.Day Five- Sunday 9th Jan.

Today was are last day in NY and I am very sad that I can not stay in the city longer or in fact stay here forever. We spent today with a larger group of friends on our course and our first stop was at the Grand Central Station Breakfast café, expensive but worth the money, I ate waffles and bacon which was delicious and cheered me up a bit! We then headed towards 5^th Av again and really went crazy in the 50% off sale in Urban Outfitters, where we all spent the last of our dollars. Finishing the day with a NY McDonalds (larger portions and more money was the only real difference) was a success before heading back to East Gate Hotel and leaving for the airport.

Looking out of the plane window I saw the view of NY at night, all the bright lights and busy buildings and I still got the same sensation of excitement as I did on the first sight of the city 5 days ago. In reflection the trip was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, the city is like nowhere I have ever been before and I am pleased with the amount I managed to achieve in the short space of time that I was staying. If I could, I would do it all again and I can’t wait to revisit the city in the future.

.Day Four- Saturday 8th Jan.

Today we shopped all day on 5^th Avenue, walking the extra mile than before towards all of the designers stores and there was so much to explore. The window displays were most impressive here, with every store making a huge effort, we visited Dior, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, The Apple Store…the list is endless.

I especially enjoyed the in store environment in Dior as it was so luxurious, the attention to detail was very impressive, with white tiled ceiling and floors, an impressive stair case and luxurious seating, the overall experience was amazing.

The window display for Louis Vuitton was also very impressive, they had a unique animal theme, using a toy giraffe in one window covered in Louis Vuitton items and another window that used a Vuitton bags to create different animal figures. It is hard to explain but it was a very clever and innovative idea, take a look at the photos below….

.Day Three- Friday 7th Jan.

This morning we took the subway from Grand Central Station down town to the borough of Tribeca, from here we took a snowy ferry to Staten Island and back, while viewing the Statue of Liberty which was another exciting adventure! Unfortunately it was snowing like crazy and the photos came out a bit blurry but we were still able to view the statue which was the main experience.

After, we walked to Liberty Street on Broadway Avenue and visited ground zero…where the twin towers used to be, which with that in mind was incredibly eerie. We then took a tour around the tribute memorial museum, the museum was actually really depressing and the videos and photos were upsetting, the overall experience was worthwhile however as it was interesting to learn about the event in depth.

Plane window of 9/11

Too lighten our moods we headed to Century 21- not knowing what to expect I was shocked, it was a huge jumble sale, the busiest shop I have ever been in, the customers were almost out of control searching and scavenging for any hidden designer treasures within the mess of hundreds of abandoned clothes.

Lunch time was spent in a small NY café off Broadway Avenue and a tuna melt and muffin was on the table. Soho was are next target location and we came across stores such as; Urban Outfitters, Prada, Free People, Chanel, Dash, Topshop, Old Navy and Barney’s Co-op. My favourite store in Soho was however Bloomingdales! and I enjoyed browsing around the luxurious beauty department. From Bloomingdales I purchased the famous Bloomingdales ‘Brown Bag’ for me and one to give to my mum, which I was very pleased with!

We also went to the Prada store which is massive and the in store environment was incredible, the decoration and layout of the store was amazing to view. They had these huge Picture frames the size of me and they were filled with Prada manikins and Prada items and large suitcase trunks full of Prada handbags. The store even had a circular glass lift inside which was very cool to use when visiting the store, here are some photos below…



.Day Two- Thursday 6th Jan.

Today i took a trip to the top of the Rockafeller Center- 'Top of the Rock', it was the most incredible experience being able to see the whole of the NY skyline, the view was breathetaking. I wouldn't call the view beautiful but it was deffinatly very powerful and fitted the famous words of 'concrete jungle'.

While up on the rock it started to snow and along with the quiteness it became a very peaceful experience.

I was able to view all the famous landmarks, Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Times Square anfd 5th Av.

Me at the Top of the Rock!

'Concrete Jungle'

The afternoon consisted of visiting the Fashion Institute of Technology to view a Japaneese fashion exhibition which was particular interesting due to the range of clothing they had availabl to view, it was only a quick visist and we headed off for more shopping. While walking along Fashion Avenue we bumped into America's Next Top Model star Jay Mannuel and got a quick photo! It was actually amazing to see him real life and was are first celebrity encounter of the trip!

We then ventured down under to the NY subway...at the price of $2.50 we travelled to 82th street and walked through central park, still covered with a dust of snow, the chilly walk in the beautiful surroundings was awarded with a pretzel outside the Met Museeum.

Feeling like we were on Gossip Girl we took many photos of us enjoying life sitting on the steps of the Met and when it turned dark we decided to travel to a brighter side of NY.

Hailing our first ever yellow cab was a task and a half, and we realised that standing at the curb edge with our arms waving in the air ...just wasnt enough. The end result was us standing in the middle of the road...waving our hands in the air. After a short and exciting journey, i stepped out of the cab into the bright lights of Times Square feeling like a true NewYorker.

The City That Never Sleeps!

The sites were amazing screen after screen of advertisements..it was ridiculous. It was also extremely busy but also filled with energy and gives me butterflies even thinking about it now. Meeting up with other course members we went for dinner at the American dinner Bubba Gump Shrimp which looks out over Times Square, we all tucked into huge burgers and enjoyed discussing our recent NY events!

.Day One- Wednesday 5th Jan.

I was very excited when first arriving in NY and i couldn't wait to leave the airport and get outside into the NY fresh air. After feeling like a criminal in security control due to the amount of checks i had to go through, we finally got to bundle onto a coach outside...it wasn't until i saw the first yellow cab that it hit me...that i was actually in NY, something Ive only ever seen in the movies.

We had a very amusing tour guide on the coach on the way to the hotel, but due to the high amount of excitement and lack of sleep the only piece of information given that i can recall is that the emergency number in NY was 911 rather than 999- fab. As approaching the boarder line of Manhattan, NY began to arise in the distance, the sheer height of the buildings was incredible, i knew what to expect but you can only really understand it until you've seen it with your own eyes.

Finally we arrived at the East Gate Hotel on 39th street of 3rd avenue, leaving the coach i suddenly felt very small and very very lost. Room 21G was to be my new home for the next five days, after showering at a million miles an hour, I set off onto the streets of NY...along with my friends Becky and Liz.

So after about five minutes we considered ourselves completely lost, the plan became just to walk north and head for 5th avenue...only 2 avenues away...surely it couldn't be that hard to find. Stopping for our first 3 dollar slice of American pizza to keep energy levels high, as we walked along the streets by eyes kept catching the amount of rubbish bags that were left on the street...pile and piles of the stuff, hardly glamorous i kept telling myself... The roads were literally crazy, four lanes of yellow blur, there was a billion taxis racing around everywhere!

After about half an hour or so we were bang on 5ht avenue and the sight of Macy's department store was in the distance (absolutely huge) and it was are first stop... it kind of reminded me of the British Selfridges, no items were bought here and it was straight onto Forever 21 (NY's equivalent of New Look)..many items were bought here!

After visiting a few more stores we were running low on energy again, so choosing from one of the large amount of Starbucks that are available on every street corner of NY, we grabbed a coffee and watched the busy streets of NY go by.

.Returning from the Big Apple!

So I have just returned from the big apple and have so much to tell you about everything that I have experienced! Unfortunatly I could not blog while out in NY because of costs... However I did write a diary while out in NY and will now blog post each day of my diary...

.One night.

There is only two hours to go before we have to leave for the airport and I'm so excited! Currently sitting with the girls writing down all the places we want to visit...central park,statue of liberty, ground zero, the list is endless! I'm all packed and ready to go! My suitcase literally weighs a tonne and I'm so worried that I will have to remove items (sad times). One of the reasons it's probably so heavy is the amount of jumpers/layers it contains however the weather in new York is currently -4 ! And due to snow on Friday so I'm sure I won't be complaining when I'm out there! :) xoxo