Sunday 27th April
Start spreading the news, we're leaving today!! We're gonna be a part of it...New York, New York!!!
Up early, checked out & got our 11.30am flight. After 5 hours flyin we arrived in a nippy New York in the evening and it was like 'Spot the Tourists' with all of us in our flip flops, short trousers and no jackets!! En route to the hotel, we got to see the fabulous lights & sights of night-time New York with May's first impression of the Big Apple being '2 fairies prancing up the street' (her words) dressed as Elton & Dale......to think she hasn't even seen the half of it!!
Quickly dropped off our bags at the Radio City Apts, kindly sponsored by the Campbells, who were guilt-tripped by our blog into saving us from another hell hole hostel!! Yee ha!! We went out for dinner & Joy's first tour of Times Square. Times Square is an amazing place. The crowds on Times Square morning, noon and night are crazy...it really is the city that never sleeps. All the lights and glitz makes it look a little bit like a mini Vegas (without the casinos obviously!). You soon learn that you need to become a New Yorker and just push your way through the crowds or you will never get anywhere...no-one gives you a second! There is lots of interesting places around Times Square and a good few Irish Pubs off times square who do excellent pub grub. All the shops were packed with people and some shops we had to leave as it was just too much!
We'd like to mention at this point that Robert also decided to take a self tour of his surroundings and while normally a very happy chappy, he returned from his excursion a bit of a nervous wreck exclaiming 'get me home...Never again will I be in New York!" Apparently he got lost and ended up in some dodgy, dingy area, being passed and propositioned in the street by gangs, pimps & prostitutes!! Welcome to NYC Papa!! We all pissed ourselves laughing and quickly promised him it would all look better in the morning! MEN!!
Monday 28th April
Deciding drastic action was needed to cheer up the old folks, we wrote them a game plan for their few days in NY and directed them to the shops for some retail therapy! Meanwhile...we took ourselves down to Macy's, the "World's Largest Department Store" and boy did it live up to it's name!! Eleven floors & 3 hours later we resurfaced for oxygen & sustainance and to see what else the city had to offer!
Unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side as it was freezing and poured down most of the day. After melting our way through the last 3 months it was a bit of a culture shock but then again it'll be good practice for when we return home next week! One cheap shop later, we had sorted ourselves out with hats & scarves and were ready to go again! After a hard days shopping we chilled out in style with a slap-up meal and a few drinks back at our suite! Loving the New York way of life!
Tuesday 29th April
Yesterday, the inital excitement of Macy's meant that we bought a couple of things that a) we didn't really need and b) didn't really fit so back we trotted and sweetly asked for our money back (our bank manager would be so proud of us!) Since we no longer have our own money to spend we decided to do the next best thing and took Robert on a shopping spree round Macy's. $600 later he emerged a new man and will now be turning heads and stopping traffic! Think he's starting to like the Big Apple after all!
It's amazing how quickly time flies and all too soon the day was over, with only enough time left for dinner, drinks and bed...or in Joy's case the sofabed as all 3 members of the Campbell Clan deemed it necessary to partake in a snorefest for most of the night. Sweet Dreams!
Wednesday 30th April
Starting the day with a dander down Money Bags Lane, aka Fifth Ave, we decided we weren't too impressed with the huge pricetags and quickly hightailed it down to Chinatown with high hopes of stocking up on our fake Tiffany jewellery. Chinatown is renowned for it's fake goods and cheap bargains...which we love! However apparently, which we were all too shocked and innocent to discover, counterfeit goods are illegal and should not be sold on the streets?! Soon finding out that there had been some sort of major clampdown on Chinatown in recent months, Tiffany jewellery is now nowhere to be found and thanks to the NYPD Boys in Blue our wrists remained naked :( Not ones to be easily deterred after being so excited, we resorted to approaching every dodgy looking character on the street and asking in subtle, hushed tones "any Tiffany, any Tiffany?!" The common response we got was "no Tiffany...me no go to jail". Honestly...some people are cowards! By the end of our descent into the criminal underworld we'd been ushered in and out of more backdoors than a dirty woman! God how we've changed!
Rode the Subway (which by the way is a dirty, disease infested hole) back Uptown to Times Square and our apartment to kick off the party for Robert and May's last night. As we have already stated many times, on the nights before we travel we have our own set of rules on a checklist involving complete abstinence from alcohol of any description but in this case we're not the ones travelling and therefore that rulebook is out the window! After dinner we decided to hit an Irish Bar and by the time we left we were in no fit state to decide on much else and barely remember going to bed. Some things never change!
Thursday 1st May
Leaving our palace behind we heavy heartedly headed to our last hostel (hopefully ever) with May and Robert following behind. They seemed a lot more excited than we were to see the inside of our next prison cell and finding the whole thing a bit of a novelty laughed at not only the size of our shoebox sized room but also at the fact that it comes with tiny bunkbeds and a shared bathroom! Believe us, the novelty soon wears off!
Realising that our own journey was quickly coming to an end we decided to start the sightseeing side of NYC by heading to the Empire State Building and queuing for an hour and a half to get up to the 86th Floor Observatory Deck. The views were unbelievable. As it was a clear blue sky you could see for miles, Manhattan looked like a toy town and Central Park seemed so surreal just neatly placed inside all of the skyscrapers. As you'd expect we were picture happy again.
Apparently tourist attractions almost always equals queuing and in order to get ½ price Broadway theatre tickets we had to stand in line for another hour...oh to be rich and have an easy queue-free life! But...all's well that ends well and we managed to get 4th row tickets to our musical of choice "Legally Blonde" (all you girly girls out there know what we're talking about!)
That evening the show turned out to be fantastic. It was really well put together and really, really funny so it managed to keep us entertained all the way through and made the wait for tickets this afternoon well worth it!
Friday 2nd May
Today was sightseeing overload day as we tried to squeeze it all into one day. It all started with a subway ride down to Battery Park to catch the ferry past the Statue of Liberty. Being too cheap to pay to go to Ellis or Liberty islands we caught the (free) Staton Island Ferry which gives you really good views of New York, The Statue of Liberty (which is surprisingly far from Manhattan) and Ellis Island. It was also nice because you get to see some really good sights and sit down at the same time! On passing the Statue, we noticed that Lady Liberty wasn't very chatty today and looked a little green in the face...think she maybe had one too many the night before lol! The weather was once again wrking against us as it was completely overcast and foggy, meaning our pictures didn't turn out that great.
Afterwards we visited Ground Zero before continuing Uptown again for a walk around Central Park, which by the way is huge, and we struggled to find our way out of it again. Central Park is a great place to come and chill out and escape from the hustle and bustle of the city.
Next on the list was the famous Tiffany & Co, Trump Tower and Bloomingdales. Needless to say "snap, snap snap" went our trusty digital camera! Riding the rails once more we ended the day with some stress relieving retail therapy and a delicious meal. Think we might just miss NYC after all.
Well folks, as much as we didn't think it would ever come, it was time to pack up our trunks and say goodbye to the circus once and for all. This is it...show over! Tomorrow we catch our last long ass flight of our Round the World Tour before the Dynamic Duo parts ways as Joy stays in London for 2 days while Laura returns to lovely Smellfast (Belfast!) But fear not dear Disciples, we have one more story left to tell so check out our final blog....Coming to a PC near you soon!!
J & L
xoxo
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