachets to use when I get home (as an ex-Starbucks employee I found them really exciting as they don't sell them in the UK! Feel free to throw abuse at the Starbucks nerd...).

We then headed to Victoria's Secret on The Avenue of Americas and also to Kate Spade on 5th Avenue. On our journey through the streets of Manhattan we saw Macy's, the Empire State building, the Flatiron building, Madison Square Park and New York Central Library all with a beautiful evening sky as a picture perfect backdrop! 

Macy's

The Empire State Building

The Flatiron Building

Madison Square Park

New York Public Library

We even walked past a shop that literally just sells Nutella based products...madness! 

I spent far too much money that day...here's a sneak peak of some of the stuff I bought from Victoria's Secret...apart from the underwear...I don't feel that I want you all to know me that well...!

So as you can see I mainly bought workout gear - the new Victoria's Secret sport collection and the PINK sportswear is fab! I got a tank top, a t-shirt, some yoga pants, a sports bra, a hoodie and the most brilliant bottle that says "I hate running" (which couldn't be more true, no matter how hard I try to love it!!).

When I'd finished throwing money at the shopping establishments of Manhattan, we headed back towards Times Square for dinner. On the way we walked past the Empire State Building again - it looked so pretty all lit up! 

We also made time to pop into Sephora again where I purchased two nail polishes which I will try to review soon!

Nails Inc. Gel Effect Polish in 'Porchester Square'

Formula X for Sephora in "Fathom"

We then finally made it to Bubba Gump Shrimp, a really fun Forrest Gump themed restaurant where we had a lovely last dinner in New York! 

Day 4 - Monday 15th September 2014

On our last morning in New York we woke up, packed up our bags, had our last breakfast at the Crowne Plaza and then headed straight downtown to walk the Brooklyn Bridge. Again, the weather was great and I really enjoyed seeing the bridge up close for the first time! The views from it weren't bad either!

New York's own 'love lock' bridge

After we'd walked the bridge we headed to the Pier 6 downtown heliport for our helicopter tour of New York - a treat from my Stepdad (Thanks Damon!!). Needless to say, it was amazing! It was so great to see the city from above and a great way to end our long weekend in New York. 

Our pilot!

It was a brilliant experience! Once we'd been brought back down to earth we had one last Starbucks on the beach...yes the beach!

There's a sort of makeshift beach outside the Starbucks in South Ferry, complete with sand, umbrellas, sun loungers and the odd suited and booted business man! So bizarre!

I had a peach green tea lemonade that was bigger than my head - we don't even have drinks that size at Starbucks in the UK! 

Thirsts quenched, we went back to the hotel to grab our bags and got a cab back to JFK Airport! 

It was my third trip to the big apple and it was as incredible as ever. Long may my love affair with this amazing city continue. Until next time New York.

xoxo