The Big City

In New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made, oh

There's nothing you can't do, now you're in New York

These streets will make you feel brand new

Big lights will inspire you, let's hear it for New York!

Wooo! I am back from the concrete Jungle!

NYC is the most amazing place, it is full of anything and everything you could ever want in a city. Knicole and I made it to our 5.30am flight and flew down into New York just as the sun was rising - it was very pretty. After thinking we needed to get a shuttle to our hostel, we realised we could walk from Grand Central Station and we started our first day of adventure!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Concrete Jungle!

The first place we decided to check out was the Rockefeller center. There was a crowd gathered around the NBC News Center so there must have been someone famous in there. The christmas tree is unfortunately being lit next week so we didn't get the whole effect but the iceskating rink was in full swing and it was fun watching everyone skate around. After a quick lunch we went up nearly 70 floors in 43 seconds to the "top of the rock" and this view:

It was a great view. After a look around up the top we went to central park where we hired a horse and carriage and gallivanted around while getting excited about places we recognised from movies. At this point we were feeling extremely tired from all the walking around and the fact we had only had one hour sleep in 48ish hours we took a much needed nap back at the hostel to rejuvinate for the night ahead!

We decided that we wanted to experience Broadway so after grabbing something to eat from street vendors we ventured into Times Square and the Theatre District. We saw Mary Poppins and seeing as it was 7.45pm we went to the box office and asked for their cheapest tickets... $65 each. After much complaining about how we were poor students with no way of justifying that price the nice young man behind the glass gave us seats in the Gods for $30ea. Sometimes it just helps being a girl!

Mary Poppins was amazing! The sets were fantastic and the woman playing Mary Poppins flew into the audience - Knicole and I want to start tapping.

After the show, we skipped through Times Square and got some cocktails at Bubba Shrimps. We also went shopping in Forever 21 which stays open constantly it seems.

Managed to find our way home to begin Day 2!

Day 2 involved heading down to Wall Street and checking out Occupy Wall street. It was pretty crazy, this sign I feel sums up the entire feeling and mood of the protest:

While we were down in the Financial District we also saw some really old churches - it's amazing what actually survived the 9/11 attacks. Day 2 of New York was a pretty sombre affair - we went to Ground Zero, the 9/11 memorial site and some churches around the area that had memorials to the victims of 9/11.

It was very surreal to be standing in a place that I have seen on the news and tv for ten years. I could only think of the images I had seen of dust and debris covering everything - and now there are fountains and trees. I remember I was eleven years old and Mum ran into my room and woke me up and said the World Trade Centre has been hit - I had no idea what this was at the time but soon found out. Seeing as it happened during the middle of the night for New Zealand, I remember we spent the entire day at school talking about terrorism and what it meant. I would probably pinpoint 9/11 as the time I started to take an interest in world events and the realisation that not everyone likes each other in the world! World peace, brothers and sisters.

After the 9/11 memorial, we headed down (maneuvering our way through the subway system skillfully) to the Staten Island ferry which we had been told to take as it was free and we could get to see the Statue of Liberty this way. By this time it was sunset and so we got some great postcard shots:

After this, we went home and got ready for another Broadway show - Billy Elliot! It was AMAZING. The little boy that played Billy was fantastic - his fouetes were brilliant and he did a no-hands cartwheel. The boy that played Michael was also so great - he was hilarious. Definitely stole the show. The music was written by Elton John - it was great. I could spend my entire life just going to Broadway shows.


After the show, Knicole and I went out for dinner and cocktails before meeting up with Louisa and her Mum who are on a shopping trip in NY for Lou's 21st! It was so good to see another New Zealander!

Day 3 was our last day :( we went shopping in SoHo and we met up with Yosuke, our exchange student from 2001! It was so good to see him and to catch up before we caught our flight back home to NC!

Tomorrow I am off again for Thanksgiving, Ashley, Claire and I are driving up to DC before carrying on to Conneticut to spend Thanksgiving with Ashley's family.

Hope you are all enjoying the start of Summer - it was FREEZING in New York - NC is simply tropical compared to up North!

xxx

P.S if you click on any of the photos on this page it will make them bigger.