Navigating NYC - Arrival & Day 1
It’s no secret that I’ve always been obsessed with America. I am not sure why it took me nearly 33 years to get there but I suppose spending most of my life in Australia is a pretty good reason – It’s just so far away!But my lovely husband surprised me this year with an Easter/Birthday weekend trip to NYC. A place so familiar to me it was like walking on to the set of a TV show or movie. (Although it seems everything is ACTUALLY filmed in Canada these days).
We arrived into NYC late at night after a pretty lousy 7hr flight via British Airways* and after a very lengthy exit out of the airport got into our very first yellow cab. A very touristy thing to do but hey.
I didn’t feel like I was in the USA yet. Not even driving into the city. It wasn’t until we got into our hotel room and I looked out the window and was surrounded by skyscrapers and the streets were filled with taxis and Times Square was a flashy horizon that I truly felt like I had arrived.
After a very yummy but amazingly huge breakfast on our first official day (please note no one got even remotely close to finishing their breakfasts!!) We decided to go for an explore/walk off the calories. We headed Downtown through Times Square (pretty full on even in the day time) and finished up at the Empire State Building. It was Good Friday and we expected it to be busy but it was very quick and simple to get in and up to the observation deck.
The view was amazing. Utterly breathtaking. The biggest shock, if you could call it that, was how small the Statue of Liberty looked in the distance. I don’t know why, but I expected her to be this huge towering lady that loomed over the city. But at 86 storey’s high pretty much everything looks small.
After our Tower Tour we headed back up town via fifth avenue and took in the typical touristy things like Sak’s and Tiffany’s and the Trump Towers. Given it was Good Friday we stopped by St Patrick’s Cathedral and lit a candle for a friend and his family in need.
We made it to the edge of Central Park and after some well-practised ‘doe-eyes’ my 15 year old step-daughter convinced her father to take us on one of the horse and cart trips through the park.
We saw a few famous sights from film and TV including the ‘Friends’ fountain (I had previously
We lunched at ‘Benash’ a deli on the way back to the hotel and the service here is a bit hit-and-miss. The food was OK and don’t talk to me about the wine. ever.
After our jaunt about town we were knackered and the two older tourists needed a nap while the younger was just happy to charge her phone and access WiFi.
My husband brought his food bible “Road Food; The Coast-to-Coast Guide” by Michael & Jane Stern and it advised us of a great burger joint nearby called ‘Island Burgers’. We set out here for dinner as it was only a little walk away on 9th Avenue.
It was jam-packed and while the service took a little while it was exceptional. The food was OK (we are always a little underwhelmed at burger places as our home made burgers are to die for) but a nice surprise was the Happy Hour red wine. Even though it was American it was delectable!
It’s been awhile since i visited the one in London, but it was better from memory. There were however a few ‘celebrities’ I was happy to see including Selena Gomez.Some of them looked so fake but some were very realistic, creepily so. I.E Susan Sarandon.
We finished the night off with a late night trip to
Lindy’s for New York Cheesecake. And Wow. The servings were huge (as is everything foodie in NYC) and it was probably the nicest cheesecake we have
all had.
And so ended our first day in NYC.
*You will hear all about BA in another post
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