New York, New Yorrrrkkkk... It's a wonderful toooowwwn!!!

On the 28th of December 2011 at 6am, I along with Megan, Caitriona and Ben piled onto a bus an headed for New York!! And what fun we had. :)
I can't say it's the most beautiful town in the world but it's a must see for sure. The bus took us from Carlisle, Pennsylvania all the way to New York. It was a day trip bus that took us up there and then picked us up in the evening to take us back to Carlisle. The only negative was that the 'tour guide' wouldn't stop talking the whole journey. Well, that's not exactly true. He let us sleep for the first hour or so but then... when the sun began to come up he explained everything we passed. Some of it was pretty interesting. The highway (don't know which one) that you take up to New York was campaigned against for many years. But the campaigners eventually gave up opposing it in exchange for three fly overs across the highway which would be animal friendly. So, there are now three bridges across the highway that have trees and all sorts of plant life growing on them so that the animals living in the national park surrounding the highway may cross safely over.. Yeah, that's what I thought. =P

We got into New York around half ten. I could see the Empire State building, and the skyline was incredible - so New York-esque. :)

We hit Macy's first. Not sure why. Is it the biggest Macy's or something? I never asked about that and probably should have. My main reason for going in was to find a restroom but the queue was out the door so I gave up on that idea til our next stop. After that we walked along 5th ave until we got to the Empire State building. I would have like to have gone up the tower but wasn't gutted we didn't. It was very crowded and I'll go up when they have invented a time machine. It's only cool when it's in the 90s(Sleepless in Seattle) or the 60s(An Affair to Remember). So, we saw the Empire state building until our necks hurt from craning and then headed to the nearest subway. Took the subway (euchh..) to the edge of the Island to see the Statue of Liberty. On the subway we met a man who told us the history of it and all about New York when it was first settled. It's amazing to think of it so many years back. The statue of Liberty was one of the first things to be seen by the new settlers. What were they thinking? They didn't have a clue what they were coming to...

So, I saw the statue of Liberty! By the way I have a friend who's niece is called Liberty Banner and nephew is called Justice or a mixture of those names anyway(sorry if I got that wrong Victoria- I just thought that fitted into the reference of the statue!). We got a lot of pictures and then ran into McDonalds for lunch to escape the wind. It was very strong!

After McDonalds, we visited Wall Street, a statue of George Washington, Trinity church where that treasure movie is filmed (can't remember the name). We saw the huge Christmas tree outside the New York stock exchange but didn't find the famous bull. We spent some time in Tiffany's. Too short a time if you ask me. I could live in that place.... So beautiful!!! :) I was working up the courage to ask if I could try one on but chickened out at the last minute. We got on a subway after that and went to Times square. Why's it called Times square? There are so many things I don't know.

From there we went on to see Times Square itself. Incredible to see in real life what I've always seen in pictures. There are always so many more people in real life. haa!! New York is stuffed. You can't walk anywhere without bumping into people or cars, especially when crossing a street. We walked up Broadway which was really cool. We saw the Chrysler building. That's another thing I don't know what it's there for. We saw St.Patrick's cathedral - soooo old (the seat creaked ominously as I sat down) but so beautiful. We saw the ice skating and the MASSIVE christmas tree at the Rockefeller center (I know, wrong spelling!). Then... we went to Central park, via a donut shop. Central park was really nice and I couldn't get over how big it was. It seemed to stretch on and on... We couldn't stay there long because it was beginning to get dark. We walked across the street to Time Warner Square and had a look around. There were some really fancy shops but then a NICE restaurant down stairs - Whole Foods. I got some AMAZING curry. It tasted really authentic (well, according to my non-Indian taste buds). And then ran for the bus, which turned out to atleast 45 minutes late. Traffic jam! My limited patience wore out in the freezing cold. I need to work on that whole patience thing. But it came in the end and we got home to Carlisle by 11.30. To bed!

Other than food and postcards, we didn't do any shopping which was actually quite nice for a change.

So that's my experiences in New York. Pictures to follow! It was a really great day. And I went with some fab people. I definitely had an amazing time with them anyway.