NEW YORK CITY

Hello! Poor effort this month I know, but I've had a good excuse! I went to the big apple with Tom on the 16th for 5 nights! We stayed in the RoomMate Grace, which was a lovely little hotel located just off times square! Everyone at the hotel was very helpful and welcoming which was lovely.

Once we had arrived we explored around Times Square and visited Grand Central Station, a perfect way to start the holiday as it was about to get very hectic! I think we managed to get 10 attractions done in 4 days! 

Monday 17th Feb

On monday morning we went up to Central Park Zoo, which was a lot smaller than I thought it was and contained no Alex the lion! However along with other animals there were some gorgeous Snow Leopards which were my personal favourite! After the Zoo we made our way down to Madame Tussauds! This was our first ever time visiting one of these famous attractions and I must admit I was slightly freaked out when we first arrived on the top floor of Hollywood actors. It did feel as if they were just about to come to life! Once we had made our way down all the floors we then walked over to the MoMA. This was my favourite Museum of all the ones we had visited on the trip and I wish we could have been on all the floors. I gained a lot of inspiration for my own work here which was a great help! Also seeing famous pieces was really cool! In the evening we had a tour of the Art and Architecture on the Rockefeller buildings, then had a VIP (short cut) up to the top! It wasn't cold or windy which was a bonus and we saw NYC at night with the Presidents Day colours lighting up the Empire State building!

Tuesday 18th Feb

Tuesday wasn't as busy as the previous, which was nice to break up all the attractions. We caught the bus down to Madison Square Garden to have a tour of the building for opening. The tour was interesting and taught you a lot about the history and facilities they hold. We then made our way back to the hotel as me being me, I forgot the SD card for my camera! As it was only 10 blocks away from our hotel we walked back. Next on the hit list was Macy's. Apparently I spent over an hour in Michael Kors (according to Tom, but he had Wifi there so it doesn't matter right? Girls got to look at all the handbags!) I did some damage that day and purchased a bag. We then made our way over to the Empire State building, which wasn't busy at all and we had our own lift up to the 86th floor. The top of the Empire was a lot windier than Top of the rock as there was only rails holding the wind back. After we got some good pictures we headed back to the bus and had a tour of downtown!

Wednesday 19th Feb

Wednesday morning we headed down to the 9/11 memorial which took ages as downtown Manhattan was chock-a-block that morning! Once we had seen the pools we headed down to Wall St; then to Battery Park where we caught the water taxi to see the Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty. We got off the taxi at midtown and walked across to Times Square! As you can tell so far, we walked a lot, which means that it didn't matter we had the biggest desert ever that night for FREE! Just down the road from our hotel was a lovely italian restaurant above Planet Hollywood. They accidentally burnt the bottom of our pizza so offered us free desert, and of course we couldn't turn that down could we? I mean brownies and ice cream! Obviously we couldn't eat it all but gave a good attempt.

Thursday 20th Feb

This was our last whole day in NYC and we spent it at two museums! We got an uptown bus to the Natural History Museum to see the T-rex! Once we had spent a fair amount of time there we headed over to New York's best hot dogs (or so the tour guide told us!). Two hot dogs and a drink for $5, bargain! We then walked through snowy Central Park over to the Metropolitan Museum. Here we also saw so much work by people like Chuck Close and Picasso!

We spent Friday doing all our shopping and I'm pleased to say I came home with just over $100 to spare. Of course I could have blown the lot but then I'd have no money until pay day! New York was an amazing 5 nights with Tom, however I'm definitely ready for a hot beach holiday!!

Laur xx