1st July - We woke up fairly early and went to get some breakfast...by the time we got out of the restaurant it was pouring rain!
We bought some umbrellas and persisted. After I bought a few things from forever 21, we walked to B&H which is Matt's dream shop full of cameras and equipment. The shop has a conveyer running overhead which takes all the items chosen by customers to the front desk. Matt bought a new lens, camera bag and remote shutter.
From there we went shopping for jeans because matt got a hole in his and mine split (YES, SPLIT!) That night we went to 5 napkins for the typical New York burger. It didn't disappoint! After we managed to stand up again after devouring our burgers we braved times square again so that we could take photos and have a look through m&m world.
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| m&m in every colour!!! |
2nd july - We went to the world trade centre. Unfortunately since we didn't buy advance tickets we couldn't get in to ground zero so it remains on the list. We stopped off at Wall Street, and after some hot nuts from the vendor and an orange weird drink from Starbucks we hopped on an open top bus tour. It was such a humid day and we had been walking so much that the coolness up the top of the bus was a welcome relief. I never wanted to get off. But we did...we got off at central park and didn't make it far before we had located the nearest bench and collapsed. I make us sound so lazy but it was honestly too hot to do anything else!
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| Matt outside the New York Stock Exchange |
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| Wall Street |
We then went and tried the famous Magnolias Cupcakes which were sooo so good. Definitely worth the line. We got back on the bus and got off at Times Square. We were wandering around what to do for dinner and nostalgia ended up getting the best of us so we ate dinner at an Irish pub and Matt requested Whiskey in a Jar. Felt like we were back in Dublin again!
After that we jumped on an open top night tour to see the city lights. The tour took us through Times Square and over the Brooklyn Bridge.... except it was raining. We didn't mind though, we put on our ponchos and sat through the rain and wind. It kind of made it more fun actually!
3rd July - We left our tiny little pod room and caught the train to Brooklyn. We had booked a private room at NY Loft Hostel. Our room had amazing air conditioning, high ceilings, overlooked the common area and had two bathrooms next door that no one seemed to use. Bliss! The area is just out of Williamsburg and is a hipster's dream... second hand book sales everywhere, masses of vintage stores, outrageously priced coffee and graffiti everywhere. I overheard one girl telling her friend she LOVED a dress and was going to buy it, then when the shop assistant told her it was actually brand new and not second hand, she said "oh.......its not vintage?" and put the dress back. But it is a really interesting area and unlike anywhere else i've been. But walk too far in the wrong direction and you find yourself in the middle of some really bad areas, as Matt and I did the first day by accident.
We walked around near Bedford Ave, did some shopping and had drinks at a cool bar where the guy told us to just chill out on the couch and he would bring us our drinks. As soon as we were ready to leave it started to bucket down, we just committed and started walking in it. For dinner that night we found an awesome Thai restaurant that was apparently a must visit in the area.
We came back to the hostel and went to common area. It is a big open kitchen/dining area with a mezzanine TV area and a huge outdoor space with couches and tables. Definitely the best i've seen in a hostel so far. We sat and chilled with people from hostel, played cards and got free drinks (from one random generous guy who had just done a massive alcohol shop) while a storm raged in the outdoor area.
4th July - As an exciting start to Independence Day we did our washing. After that we got on a train to Brooklyn Bridge, and walked back over the bridge to visit DUMBO, which is an acronym for something like - 'Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass'. It is an awesome area where we lay on the massive grass area under a tree and got gelato near the carousel overlooking Brooklyn Bridge.
We walked the whole way home afterwards - which took about 2.5 to 3 hours and we got so burnt! By the time we got home we were shattered but had to kick on because it was 4th July. We met the same people from the night before and had drinks at the hostel. We watched fireworks from the stairwell and then went for a drink at Tutus across the road.
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| Our hostel's common area |
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| Sitting in Central Park |
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| The sailing boats |
6th July - We caught the train to Coney Island. We were glad we listened to Matt the brother and got the 7 day Metro pass because have definitely got our moneys worth from it. We got burgers and then went to the beach for swimming and to try and get rid of our newly aquired singlet tans. Afterwards we went into Luna Park to ride the cyclone rollercoast which was built in 1927. It was so rickety and felt like it was losing grip on the track at some points. Sooo so good!
We had NO idea what to do from here and we spent hours looking at ideas. The problem is main cities are so expensive, but hiding out at a cheap cabin in somewhere like the Finger Lakes is difficult with no car. So when we stumbled across a discounted cheap 7 night cruise to Bermuda we were slightly intrigued. With no other cheaper alternative and the promise of nice beaches and good snorkelling we ended up booking a cruise along with all the retirees and will be leaving tomorrow!!! Very random but it helps our money situation and is something completely different! When we get back we plan to do Washington DC. I will try and keep in touch but I might be too content sitting by the ship's pool and playing bingo with the grannies to worry about it!! haha wish us luck!! xx
