New York, NY

where we tried to squeeze every inch of touristyness out of The Big Apple

After spending a few low key but culturally rich days in Philadelphia, we were off to The Big Apple. We had only planned for a few days in New York – we were pretty far from home (or rather, future home Vancouver), tight on budget, and New York was not the most financially accommodating city. We settled for a couple of nights in an uber hipster Airbnb in Brooklyn and opted to subway into and explore Manhattan during the days.

The airbnb was adorable, but it took a little bit of getting used to the New York city noises and between a combination of noise on the street outside and the noise of the very necessary AC fan we had a rough first night. Hello New York 😛

The next morning we ventured into Manhattan to tourist the day away. We grabbed the subway and made our way to Times Square with relative ease. The subway heaved of heavy summer recycled air and endless crowds of scurrying people, exactly as a New York subway is expected to be.

We knew that in the relative short amount of time that we had in New York that we really should try and go see a Broadway show. Luck would have it that Les Miserables (a long-time favourite) was playing AND we were able to get tickets. Delighted with this and considering the rest of the day from there on out a bonus, we then went to get the boat across to Ellis Island to begin our first New York adventure. 

Walking around Ellis Island, like any place that once saw action back in the day but was now a museum for hoards of tourists to plow through, you could feel a sense from the air that this place had seen some times. The architecture was beautiful, the building was grand, but honestly, the place was a little bit eerie. 

Back from Ellis Island we ventured up to the famed Highline for a stroll.

We eventually made our way up to Central Park for a wander. The daylight was starting to fade, and so were we. It took real effort not to grab a few zzzs in the park, the sunsoaked grass was so appealing, but we continued on, determined to squeeze every minute out of this day! 😀

The Natural History Museum almost didn’t happened and considering the short about of time that we were allowed in there (it was closing time), it’s almost not worth mentioning. Although we did get some pretty cool pictures of dinosaurs, so, there’s always that.

Our second full day in NYC meant venturing into the centre of Manhattan on the subway. We walked EVERYWHERE, SOHO, NOHO, East Village, Greenwich Village, Times Square, Wall Street. We got a hot dog and bought New York Times just for the hell of it.

That night we went to see Les Miserables on Broadway, the last minute decision that totally panned out. The theatre was small but perfectly atmospheric. We managed to score pretty decent seats up near the front and marvelled for a solid few hours at the incredibly talented actors and overall amazing production. Would definitely recommend if you’re in town and it’s still playing.

The next day we bid a bitter sweet farewell to New York and headed off to check out how the Bostonians celebrated the fourth of July.