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New York...a concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there's nothing we can't do, now we're in New York!
The day had finally arrived...NYC the gruesome twosome were making their way to you. So we cleaned the room, packed our stuff, picked up our daily chocolate stash and made our way to Boston South station.
We were very early for our train. I think maybe we were too excited to be going. We pretty much ate all our chocolate whilst we were at the station. We waited and waited and...yes you guessed it...waited some more. Then our train arrived and we hopped on. I'm so glad we chose renting the car over Amtrak. There is no way I could have sat on that train for 22 hours. Not a chance. The four hour journey was too much.
It was such a boring journey and it felt like it was lasting forever. It did not help that we had some guy sitting in front of us who was honestly the most boring guy in the world. He was like professor spafford from friends who lists all his nut allergies. Well instead of listing that, this guy listed most of the good place to eat oysters. 'And in New Jersey they have good oysters and clams and fish and mussels...' the list goes on. Imagine many sentences like that in the most monotone voice EVER! My blanket almost became a murder weapon! I was on the verge of suffocating with it...is that bad? Haha.
Welcome to New York City we had made it! I got my first yellow cab to the appartment on 22nd in Chelsea. I felt like a cast member from
Made in Chelsea...it is quite a wealthy area. I felt right at home. The flat is pretty cool very spacious and pretty central to everything!
I met up with Avnish for a meal and some drinks. He took me to a nice little Italian restaurant which had some amazing food. What I found crazy was the front of the menu had the food list but the middle and the back was all wine. They sold more alcohol than food. My kind of place. After dinner we went to a rooftop bar overlooking the city skyline of jersey. It was beautiful...just a shame it was quite cold. But awesome all the same. For a change of scene we then went to a cool little basement bar which had a cool vibe. So we stayed there until closing time.
Morning came and i went to help Avnish with some shopping around Union square. It's a cool little place. Lots of funky little shops and things. He did his shopping for Vegas, I was pretty much his personal shopper haha. We found everything he needed though...so it was on to Brooklyn we went. I took my first ride on the NY subway...how exciting. I bought my ticket and off we went. The subway here is so much bigger so it can get confusing at times finding the right direction to go. But I had a pro with me so it was all good.
It didn't take long at all to get there. It was still light out. I was told it was better to walk over the bridge at night to get a great view of the city skyline all lit up, so while we waited for the sun to go down we went for a drink at a lovely little bar in Brooklyn. This is where I tried a new lager, 'Brooklyn lager' of course. It was good. Elena would have loved it.
The sun had gone to bed for the day and the city was all lit up. It was time for us to walk across the Brooklyn bridge back to manhattan. It's a great walk and you get the most amazing views of the city. It was breathtaking. I got a bit snap happy, but it was all new to me and I was loving it...this was just the beginning of the night as well. I had so much more to see.
After our lovely stroll in the fresh air we caught the subway to Grand Central Station. It's just like it is in the movies. HUGE! Just a shame there was no guy chasing me about to declare his love for me haha. I did feel like I was in the movies.
We walked passed the to rockerfellas centre where the big Christmas tree usually goes. It was a very pretty area. Obviously the Christmas tree wasn't up yet but the ice rink was there. Then we moved on to time square, which is amazing and I can see why people say go at night. It's all lit up and busy it's awesome!
We walked to through bryant park, where there was another ice rink and lots of little stalls. I bought myself a new iPhone case. The American flag of course. I am totally pro america and my phone is now americanised. Haha.
After having a wander around passing the music hall and New studios we took the subway to west side where there were lots of little jazz bars and live music bars. It's pretty cool there. We had a meal at a little Chinese restaurant. They gave us chopsticks to eat with which I cannot use. I tried but the food kept falling so I eventually asked for a fork. Embarrassing haha! We then made our way back. It was and awesome day. I had been in New York for just over 24 hours and I knew it was by far my favourite place. I want to move here. I love NYC!
Another day of exploring ahead and this day involved a trip to ground zero today and statue of liberty. I was so impressed with myself, I found my way with no map or google maps to help. My navigation skills have improved. Im a pro, haha. I waited for liz and jack by the little chapel right opposite ground zero. I can't believe that it survived the falling of the twin towers. It's crazy. I was sitting on the bench in the graveyard area...as you do, and a boy comes up selling sweets for a charity. He talked and talked so I just bought a pack. As he walked off he turns back and asks for my number...I lied and said I didn't have an American number so he says 'ok When I see you around again we'll hang out.' as if I am ever going to run into him again? Has he seen New York? It would be quite difficult to bump into the same people again! We missed the time slots for tickets for ground zero so jack booked them for Tuesday and we went to catch the ferry to the statue of liberty.
Jack thought it would be a good idea to start feeding the seagulls some sweets on the ferry ride. So the whole way there we had seagulls flying alongside the boat and very close to our heads. I was unimpressed...as you know I hate seagulls!
The view of the skyline is awesome from the island. You can see jersey, New York and Brooklyn. I bet it is a great picture at night. The statue isn't too exciting to see though, well once you've seen it, you've seen it. We had some pictures with lady liberty herself and walked around the island, which is just tiny, and then got the ferry back. Liz and jack then left to go on their date. I went home and skyped Mr Edwards and then the family, before having the best, longest sleep EVER!
So...the time had come for me to live the life of an upper east sider for the day. The gossip girl tour was waiting for me at the palace hotel so I made my way there on the subway. I had a feeling it was going to be a good day. We all hopped aboard the bus and began our adventure. We saw Madison avenue, St James church, St judes and constance where they filmed the scenes from the school. We passed central park and 5th avenue. Passing through Millionaire row was cool, where Blair waldorfs building is. The cheapest apartment to buy in that building is 3.5 million dollars!! Thats crazy money. Well actually crazier than that, someone bought the penthouse in one of the hotels on the upper east side for 100million dollars! Now that's just too much money for sense. Right?
We stopped at The met and sat like a 'Constance' girl on the met steps in the sunshine. Then went for a browse in dylans candy store, the largest candy store in the world! It's amazing in there. 3 floors of candy and chocolate. They even sold British chocolate, so naturally I bought a bar. Haha. It was scrumptious! I also got told I look like little j (Jenny humphrey)by two people. I wish haha but a nice compliment all the same!
Back on the bus and passed Trump tower, carnicky hall and the Russian tea room before having a wander around Henry bendels. What an awesome shop but my god is it expensive! They had a whole department with jut headbands and hair accessories it was so cool but to give you an idea of the prices a bobble was $88. $88 dollars? I mean seriously, find an elastic band it will do exactly the same thing without having to fork out the cash! The upper east side is stupidly wealthy!
The tour was almost over but to say goodbye the tour guide bought us all pistachio macaroon nuts. I had a chocolate one...they are Blaires favourite dessert and they are goooood! Well I got to live the life of an upper eastsider, and I loved it! I could fit right in there...in my dreams!
I got the subway home and chilled for a little before it was time to get ready. It was Friday and it was most definitely time to live for the weekend! Liz made her way over and the gladrags came out. We were ready to hit the town! Eeeekk! NYC was calling us, so after a few drinks and pictures we flagged down a cab. I've always wanted to do that. Just like they do in the movies. Haha. We got one straight away and told him to take us to the busiest place, which happened to be the meatpacking district, which is basically the area all locals go. Its full of bars and takeaways. Perfect for us. The bar from what I remember was pretty cool, we got chatting to a few people, some people from Essex and a guy called drew. He's a fox news presenter here!! I though great he works in media, I'm NY! I know I definately spoke about jobs and things to him a lot...he gave me his card and told me to contact him about work experience. Haha how exciting...the randomness of a night out aye? Well we danced the night away(like complete gimps) and before we knew it, it was 4am and the place was closing. We took a short cab ride home and it was time for some sleep. The night is a blur but I know we had an awesome time.
This was just the start to what will be an amazing couple of days. Everybody put your glasses up and let's drink to the weekend! Watch out new York, you've seen nothing yet.
To be continued....
Loving life!
J.L xoxo
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