New York day 3 - 31.12.12

Last day of 2012 in New York!

We started by going to a diner called Galaxy Diner for breakfast. I had the horrendous decision between challah French toast or a stack of pancakes, and I went for the latter, because I can make challah French toast any time but pancakes made my Jocy are not the same as pancakes made in an American diner. I had my pancakes with a totally yumtacular fruit salad, and syrup too obviously :D



After breakfast we went to this thing called the Highline, which is basically a disused train line over New York that has been turned into a garden-type thing with lovely views and pretty flowers. As much as I still don't really understand what it was all about, it was very nice. Again the weather was perfect and the views really were lovely. There were also deckchairs which are always a hoot, especially when you can push the deckchairs down the train tracks :D





Then we all felt peckish so we went for a walk and dicovered Joe's Pizza in Greenwich Village, and it transpired that it's meant to be one of the absolute best pizza places in the city, and honestly I firmly believe that claim. There is something so WONDERFUL about eating a slice of pizza larger than your face out in the open. My only regret is only having the one slice, what was I thinking?!






We then went to Coffee Bean (grandpa's tea stop) which is basically a vastly superior Starbucks. I had the nicest drink I can remember ever having, it was a black forest iced coffee. I watched them make it and as well as normal mocha, it had solid chocolate and actual maraschino cherries blended into it, totally delicious!



The others then wanted to go back to the hotel for a rest before the evening, but Stuart and I decided to continue walking. We walked through Greenwich Village, Washington Square Park and then up 5th Avenue. Washington Square Park was incredible. There were people doing yoga, a group of men doing intense frisbee tricks, men playing card games, and even a man busking on a grand piano! The atmosphere was electric, and eclectic. I absolutely loved it. It was in that moment I think I decided that I was in love with New York City. I would do anything to live there for a while, and to be able to visit that park whenever I wanted. It was very special.









As we had to walk up 5th Avenue to get back to our hotel, it would have been rude not to do a spot of shopping. We went to Barnes & Noble which was just amazing, it was I think the biggest one in the world. A lovely man stopped and asked me if I was Australian though which was strange. This happened a few times throughout the holiday. I bought a lovely copy of To Kill a Mockingbird. I realise that I do not need another copy of it, but it's one of my most loved books and the cover was limited edition and gorgeous and it smelled amazing and I have no self control. We went to another Sephora (second of the day, I went to one in Greenwich Village too) where I bought some nail varnishes and some eyeliner, and then to Footlocker where I purchased some simply BARGAINOUS Converse. They were $60 reduced to $20 which is like £13. Mental.





Then, as it was New Year's Eve, I decided to put on my sparkly dress for dinner. We went to a restaurant called Viv Thai, and I don't usually like Thai food at all but I actually really enjoyed this. Especially my green dumplings :D My absolutely favourite part of this meal however was when my grandpa came back to the toilet wearing the Madeiran hat we got him in the summer. It is a silly tradition in my family that on Passover my grandpa will put different silly hats that we have bought him over the years on when no one is looking. When he came out of the loo with this on it was so hilarious and I will remember that moment for the rest of my life.




So after dinner we had to get ready for the New Year! The plan was that we would all go to my parents' hotel room where they had nibbles and champagne, and we'd all watch the Times Square coverage on TV and bring 2013 in together. But at 11.20 me and Stuart had a change of heart. We were watching Times Square on TV, and I suddenly realised that we were there. We were TEN MINUTES from there. Why were we in our hotel room?! So I told Stuart that even though we would never actually get into Times Square now (they shut the surrounding streets off to prevent over crowding), we were in no way staying in that hotel. So we decided to just head out and see what happened. Sure enough, the whole area near Times Square was absolutely packed, but by eavesdropping on the locals and asking a few helpful NYPD people, we managed to find a really great spot at 46th Street, just a few blocks away from the Square. It was packed out and absolutely buzzing, and when we looked up we could actually see the giant clock in the Square ticking down to midnight! We missed the actual countdown but we saw the fireworks and everyone was so happy and excited. Straight after midnight people starting pouring back in the other direction, so we moved forward and 10 minutes into 2013 we found ourselves in the middle of Times Square, with confetti still falling from the sky. We even saw the same man on the stage that we had been watching on TV less than an hour beforehand! The atmosphere was just incredible, and to be there at that time of year was a true once in a lifetime experience. We stayed in Times Square absorbing everything for about half an hour, but then we were both desperate for a wee so we had to go back. We went to say hello to my parents and grandparents and then we went to bed, ready for day 4 in New York City :D

New York day 2 - 30.12.12

Second day in the city that never sleeps!

We started the day by going to Dunkin' Donuts for brunch. Any place that we could not visit back home was on my to-eat list. I had a cinnamon and raisin bagel with cream cheese, and let me just tell you that the cream cheese you get in New York tastes like rainbows and happiness. I followed this with a jelly donut. Normally I'd pick a fancier one, but I wanted something that is quintessentially American, because I'm a full on tourist. It was amazing. Worth every single calorie.

Then we went to do the Circle Line boat trip. This was a huge boat trip all the way around Manhattan Island, so we got to see Brooklyn and of course the Statue of Liberty. Honestly, and this is bearing in mind that I have skied in -18 degree temperatures, I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO COLD IN MY LIFE. It was BITTER. It was also unbelievably windy, to the point that there is no way you could stand upright when a gust blew. But it was also just so much fun. The sky was bright blue, and it was so lovely and sunny. I had the best time. I managed to stay outside for all of it minus about 15 minutes, when I had to go indoors to warm up. I went in when we went by the Yankee Stadium because I wasn't too bothered about seeing that.







For dinner we went to a restaurant called the Blue Smoke, and it did barbecue food. Not gonna lie, I wasn't expecting to love it, but it was actually one of my favourite meals of the whole holiday. I had a beetroot and goats cheese salad (faaavourite starter EVERRR) followed by salmon with sides of sweet potato fries and the most glorious mac and cheese you can imagine, (yuuuum) and then I couldn't pick a dessert so me and dad shared a platter of ALL THE DESSERTS which is basically my ultimate Dream Come True. This consisted of apple crisp (basically a crumble), chocolate cake, sticky toffee pudding, key lime pie and banana cream pie. There is something about how pies are done in America. I feel sorry for Americans who come over and order pie in the UK.





After this we went to B&H, which is basically an absolutely enormous techy gadgety camera-y shop COMPLETELY RUN BY HASSIDIC JEWS. I thoroughly enjoyed this, as did my dad.

Following this, we met up with nana and grandpa (who had gone for dinner with their friends who live in NY that evening) and decided to go for a Spot of Tea. My grandpa absolutely loves stopping for tea wherever we go, and New York is no exception. Every year for about 6 years my family has had a huge meal at the Intercontinental in London, and we found the one in NY so decided to go there for our tea that evening. When I say the service was bad, I really mean it was so appallingly terrible that it was borderline hilarious. 40 minutes after ordering, nothing had arrived, and 20 minutes later when it did arrive it was all wrong, and then we had to chase (literally) the waitress to get her to sort it out and then at the end when the bill finally arrived they had put service charge on it! Grandpa was not amused. It definitely did not live up to the standards we are used to in Park Lane, but it was memorable in its own special way :P

New York day 1 - 29.12.12

This was our first full day in New York City. We started by going to Uncle Mario's for lunch, where we had some quite nice pizzas.



Mine was quatro formaggio, although I so nearly picked a pizza base topped with macaroni cheese. I also had a cherry soda that had about 200% of my sugar RDA in it. I would never usually touch full sugar drinks with a barge pole, but when in New York eh!



I think the most exciting part of this lunch was that whilst we were waiting for our pizzas...it started to SNOW! It was so exciting to be looking out the window onto 10th avenue seeing the snow falling! I was terrified that the snow would stop whilst we were eating and that we wouldn't get a chance to be out and about in it, but I didn't have to worry because it snowed all day. After lunch we made our way towards the Guggenheim, which meant we got our first glimpse of Central Park, in the snow no less! I was mainly excited because Mia goes to Central Park in Princess Diaries (you may notice reading this that a lot of my holiday was spent being excited about places Mia goes in Princess Diaries :P).





The walk to the Guggenheim was LONG, and it was really really snowing, and settling in areas. We got absolutely soaking wet, and freezing cold, but I genuinely didn't care because you can't care about things like that when you are experiencing New York for the first time ever :D After the Guggenheim we went to Grand Central Station to have a look, and honestly it didn't hit me that I was there till after we had left. I felt like I'd seen it before because of how iconic a place it is.



This was another recurring theme throughout the whole holiday; feeling like I'd seen things before. We also discovered the most amazing food market kind of underneath the station, and it hurt me inside that we were staying in a hotel and I was unable to buy and cook some of the things we saw. Some of the stuff that really stands out in my memory are the cheese stall, the salmon counter (particularly the delicious looking teriyaki salmon with sesame seeds, mmmmmm!) and the most stunning gingerbread houses I have ever seen in my life.



Then it was dinner time. Now, I make no secret of the fact that despite being an atheist, I am Jewish through and through and extremely passionate about my heritage and the traditions that come with it. So for this reason, Sammy's Roumanian will probably remain as one of my favourite dining experiences, ever. It is this unbelievably Jewish restaurant that specialises in shmultz over consumption, and from the second I saw the gloriously green Jewcumbers on the table I knew it was going to be wonderful. I had mushroom barley soup followed by salmon steak with latkes and apple sauce. Pretty much my dream dinner.



And then, my grandpa told the waitress that we were there to celebrate my 21st birthday, so later on she brought me out a plate of ruggelach (delicious Jewish sweet pastry pancake cakey things) with a candle on top!



So I told her that we had all come over to also celebrate my parent's 25th and my grandparent's 55th anniversaries, so the entertainer (think Bar Mitzvah singer, keyboard, Jewfro and all) played that "Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today" song about New York for us all. It was just so much fun.



Then, he started playing Jewish music such as Hava Nagilah and Hevenu Shalom Aleichem, so lots of people got up to dance the Hora, including my mum and dad! The best thing about it for me was that we had travelled to an entirely different country and were surrounded by people we had never met, but we all knew the same songs and same dances and loved the same foods. That is very special. Definitely my favourite thing about being Jewish; the global community and instant connection you have with other Jews. I was very proud of Stuart who coped very well with all the madness and what must have been a huge culture shock for him! But he ate a steak the size of his arm, along with 5 latkes, so I think he found it all okay! After the meal was over I quickly smuggled a Jewcumber into my handbag for later, because I just couldn't leave without one spare.



After we got the Subway back to where we were staying, most wanted to head to bed as everyone was tired out from the traveling the day before. I however was not going to sleep before getting a glimpse of Times Square. Luckily we were only a 10 minute walk from it, so me and Stuart decided to head over. I remember approaching it and being in such a daze that all I could really take in were lights, lights everywhere. I couldn't believe I was there, really truly THERE, in New York, in Times Square. It was just wonderful.



We started off by going in the M&M World, which to be honest was the same as the one in London. Then we went in the Disney Store, which was beautiful as ever. Then I had to go in Sephora (another thing that will crop up throughout these diaries, so many Sephoras!) because we don't have that in the UK and I had heard so much about them from watching beauty channels on YouTube. Then we went to Toys R Us, which was just INSANE. It has a BIG WHEEL in the shop! On the bottom level, but so tall that it goes all the way up to the ceiling, and you can really ride on it! And there was a sweet shop there too! And an entirely different sweet shop that only sold Wonka chocolate! It was just amazing!



We finished the night by going to Starbucks, where I ordered a frappacino. The lady in there looked absolutely aghast and said, "You do know a frappacino is iced right? You can't have an iced drink, it's snowing out, they are for when it's hot!" so I said to her, "I'm from England. If we only had cold drinks when it was hot out we would never have cold drinks!" She was so nice and friendly. Stuart and I then walked back to our hotel in the snow and settled down for a sleep after our first day in what would soon become my favourite city in the whole world.

The beginning of the end

Tomorrow I embark upon my final semester as an undergraduate at university, ever.

I travelled back to my uni house this afternoon, and was inconceivably happy to see Stuart and Ben and New Simon and Tall Simon. My love for my uni friends feels heightened suddenly, I think just because I am so acutely aware that we don't have much longer left all together.

After we all had a pasta bake together, the above minus Ben and I decided to play in the snow :D As I grew up in a rather secluded town, away from where the majority of my friends (and people in general) lived, I really don't have any experiences of being in the snow with a group of friends. Apart from on the ski trip. We wanted to make a snowman but the snow was far too powdery so we decided to go to the golf course opposite our house (well actually the boys decided this and I reluctantly went with - I was worried it was private property and a scary man was going to jump out the bushes and arrest us for trespassing) and we had a big walk and the boys played with large sticks and re-enacted scenes from Lord of the Rings and then they found a huge frozen puddle and they all kept edging closer and closer to it whilst I stood on the sidelines shouting at them to be careful. It was lovely. I know that come even next week, I won't believe it was a whole week ago, let alone when I remember back to this in 10/20/30 years time. After this we walked to the end of our road and went to the newsagents. Amazingly at it was still open at 11pm so we all bought treats. I got a Magnum and revelled in the fact I could eat it as slowly as I wanted without it melting, thanks to the subzero temperatures this tonight.

Ohhh I just can't believe it's so nearly over. I'm not ready to leave these people. It's gone too quickly. I knew it would, but no one could have ever prepared me for how it has flown by. I want to cling on to them and never let go. Though they might find that a bit peculiar.

Tomorrow I have my first lecture of the semester, and I am seeing Amy and we are going to make a vlog together and I am seeing Nasima and Emma and Lucy and I just COULDN'T be more excited!!!! I have missed them so much.

So now, all that's left to do...GET. A. FIRST. UGHIGJSDKFASMNDGMBMF
Good night! x

PS..New York blog coming soon