Oh heeeey you guys. Sorry, it's been a while! I had the most amazing time in New York and Toronto with Pete, but now it's back to normality with an almighty thud. We arrived into Glasgow at 9am two weeks ago on Saturday, and I started my current telly job (what felt like a quick blink/literally 5 minutes later) at 8am on the Monday. A bit of jet lag along with adjusting to a new routine and being back at work left me feeling pretty zombified last week. So that's me just starting to feel kinda normal again, albeit still kinda tired. And cold! Man, the snow has hit Glasgow this week and it is so damn cold. Not as cold as our North American adventure mind you. I could quite easily write an essay on our travels, but I thought I'd keep it short and sweet with a hit list of some of the favourite places we visited in each city. First stop, New York!
Where we stayed:
Our accommodation was The Paramount Hotel which is next to Times Square. Staying in such a central location was really handy, but also super busy all of the time. Which was fine as we were only there for 4 days. Any longer than that and I'd probably want to edge a bit further out and stay in one of the less built up neighbourhoods we visited, such as the East Village or even Williamsburg over in Brooklyn. But I can't deny that staying just off Broadway was a great starting point for each busy day of walking and sightseeing though!
Sightseeing:
We rode a rooftop bus tour of Midtown Manhattan which allowed us to hop on and off, and walk in between pretty much all of the following (some of which were a very quick 'there, we've seen it in person!' effort) - Times Square, Fifth Avenue, Trump Tower, Central Park, Empire State Building, Flatiron Building, 9/11 Tribute Centre, and The Rockefeller Centre.
We did so much walking (hello 25-30k a day steps on the fitbit!) and crammed in as much as we could, but didn't get the chance to visit the MoMa or The Met, or Grand Central Station amongst a couple other places which are still on my list. Along with exploring certain neighbourhoods a bit further rather than just passing through. So there's definitely potential for another visit, perhaps in Summer next time. My favourite day was when we walked over Brooklyn Bridge to Dumbo, then got the train to Williamsburg where we explored the shops along Bedford Avenue. Our first night was pretty memorable too, we ended up getting last minute tickets to the NY comedy club and Kevin Hart made an appearance halfway through the set! Only in bloody New York eh? A few other special highlights were The Comedy Cellar, Chelsea Market, The High Line, and going to see the insanely fantastic Sleep No More on our last night.
Where we ate/drank:
A pit stop for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and snacks was at the forefront of our minds every day haha. Fuel for all the walking we were doing (I think that's good justification for the amount of calories we consumed on a daily basis...) We had a handful of places we knew we wanted to visit, but some of the others we just stumbled across by accident. Here are some of our favourites -
Magnolia Bakery
Bare Burger
Katz's Deli
Shake Shack
Pies n Thighs
Brooklyn Roasting Company
Dough
The Wren
Konditori
Shopping:
The same went for shopping to be honest, I knew I wanted to visit Macy's and Sephora, but apart from that we just stumbled into whatever shops we wandered past (soz Pete!) With lots of big names and flagship stores around Herald Square, 5th Avenue, Times Square and The Garment District, and some amazing little boutiques in Soho, Williamsburg, Nolita and Greenwich Village. The following were fab (even though we have a couple in the UK) and definitely worth a visit -
Canal Street Market
Sephora
Urban Outfitters
Macy's
Forever 21
Anthropologie
Bedford Avenue Mini Mall
Everything in italics in this post is a clickable link if you want to have a nosy further for exact locations and information. A lot of it feels like a total blur now and I relied on pictures to re jog my memory when I first started typing, but I still hope you've enjoyed this little run down. Do let me know if you end up visiting any of my suggestions! I also found Lyzi's post on New York to be extremely helpful, along with Kate's epic guide too. I think the key to a city like this is do your research, make plans for MUST SEE things so you don't end up running out of time and being disappointed, but also go with the flow and don't worry too much about sticking to a rigid itinerary. Some of the best moments we had were stumbled upon accidentally or by taking a wrong turn or getting off at the wrong Subway stop. I guess that's what urban exploration is all about ♥ I'll be back soon sharing a similar guide for Toronto.
