Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I didn't even plan to write here so early on in the trip but so much has happened already that I think it might spill out of my head unless I write it down! Let me start from the beginning. On Tuesday I boarded the 14:00 plane from London Heathrow to New York JFK, and I was incredibly excited! I was flying with Virgin Atlantic and the service I got on the plane was really great - decent meals, pillows and blankets, headphones and lots of movies and T.V, so I was suitably entertained for the 7 hour flight.
We were slightly late landing into the airport because apparently they were getting the tail-end of the hurricane, so the weather was awful. Customs and everything went very smoothly, but I was absolutely terrified about my journey into the city. I had heard that it was really confusing and so I stopped and asked a lot of questions, and luckily everyone was really helpful. I was told to get the Howard Beach train and then the subway up to 103rd st Manhattan, where my hostel is. All of this was going well so far, and then I got on the subway and couldn't see where I was on the map! I asked a woman next to me where I was and she said 'you're going to 103rd st?? You got a long way to go honey, I'm talking like an hour!' She showed me where I was and I realised I was in Brooklyn! I had no idea the airport was so far away! By the time I got off the subway it was about 8:00pm, quite dark, I had two bags with me and I was so stressed and panicky. I knew I had to go left onto Amsterdam Avenue but every time I got to a new street it wasn't the right one. I kept thinking 'it will be the next one, it will be the next one....' and finally I got there. I was so glad to get there, and so tired, but I knew I shouldn't go to sleep yet because it was still fairly early. So I ended up sleeping at about 9:30pm, waking up a couple of times in the night but waking up fully at about 7:00am.
That morning I went downstairs into the lobby and saw there was a walking tour around the Bronx starting at 10, so I thought I'd kill some time by going on the internet and booking my next hostel, as I'd only booked two nights in HI New York so far. Again I started to get panicky as I searched and searched for hostels, and there were no rooms available anywhere! After a frantic call to my mum I concluded that I might need to book a more expensive hotel just so I could have somewhere to sleep tomorrow night, and I was able to get another 5 nights after that at the same hostel. I was really not happy with this though - more travelling and staying in a private room was going to be really annoying!! After the Bronx tour though, this all changed. I met two really nice girls called Sarah and Emily, who invited me to come with them to go on the Staten Island Ferry, which is completely free and gives good views of the Manhattan Skyline and of the Statue of Liberty. We talked the whole way there and really clicked, and when we got to the terminal we heard someone playing some music out of their speakers, one of my favourite songs! And it felt like a sign that everything was going to be okay, and it would all sort itself out. Travelling has always been stressful for me, so I wasn't going to let a little glitch bother me.
After the day had passed and we got back to the hostel, Emily mentioned that she had a coupon for the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square; $5 off the bill and skip the long long lines into the restaurant. Times Square is absolutely amazing - beautiful bright lights everywhere, really friendly people, and something to look at wherever you turn. The meal was really good and not too expensive, and we also mentioned that it was Sarah's birthday so we got a free ice-cream sundae to finish! I was so gutted that I left my camera back at the hostel, but I hope to be going back again so I can take some more.
Today I went on a free walking tour around Central Park, meeting up with some friends who were on the Bronx walking tour the previous day. Central Park is so big that we could only go down the west side, and it took 3 hours just for that. I definitely want to hire a bike and go for a ride around the park before I leave; it just seems so peaceful and tranquil. After some lunch I headed back to the hostel to get into my new room, and currently I'm using Emily's computer to book tickets for the Empire State Building tonight! Such a packed couple of days and I still have five left!!!
- comments