New York

Wednesday 24th December
Thankfully my back seems to be getting better slowly so hopefully it won't slow me down in New York. I caught the bus to New York in time to celebrate Christmas. Once I arrived and checked into my hotel I went out and explored the Times Square & Rockefeller Centre areas. It's very wet today but that is keeping the warmth in so definitely no chance of a white Christmas. The city is beautiful though with lots of Christmas decorations. I went inside St Patrick's Cathedral which is under construction but still very busy being Christmas Eve. The Saks Fifth Avenue Christmas windows are cool, New York-ifying classic fairytales. And of course I saw the famous Rockefeller Centre Christmas tree!

With Christmas in full swing at home, I spend the evening skyping with the family.

Thursday 25th December
Merry Christmas!
The massive time difference here is weird, as I get up to start my Christmas day, it is over at home with everyone heading to bed. So, I got up and went for another walk around. Everything I read about New York at Christmas was that the city is super quiet today and to enjoy it. I didn't get out until late morning but it's not as quiet as I was imagining. Still I was able to see Times Square and Rockefeller Centre in the daylight and then walked up to Central Park and saw the ice skating. I ended up getting a ticket to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular staring the Rockettes (thought that was a great traditional New York way to spend the afternoon). It was a great show, very well done! Afterwards I headed back to my hotel to enjoy a traditional Christmas lazy afternoon with a feast of yummy cheese, prosciutto, sundried tomatoes, crackers and ice cream :)

Friday 26th December
After moving to our new hotel for when Emily arrives this afternoon, I went to the cinema to see Into The Woods and then had a slice of pizza (starting the traditional New York eating). Then I chilled out at the hotel until Em arrived. Yay, so exciting to have a friend!

Saturday 27th December
I took Em out to see Times Square and Rockefeller Centre and we also found Bryant Park which has Christmas markets set up around an ice skating rink. We spent the afternoon walking around, doing some shopping and found Grand Central Station. After walking back through Times Square in the evening I now realise that it WAS quiet on Christmas day! Wow it is sooo busy!

Sunday 28th December
This morning we headed down to Washington Park and then wandered around the Soho/NYU/NoHo/Little Italy/Chinatown areas. Lunch was at the famous Katz's for a pastrami sandwich. For dessert we found Magnolia Bakery and took some delicious cheesecakes home :)

Monday 29th December
The new Annie movie is being advertised so much and seeing it's set in New York we thought it would be fun to see it here. After the movie we joined the hundreds of other people in line for cheap theatre tickets. While we were eating at Applebees (got to try these places), Jen (from my tour in Scotland who's also here for New Years) came to say hi. She hadn't really seen much of the city yet so Em & I took her to see Rockefeller Centre (I feel like a tour guide in that area now). We fought the crowds in M&M World before saying goodbye to Jen so we could get to our musical 'If/Then'. A fantastic, modern show staring Idina Menzel who is phenomenal! So glad we saw it.

Tuesday 30th December
Seeing there is so much to do in New York we decided to get the New York Pass - $200 for 7 days entry into over 80 attractions including pretty much all the main sites. Today we kicked off with the Top of the Rock for great views of the city, then visited the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). I was very impressed with MoMA, there was a lot of cool, famous paintings including Starry Night! After lunch we went to Central Park and were surprised by about 30 seconds of a random snow shower while we were watching the ice skating! Very exciting seeing it's not looking good for much, if any, snow while we're here. After putting our names on the 3-4hr wait list at Serendipity 3(!!!) we made our way to the Upper West Side to go to the Museum of Natural History. We realised we didn't have enough time before they closed though so instead went to the New York Historical Society. They had a good film about the history of New York City and a great photography exhibit. By the time we made it back and into Serendipity it was dinner time so we ate and enjoyed their famous frozen hot chocolate for dessert.

Wednesday 31st December
This morning we did a Sightseeing Cruise from the Hudson River, down around the peninsula and famous New York skyline, under the Brooklyn and Manhatten bridges and back via the Statue of Liberty. Although it was absolutely freezing on the water we were lucky with a really beautiful, clear day. We got off in the financial district to visit the 9/11 Memorial. The area looks a lot different to when I was here with Bridge, the memorials have been well done. On our way back to the hotel we saw Madison Square Park and the Flatiron building.

For New Years, we met a friend of Alix's, Damien, who's also travelling in New York, for a nice dinner in the Upper West Side. We were lucky to be able to stay at the restaurant well after our booking so we didn't have to face the cold until we had to. To ring in the New Year we headed into Central Park to watch the fireworks which were very good but relatively small for New York City (& watched the crazy people start a fun run at midnight). Happy New Year!

Thursday 1st January
Today we went to Madame Tussauds and then joined a TV and movie sites walking tour through Central Park (great tour). For lunch we went to the famous Gray's Papaya for hot dogs (actually quite good, much better than the street vendors). Then we ventured into the American Museum of Natural History. Great big museum but we were both absolutely exhausted by the time they closed so we found a place for dinner (dim sum) and headed back to the hotel.

Friday 2nd January
Em went to the Statue of Liberty this morning so I had a bit of a sleep in (didn't really need to go again). Instead I went to the Discovery Museum where they had an exhibition called Body Worlds. It was very interesting, basically the had all these human bodies that had been donated after death and there were preserved in different ways to show off either muscles, skeleton, blood vessel or organs etc. Afterwards I met Jen at Shake Shack (a very popular burger and shake place) for lunch and then met back up with Em. In the evening we joined a walking tour of Broadway which was really interesting. We didn't get to go into any theatres but walked around and learnt some history about them and for the shows that have played there. I learnt that the actual definition of 'Broadway' (vs 'off Broadway') is that the theatre seats at least 500 people.

After the tour we met Jen again for dinner in Hell's Kitchen at a Mexican place before she heads back to London tomorrow. Em and I then went to the Empire State Building to get a view of New York at night.

Saturday 3rd January
This morning we did a walking tour of the Brooklyn Bridge & DUMBO area (Down Under the Manhatten Bridge Overpass). It is finally snowing today! So very cold but also very exciting :) After the tour we had lunch at Juliana's in Brooklyn (the original creator of Grimaldis) pizza which is the really famous place right next door. Then we warmed up with some hot chocolate before heading back to Manhatten. Em was catching up with a friend that's in town so I headed to the 9/11 Tribute Centre & memorial (which she had done after the Statue of Liberty). The tribute centre is a small exhibition but very moving with lots of personal stories from the day. I checked out the memorial again at night (and in the rain).

Sunday 4th January
Another tour this morning, this one of the Highline which is the old raised railroad that runs above the city that they have converted into a cool garden and public area. It is nice and would be lovely to see in the summer. The tour also showed us the Chelsea Markets and meatpacking district which has been converted into a really nice area. In the afternoon we went up to Lincoln Centre to do a tour of some of the theatres. We were able to go into the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera House, and New York City Ballet. Then it was back to Central Park, going back to the Mall and the central area and seeing 'the castle'.

This evening we went out to Attaboy, a speakeasy that Pam had told me about in Turkey. It was a nice little place that definitely plays the part, you would NEVER find it if you didn't know where you were going. And they actually know their product, making individual cocktails for you dependant on your tastes.

Monday 5th January
Our last day of our New York pass, it was time to do the big galleries... the MET and Guggenheim. The MET once again was enormous and you could spend days in there without seeing everything. They had a cool little temporary exhibit of mourning clothes from the 19th century. The Guggenheim was not really my taste in art (very modern) but the building is cool and they did have a few more traditional exhibitions. One of which included a few pieces by Picasso and my mind was blown when I found out that he only died in the 1970s! Crazy, I definitely did not realise that he was alive so recently!

Tuesday 6th January
Tash and her friend Karen arrived last night so we planned to meet up with them this morning AND it is actually properly snowing today! So we met them and all went to Central Park to go ice skating. We picked a great day as the millions of people that were here over Christmas have gone back to school and work, and it was fun to actually skate in the falling snow. Em and I had booked to do a tour of the UN this afternoon so before we went to that, we ran up to the Mall in Central Park to get the traditional view (and of course photos) of it all snow covered! The tour of the UN was interesting and we got to go into the actual Security Council meeting room (and saw the sniffer dogs doing a check before they ushered us out as there was a meeting about to start).

Our last couple of nights are our big Broadway shows, tonight we saw The Lion King! I have been waiting to see it for so many years so I was very excited to finally see it. It was amazing and so well done but I think my expectations were a bit too high. Still, a great show and awesome to see it on Broadway.

Wednesday 7th January
We went to the 9/11 Memorial Museum today (it opened less than a year ago). There was a lot of information there, both about the history of the actual World Trade Centre and of course 9/11. Obviously a very sombre museum but interesting that they have built it in the footprints of the buildings, so you are actually underneath the memorial and can see some of the original foundations etc. After quite a few hours there we wandered down to Wall St and saw the famous bull statue. We realised we hadn't actually been to Macy's yet, so headed there for a little before getting ready to meet Tash and Karen. After a nice dinner it was time to see Aladdin! Another fantastic show, they did a great job of all the big scenes including the magic carpet ride!

Thursday 8th January
The last 2 weeks have gone by sooo quickly! Em is headed home today and it's time for me to go up to Canada. I've decided to stay 1 more night in New York but am moving hotels so we both had a big morning of packing. After I said goodbye to Em, I went shopping to get a few more layers for Canada (it is currently -20 degrees there!) In the evening I met up with Tash & Karen one last time for a drink at my hotel before they went to their show for the night.