Wow! Just wow! What an experience New York was.
5 days and 5 nights spent in the city that never sleeps, and boy doesn’t it live up to that name! We had the best time and saw so much. Unless you have been in the hustle and bustle of Times Square or listened to the constant noise of it all, I don’t think you can possibly explain it; it’s impossible!
We stayed on Times Square in the Sheraton Hotel and were up on the 40th floor. To say we were dizzy most the time, going up and down in that lift is an understatement. I think we spent more time up in clouds than we did with our feet safely, flat on the floor.
I promised to write about my experiences in the big city, and there is so much to tell! For your sanity and my own I am splitting this blog into 2… So here we are: New York, New York Part 1…. Part 2 to follow very, very soon.
Day 1- Empire State Building, Madame Tussauds, Ripley’s Believe it or Not, Chrysler Building and Grand Central Station.
We began our trip by setting out on our search for the Empire State Building. It is one of the biggest buildings in the world, yet it took us 3 attempts to find it… I know! We walked past the road, and the building itself on all 3 occassions. We thought Google Maps had lost us, so we ended up asking a ‘Big Bus Tour Man’ for directions. He responded just by pointing to the massive arse building just ahead of us, up in the clouds. Lesson 1 learnt… In New York always LOOK UP! I realised fairly quickly that in London people just walk with no interest in what is up and around them, in New York to get around you must take notice otherwise you’ll never find what you are looking for. The Empire State building was amazing; the view from the top was out of this world, you can see for miles. We had lots of fun looking around from the top, and through the telscopes at the different landmarks NYC had to offer, but bloody hell was it windy!?!
Next up Madame Tussauds and Ripley’s Believe it or Not. Obviously we have both been to Madame Tussauds in London and know what it is all about. But honestly I found it far funnier this time around. We wandered round and past the American celebrities’ waxworks that we had no idea about and messed around taking photos of the ones we did. Jimmy Fallon was evidently a highlight for Katie as was Whoopi Goldberg in full ‘Sister Act’ costume. Unsurprisingly, the Donald Trump waxwork had a queue for it and people were asked to pay to have a photo for it. Perhaps unsurprisingly again, me and Katie weren’t too bothered about getting a photo with him anyway; we were much happier to go and get a photo with the Obamas. Ripley’s Believe it or Not, was great too and we learnt so many things, many of them useless facts but we learnt them anyway.
Next up: The Chrysler Building and Grand Central Station. These were fairly quick visits and we probably got lost for more time than we did in the actual places we were looking for.
Grand Central Station was another beautiful sight. Having seen it so much on the TV and in films, and it’s replica (kind of) in Birmingham, I was determined to go and see it, but also get a handstand photo in it if possible. The concourse was amazing and we saw our chance and grabbed it. I did my handtsand, we grabbed out things and walked pretty sharpsih out of there and continued on our journey to the Chrysler building.
We stood outside the Chrysler Building for 5 minutes whilst we looked at Google Maps for the Chrysler building. We wrongly assumed that we were standing outside the Empire State Building again… we weren’t.
A great first day in the Big Apple; very busy but we were happy to have seen so much!
Day 2- Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty and Jersey Boys.
Instead of attempting to navigate ourselves today, we decided to rely on those who know NY best- the Big Bus Tour people. All we had to do is get to a bus stop, get on the bus and go downtown; easy peasy! We were entertained by a very enthusiastic tour guide on our journey and off we got at Brooklyn Bridge. Lesson 2 learnt… beware of the cyclists! They are mental! We wandered down the bridge to about half way and almost got run over around 3 times from the cyclists coming from all directions, trying to avoid the walkers up ahead of us walking on the wrong side of the bridge. It was a beautiful sight looking out across the water, over to Brooklyn and back towards Manhattan. Day 2 had started out well.
We then moved onto the Statue of Liberty- another thing that is a must see when you visit NYC; i’m sure everyone would agree? We arrived thinking we had all the time in the world to explore Liberty Island and Ellis Island before making our way back to Time Square to get ready for our night out on Broadway watching Jersey Boys. It turns out, we didn’t have as much time as we anticipated. The queue to even get onto the boat was massively long; over an hour but the weather was gorgeous. When we eventually got onto the boat and set off over to the Statue of Liberty we had already made the decision to just have a look from the boat, get a few photos and continue onto Ellis Island. The people selling tickets had already informed us we could not go inside the statue and so either way (staying on the boat, or getting off) it didn’t make a difference. I was very interested in listening to the story of how and why the statue came to be there, and noticed how much smaller ‘she’ was in real life. Ellis Island was also great, and knowing I had relatives that had passed through there, many, many years ago, I was eager to find out anything I could about them whilst on the Island. We were in luck I found out all about Thomas O’Brien and James Michael O’Brien who left from Ireland and made their way over to NYC to make a better life for themselves. From what I read and I hear from my dad and our family, they did just that and James Michael even recieved a bravery medal as a Police Detective- amazing!
Once finished. we legged it back over to the tour bus and travelled all the way back to Times Square and off we went to Jersey Boys. Now I’ve seen this in London and bloody hell was it good! Despite this, Broadway is on another level completely! It’s so hard to explain but the atmosphere seemed more electric and the songs louder. Katie agreed that there was something about that night that made it all that bit more special, The West End is our home and everytime we go we are filled with excitement, and happiness and I’m guessing that because we have never been on Broadway, let alone seen a show there made it all that little bit sweeter, If you haven’t seen Jersey Boys or any other show on Broadway, go! Just do it! You really won’t regret it!! A huge box ticked on our bucket lists- a Broadway show seen in New York, New York.
This is already over 1000 words long and I have only just reached the end of Day 2… I hope you have enjoyed the read so far? If not, I’m so sorry I have bored you, I’m still learning!
If you’re still interested, New York, New York Part 2…. which will have Days 3, 4 and 5 in, is coming soon….
Thank you as always,
SInead xxx
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