I HEART NY

---

I heart NY. I dooooo...
NYC is everything you expect it to be, and more.
Times Square is amazing at night time. The different areas from Brooklyn to China town are incredible. Any day or night of the week you can have food from around the world and everything you want is within walking distance and if it isn't, a death defying cab driver will get you there in record time.

A sad day today as we had to say farewell to Sarah and Nick this afternoon. Very bizarre to think I won't see them again until next year.
Today Sarah, Nick and I went on the Gossip Girl tour around Manhattan, checking out the sights from the show and even where Penn Badgley lives in real life. We visited Bendels and the biggest Candy Shop in the world where of course I just had to get a cupcake! And we sat on the steps at the Met (as high up as possible of course) and it was also a great oppurtunity to see some more sights of NY including the Lower and Upper East Side, NYU, Tribeca and Soho. After the tour Nick and Sarah had to get the shuttle to airport so with them gone, Sam asleep (after he and Alissa rode to Brooklyn from Central Park on a bike tour- which they loved) and Alissa at the Guggenheim (spelling? ha) I took the oppurtunity to nip up to 5th Ave- as you do- and pick up some supplies, including, like the good little Manhattanite I am, a cream cheese bagel, did I mention I love these? I had my first one yesterday..

Speaking of yesterday, what fun!! Sarah's aunty was in town by chance so her and Nick spent the day/night with Sarah's uncle and aunty, shopping up a storm and bike riding around Central Park so Alissa, Sam and I headed out for brunch at an outdoor cafe which sat underneath the Highline Garden, I won't go too far in to it but the Highline Garden is well worth a google search, and on a hot hot hot New York day, also well worth a stroll. From the garden we headed down to the Chelsea Market where I picked up some fab postcards to frame and we had a little ice cream and wander through all the beautiful little shops (Sam sat outside playing trivial pursuit on his iPhone, he's allergic to shopping). From Chelsea we caught a cab down to pier 83 where we were hoping to do the Circle Line cruise around the Hudson, it wasn't starting for another hour so we decided to go on the speed boat ride instead, our first warning when we arrived on the boat was that we were going to get wet, we assumed just from the spray of the water, but oh no, the 'mate/tour guide' of the boat was armed with buckets of water, water bombs and a water pistol and he was not afraid to use them, I don't think we had even left the dock before we were saturated. We love love loved the tour around the Hudson, the coating of water cooled us down and we were dry within minutes, then wet again within another few minutes. At one stage the tour guide threw a whole bucket of water of a girl because she wasn't smiling, she was not impressed, we pissed ourselves at her expense.
With the ticket stub from our tour we were admitted one free hour of bowling at the alley across the road from the Pier. The three of us hit up the alley like it was going out of fashion, and realised that we were all relatively rubbish at the game but of course managed to laugh our way through the full hour having an absolute blast! The day was not over there, by this stage it was well past 5, we jumped on the subway..after a bagel.. and headed toward ground zero, the location of one of the biggest discount designer shops in the world, Century 21. Worth a visit if you have the time but I wouldn't go out of my way to get there, as you can imagine there are clothes eeeeeeevvverywhere but I did managed to pick myself up a pair of Marc Jacobs jeans for less than $90 and they fit me better than any jeans I have ever tried on at home, anyone who knows me would know that I live in tights, dresses and skirts so I was wrapped.
After Sam had reached his 30 minutes threshold we walked along to China town for more Dim Sum than you can poke a China man at. It was delish, albeit sometimes a little risky, some might say a China surprise? But good none the less. We tried to walk the majority of the way back to our hotel but China Town really is a little while away so Alissa and I jumped in a cab and Sam hit the pavement and he met us back at the hotel.
All in all I have been loving New York sick. Sooo many things to see and do and it feels so completely safe. It's warm, the transport is easy, the hotel is good, the people are friendly and it's New York baby - what's not to love?

Best be off as of course there is no rest for the wicked, we're heading out to a bar tonight, open top, looks out over Manhattan, what evs, and up the Top of Rock for a night time view of the city, dinner will fall in there somewhere, and my internet sources tell me Macy's is open until 10pm.... well, well, well... we have a busy night ahead of us, better find a babysitter for Sam if shopping is involved.

Ta Ta x

---