USA Day 2: New York

I'm an Englishman in New York

Well, a Scottish woman but I'll let Sting take the title of day 2. The second day was probably my favourite part of the New York trip. Starting with breakfast, the hotel provided us with a buffet, so I took it upon myself to try everything. I started with the waffle machine, and had a hot waffle with maple syrup and whipped cream (how American!). Then I opted for a bagel, with proper American streaky bacon (I told you I was trying everything, even if it meant 800 calories before 9am). It was, truly the best bagel I have ever had, possibly also the only bagel, but where better to have your first bagel than New York?  I can truly say American bacon trumps British bacon, sorry UK.

The first stop of the day was the Brooklyn Bridge, I know, straight into the top attractions. It was just as amazing as it looks in the films. Seeing it on the big screen all your life makes it all the more crazy to be standing on it.

The exact scene that came to my head was the one from 'Sex and the City', where Miranda and Steve decide to meet on the bridge, and if they both show up, they'll get back together. They both do, and run across the bridge the second they see each other.

After that, we didn't really have a plan, so we just wondered around New York, just going wherever took our fancy. As we got up and out of the hotel early, we didn't worry about time, we had the whole day ahead of us to explore.

We ended up walking through City Hall, before heading through Wall Street. Then we wondered through Battery Park, where we could see the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

After wondering around New York City for hours, we made our way to the 'World Trade Centre' and the 9/11 Memorial. Where the twin towers use to be, there's a memorial waterfall, with the names of all the victims round the side.

I saw a sign that stated that roses were placed upon victims’ names on their birthdates. Looking around I noticed multiple roses. It was truly heart-breaking and you felt the loss around you, but it was also inspiring, to see everyone coming together and being respectful, in sharing each other’s pain.

That was the first time I felt a sense of true togetherness in New York, there is such a strong bond between people and their city. If I’m being fully honest, I’m not sure if I would have gone to the museum, if my mum hadn’t insisted. She really wanted to go and it was on her New York to do list, and honestly? I’m so glad it was, because I spent hours in the museum, my family even lost me for a large period of time. I was utterly captivated by the whole experience, and found it certainly emotional in many ways. It was fascinating and informative, but also truly saddening, to hear from real people about their experiences. That was something I thought was really important, because as upsetting as it was, it all happened, and it’s important to educate ourselves and realise the true extent of how dreadful it was.   

The museum itself takes you through a timeline of the whole day, of the 11th of September 2001. It featured videos, as well as some voice messages, some of which not available to the public. There were also loads of items retrieved from the scene, from women’s shoes to parts of the building. I stood beside a woman, who turned to her friend and said “I just don’t know why he was in the building at that time”. The whole experience was so powerful. I spoke to another two women, who were just streets away at the time of the first buildings collapse. The streets were flooded with white dust. They both reminded each other of when they just had to run, not knowing where to go or what was happening. I’d honestly tell anyone that if you go to New York, go to the 9/11 Memorial Museum. I also found it remarkably heroic, the way people came together at the time, not knowing their own fate, but in the moment putting the lives of others first, saving as many lives as they could. A lot of firemen were warned the building would collapse, but they still risked their lives, and many of them passed away, dying as heroes. I found the whole experience breath-taking and I believe it’s a definite New York must.

After the museum, we headed through Chinatown, and stopped at a restaurant in Little Italy for some pizza. We didn’t eat out much because, as you’d expect, New York is pricey, but if you go you’ve got to expect that. As a 20 year old, I didn’t experience much of the nightlife, as the drinking age in the US is 21, compared to 18 in the UK. Most nights, we ended up just going back to the hotel and snacking on our snacks from the grocers -> chips and dip, and if I was feeling particularly unhealthy, a honey bun. The sugar was definitely much needed after all the walking though! 

Lazy Sunday Girl 💜x

USA Day 1: New York

Welcome to New York!

Anyone interested in visiting the US? If you are, or you're just curious, this June I travelled to a few hot spots in the US; New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Francisco. Each day, I documented this journey, taking photos and writing in my travel journal at the end of each day. I was in the USA for 22 days, so if you too are interested in touring the US, or even visiting one of these great cities, I will be posting about each of my days in the US. I will include landmarks, top attractions, best places to eat or chill, and what was my favourite thing about each place. If you're interested feel free to subscribe to my blog, all my future posts will be 100% USA. If you want to see all my photos from the trip, I will be posting them on my Instagram, which you can follow here: https://www.instagram.com/lazy_sunday_girl/. Now for day 1 in the USA...

So the flight to JFK departed at 1:10pm UK time. It was an 8 hour flight from London Heathrow, where we enjoyed 2 meals and a continuous flow of snacks (plus free alcohol which I didn't mind at all!). We flew with British Airways and they couldn't have been more helpful. I was content watching 'Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile', with my Pinot Grigio, time just flew by. 9pm UK time we landed at JFK. Having woken up at 5am that day (due to flying from Glasgow to London) we were all shattered, especially since we didn't sleep on the plane, as there was way too much to do. NY was also 5 hours behind the UK, so it was 4pm to us now.

The travelling from JFK to Brooklyn was a bit of a disaster, but that was because taxis were so expensive (as it was around a 40 minute drive). This led to us venturing straight into NY public transport, with huge bags, containing 3 weeks worth of clothes and other supplies. We took the air train to the subway, but stayed on for too long, so we just decided to walk the remaining 8 blocks. Again, this wasn't easy with all the bags, backpacks, and being awake for what was now the 20th hour. The whole experience however did let us see a lot of New York before we got to the hotel.

The hotel we stayed at in Brooklyn was called the Brooklyn Way Hotel, on 4th Avenue. The location was great, it was right next to a subway, and a small grocers. Heading into the grocers, we immediately saw many differences between the US and the UK. First of all, there was so much organic fruit and veg, instead of packaged up fruit and veg, it looked more like a farmers market. They also had bottled Kombucha, which I saw and immediately knew I had to try (and keep the bottle because I loved the packaging so much).

The simple grocery shop was perfect for health and fitness, as it was loaded with different nuts and seeds, and finally something I cannot find anywhere in the UK, Hazelnut Butter. After our mini shop, where the receipt pretty much read 'Chips, dip, Kombucha and beer', we headed back to the hotel, staying awake as long as possible, so to wake up in the right time zone, before heading off to sleep.

Lazy Sunday Girl 💜x