Each morning I wake up while it's still dark outside and I know I'm going to be driving to work in the freezing cold I can't help but think back to last summer. Last summer was certainly the best summer I've had in a long time! I was lucky enough to go on a trip that I've been dreaming of since I was in high school.
As a 21st birthday/graduation present my parents paid for me to travel to America. I've been very lucky to be able to do this and I can't thank my parents enough for providing me with this opportunity. It was certainly one of the best holidays I've ever been on and it is something that I would love to do again.
My friend and I booked the flights as one package so we managed to get them for just over £100 per flight and we booked our accommodation using Airbnb to keep the price to a minimum.
I felt like I waited so long for this trip to come around, but finally on the 13th June, 1 day after my birthday, we flew out to New York. For some reason direct flights from Manchester to New York were much more expensive so we ended up stopping at Heathrow.
Luckily the flight was not too bad as it wasn't fully booked. Sarah and I managed to have a seat spare in between us which enabled us to lie down in a more comfortable position. My first glimpse of Manhattan was while we were flying over it before we circled around to land in JFK. I was in shock and just over the moon that I had actually made it to New York. It has been my dream to travel there for so long and I just couldn't believe that I had just flown over it and seen it for the first time. I didn't manage to take a photograph of this because I was just so overwhelmed and wanted to take it all in.
We stayed in an apartment on the Upper West Side, just one block away from Central Park. This was a really great location to stay in as there were so many cool places to eat in the neighbourhood and it was within walking distance from most locations including Times Square.
On the first day we found this really lovely place to eat breakfast. It was a popular cafe on the Upper West Side called Sarabeth's. Both Sarah and I ordered the pancakes which were so nice! I would really recommend visiting Sarabeth's. While we were there they were also filming for a TV show in the background about models, which was slightly surreal as there was a full camera crew.
Luckily the flight was not too bad as it wasn't fully booked. Sarah and I managed to have a seat spare in between us which enabled us to lie down in a more comfortable position. My first glimpse of Manhattan was while we were flying over it before we circled around to land in JFK. I was in shock and just over the moon that I had actually made it to New York. It has been my dream to travel there for so long and I just couldn't believe that I had just flown over it and seen it for the first time. I didn't manage to take a photograph of this because I was just so overwhelmed and wanted to take it all in.
We stayed in an apartment on the Upper West Side, just one block away from Central Park. This was a really great location to stay in as there were so many cool places to eat in the neighbourhood and it was within walking distance from most locations including Times Square.
On the first day we found this really lovely place to eat breakfast. It was a popular cafe on the Upper West Side called Sarabeth's. Both Sarah and I ordered the pancakes which were so nice! I would really recommend visiting Sarabeth's. While we were there they were also filming for a TV show in the background about models, which was slightly surreal as there was a full camera crew.
As we were only in New York for 6 days we wanted to spend as much time seeing all the sights that we could. On the first day, after breakfast, we had a walk around Central Park. It felt so surreal being in a beautiful park surrounded by skyscrapers. I don't live in a city, and the closest large city to myself is Liverpool. Now, Liverpool has a few skyscrapers but not many, so being surrounded by them in New York felt very strange.
It was very hot this day, possibly the hottest day while we were in New York and I believe it was around 27-30 degrees. I'm not used to that kind of heat so I really felt it when I was walking around. Sarah was probably getting very annoyed with me wanting to stop nd get something to drink every hour or so.
On that first day we decided to do a boat ride on the boating lake. I am really scared of water so going on a small rowing boat was quite terrifying for me as Sarah realised. I panicked every time it rocked slightly to the side. But the views were amazing and it was just so relaxing. Well, it was for me anyway because I wasn't the one that was rowing.
For the rest of the day we walked around (26 kilometres to be exact) to take in the sights. We walked down the high line and tried to visit as many places and see as much of Manhattan as we could.
Our time in New York was limited to 6 days so we had to make sure we squeezed everything that we wanted to do into the short time that we were there. One of the highlights was watching Matilda at the Shubert Theatre. Although I nearly died when I heard the price of the ticket, the show was really good and Matilda is one of my childhood favourites! I overcame my fear of boats again to see the Statue of Liberty and we even went to a baseball game. We went to see the New York Mets play and I got one of my favourite souvenirs from there; my New York Mets t-shirt. The baseball was quite a strange experience and it wasn't quite what I expected. We were sat right up at the top of the stadium and I freaked out every time a plane came overhead as I felt that we were too close to them. It was also freezing being up that high in the shade despite it being so hot that I originally went out in a vest and shorts!
The whole time I was there it just felt so surreal to be in a place that I'd dreamt of visiting for so long! And in the time that I've had to reflect on the trip I still think there is so much more of New York that I need to see. It's one of my goals for this year to plan a return visit.
Luckily when my 6 days in New York were over it wasn't the end of my trip. Our next stop was Chicago!
Thanks for reading!
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