As me and my girlfriend turned 21 last year, and both recently celebrated 1 year of full-time work following the completion of our university degrees we wanted to treat ourselves to a holiday to the Big Apple and to start ticking off some bucket list items in New York City.
The day before our flight, Wildfires in Canada sent a barrage of smoke down towards New York which left the city looking like a scene from Blade Runner, stressing the already stressed girlfriend out even more, really getting me in the holiday spirit!
47 flight checks and countless email and twitter refreshes later we were all checked in at the airport and had everyone’s favourite pint in our hands. Adrenaline thrilled and absolutely buzzing we landed in New York in the afternoon to see nothing but blue skies and perfect sunshine. Once checked in we started ticking things of our to-do list, up first, Food. Authentic New York pizza gave us the energy to go and find Times Square and once there we soon realised, we had made the right choice sacrificing regular takeaways and the extra beer or two to fund our trip.
Day one consisted of 40,000 steps, exploring Central Park, getting a cheeseburger from one of the many food carts. Traveling with your significant other provides the benefit of doing things you may not usually do, for me this meant visiting the top of Skyscrapers, today being Rockefeller Centre, battling my fear of heights to the extreme.
My performing arts obsessed girlfriend labelled day two as “Musicals Day”. Ellen’s Stardust Diner for breakfast where you’re serenaded by Broadways upcoming stars got the day kicked off before a walk round Broadway and another trip up a skyscraper, this time the Empire State where the only song in my head was ‘Staying Alive‘. Impressed by my bravery, it was my turn to pick something to do before the 8pm curtain of our Broadway show, luckily football came to the rescue. Unfortunately, I didn’t see Inter Milan break Man City fans hearts (which may have been the highlight of the trip if it had come true) but it was great to be back on the ground! The evening was topped off by a trip to the theatre to watch Wicked, sceptical at first, I thoroughly enjoyed it and may even go with her again to the theatre!
Day three was exploring Wall Street (unfortunately Margot Robbie was not present), paying our respects at the September 11th Memorial, a trip over the Brooklyn Bridge, and a night cruise around the city, could not recommend watching the sunset over the New York skyline more.
Our fourth and final full day was comprised of a trip to the Friends apartment and doing some final damage to the bank card around New York’s shopping districts.
And just like that our holiday of a lifetime was over. We ticked off everything on our list and loved every minute. An amazing place with even better company.
