Travel: My first visit to New York

I think I’ve been putting this post off a little bit for a few reasons, the first being that I have about 6 billion photos to sort through and figure out what’s actually in focus, the second being that there are so many awesome posts about New York already out there, and the third, well, this is kind of hard to admit as I think it’ll get me thrown out of the blogger club, and my membership is already pretty precarious, BUT, I just didn’t fall in love with New York.

There I said it. It’s out in the open. 
Don’t get me wrong, I had a fab time in New York. Loads of fun. But there are so many places that I’d like to go back to before I went back to NYC.

But lets get on to what we did whilst we were there

Our first night in New York followed a somewhat fraught drive at rush hour across Manhattan, cue much beeping and stressing before we eventually got rid of the hire car we’d picked up in Washington on our first day. But, on the plus side, Jim had booked us in at Ivan Ramen for dinner so the stressing had a happy end.

Not only did we have some amazing food, but the beer selection was pretty fab too. And the staff super friendly! We decide to walk home most of the way, kind of because we’d had a bit of a subway mishap, but also so we could see more of the city. Which lead us past some fab little bars – including Alphabet City Beer

Our next day the plans were to take a highline walk in the morning but if you’ve met Jim before you’ll know his ideas of morning and my ideas are somewhat different – it was more like a lunch time walk! I know that it’s high on the tourist must visit list, but it was our first visit so we had to do all the touristy things and I really enjoyed it. I loved the views. I loved the way the bits of the railway were incorporated in to it I love the pizza we ate whilst watching the world go by in the big window by Artichoke.

That afternoon Jim had some important football to watch (side eye emoji) so I headed out to try and find myself some sort of headwear to cover the crazy ass regrowth – which was a total bust but I did get myself some gold boat shoe laces and some roller ball perfumes from Sephora. I know, I’m the queen of shopping. (But I really love the gold laces!)

That evening we had another special eating experience lined up. Jim had got us a table at The Gramercy Tavern, a Michelin Star restaurant, it was quite possibly the most extravagant eating experience I’ve had in my life!

The food
was immense, Jim is still raving about his steak tatare and when we (I) couldn’t
decide on the starter, our waiter brought us both! Yes the food was amazing,
but it was the touches like your napkin being refolded for you when you went to
the bathroom and being given the exact recipe to make an amazing cocktail we
had from the bar, and the sheer diversity of people eating there was brilliant
too. At the table next to us there was clearly an early date happening, awkward
chat and both dressed to the nines, behind us was a 4 person wedding party in
tuxes and a wedding dress, and behind them, a table of ladies, laden with their
shopping bags, in shorts. I’d wrongly assumed it would have been a pretentious
affair, but it was far from it! It was the perfect indulgent post cancer treat
that we’d had on the cards for an age! But it was super dark in the restaurant so
forgive the photos!
It was also the latest I’d stayed up in, oh, 6
months, so I felt it was a massive achievement! 

We woke up the next day to rain. Lots of rain, so
our plans to go to a baseball game were rained off, and so we googled rainy day
activities and ended up getting the subway to a crazy oriental shopping centre
for gyoza and dumplings before going on a bit of a shopping trip. I really
wanted to go to the Burton flagship store, Jim wanted to check out the Nike
store, and I had my heart set on a cronut, but it was sold out by the time we
got there. Our evening was spent having a bit of a bar hop
home with our shopping, ending in a super cheap dive bar. 
Day 3 in New York had a plan. We’d ear-marked it
as the day to visit the Guggenheim. Which meant we would also be visiting Central Park
and Time Square on the way there from our hotel. It’s kind of mad going to
places like time square and central park, having seen them on the TV so much –
for instance, as we were walking over a bridge, in the park, Jim announced it
was the one from Elf. Which baffled me because I have enough trouble
remembering what I did last week, let alone what the bridge from the snowball
scene in Elf looks like! 
 
We had evening drinks plans with a friend of a
friend that night, but on the way back to the hotel I demanded a detour to get
this epic Ice and Vice icecream. Maybe the most instagrammable ice cream ever?  And you know what, 100%  it was not a case of style of substance
because it was delicious! That coconut macaroon cone was amazing!  

The next day was jam packed with tourist
activities again. The first stop of the day was the Staten Island Ferry for a
look at the Statue of Liberty. Then we jumped on the subway to Brooklyn to the Other
Half Brewery for a few beers to drink in, and some to bring home! Then took a
little walk round Brooklyn to Pig Beach BBQ – somewhere we’re been recommended to
go to the night before. And it might have been the best BBQ we’ve had so far!
Plus it was a super cool place. If you’re visiting Brooklyn, please seek this
place out! 
That evening was spent seeking out roof top bars
for crazy expensive cocktails, drinking beeritas, eating taco’s and exploring a
very empty Grand Central station. 
The next day was our final day in New York, our
final day before our evening flight home. But evening flights mean that you’ve
got a day to explore. We’d booked a lunchtime trip up the Rockerfella centre. I
am  really lucky that as Jim is so tall, he’s
basically a built in selfie stick and tri-pod so he comes in super useful when
taking pics over the crowds and taking pics of us. Granted we don’t take too
many pics of our selves but when we do, he comes in handy! I was blown away by
the vast-ness of New York from up there. It is just immense isn’t it! 
Then, we just had one last stop that Jim wanted
to do – take a trip to Katz’s Deli. If you’ve been – how mental is that place.
I went to fight for a table whilst Jim ordered us a sandwich to share. You know
I’m a sucker for a neon sign and I kept getting distracted by the neons in
there and nearly lost us our chairs! Oooooooops. But the sandwich was delicious
– I’m not sure it was as fun an experience as the deli we went to in Montreal
(but that involved an epic Cherry Cola), but it was good to experience. 
So, there you have it, our trip to New York. A very late and incredible long blog post. Tell me, have you been to New York? Did you love it? Am I an anomaly? 

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