For the next few weeks I'll be posting daily diaries on what I got up to on my travels, so stay tuned for some good ol' holiday spam!
After a smooth flight from Manchester airport direct to JFK we jumped on our arranged transport and drove into Midtown Manhattan. Unfortunately I was super tired and travel sick so I didn't appreciate or absorb my surroundings as much as I really should have done. We got stuck in lots of traffic so what should have taken us 45 minutes took us almost 2 hours. One thing I did learn whilst being in NY - they really do know how to use their horns! NYC noise consists of sirens and horn honking - at all hours! They sure know how to portray chaos!
We arrived at our hotel (Row NYC, review to come!), freshened up and then took a sleepy walk into Times Square, which was a stones throw away from the hotel. Wow, just wow. It's not often something takes my breath away but it really is like the photos suggest. So bright and alive. After soaking up some of the atmosphere, we dived into a trusty favourite of ours, Olive Garden, right in the heart of Times Square for tea. Jet lag getting the better of me, I deliriously ate my way through a portion of tasty lasagne before calling it a night and heading back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.
The next day (and several annoying days after) I woke up at 5am. Damn you body clock. I got myself ready then gave Mike his 8am wake-up call. We made the short walk to Cosmic Diner for breakfast which was up the road from us. This is a fine example to not always trust Tripadvisor, although I'll keep my opinions to myself on this one!
We got our tickets for our hop on hop off bus, and jumped on to experience some topless bus tourist views! We then departed at Battery Park and got on a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side, and my god did it rain. We tried to take selfies next to the queen herself but it was pouring that hard that we could barely look up. Wet and uncomfortable, we jumped on the next ferry back and ended up walking the entire length of Broadway, dodging the rain by occasionally diving into a Starbucks or some shops, and later stopping for tea. I think my tracker informed me that we had walked 13 miles that day. Unfortunately we had planned to visit the 9/11 memorial but due to weather conditions, we had to hold off.
After walking for miles down Broadway, we arrived back at the hotel. Had a quick freshen up moment before heading back out to see the Christmas light turn on at The Rockefeller Center. Luckily the rain had eased off at this point! Unfortunately we were fairly late to the ceremony, instead being faced with a live screen of what was happening just around the corner because we couldn't get close enough because of the crowds. They had some famous singers (names escape me) who sung some beautiful Christmas carols before lighting up the tree. The atmosphere was fantastic and I'm glad I did it.
Stay tuned for day 2!
