The Throwback Playlist

Not a day goes by when my headphones aren't in my ears, blasting whatever Spotify has chosen for me. My life has changed for the better, however, now that I've discovered a couple of albums I used to listen to 8 years ago (that makes me feel sooooo old). If you were born mid 1990's like me, then I'm sure you would remember the Pop Party CD's. If you do then I'd highly recommend getting it up on Spotify and having a little listen, I promise you won't regret it.. I don't think I've had that much fun for months! 

Blogging Lately

I've been blogging for around a year now (I had another blog before this one, but thought I'd start again because I wasn't happy with how it looked or the content, and I couldn't figure out Wordpress properly for the life of me!) and although I thoroughly enjoy it, some aspects are beginning to drain me. I love having a place on the Internet in which I can share things from what I bought yesterday to my favourite life experiences. However,

New Year in New York

(Those are two of my most favourite photographs that I've ever taken!)

When I think back, it still doesn't feel real that I spent the end of Christmas and the New Year in the famous Big Apple. It really is as incredible as everybody says and I would go back in a heartbeat.

Hotel

The hotel we stayed at was called the Iroquois. Everything about this hotel was perfect, particularly the location. It's located on 49 West 44th Street which is two blocks away from Times Square, so it's extremely central! The only thing I would say, though, is that this hotel is a little pricey but when it's that central in NYC, it's to be expected.

Shopping

The shopping experience here is amazing amazing amazing!!  I definitely didn't spend $500... Around Christmas, some of the sales here are insane. They were selling Ralph Lauren polo's for $30, which works out at around £20. Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Sephora and Victoria's Secret was honestly a dream. Definitely expect a haul coming in the next post!  

Sightseeing

We had a full six days to spend in the city, and although we didn't manage to get absolutely everything done, we got a lot. We got the ferry from Battery Park to go and see the Statue of Liberty which was such an amazing thing to see in person (a little tip if you're going to go: go early. Queuing times were insane, we had to queue for two hours which was considered lucky. It was worth it though.) 

I've also always wanted to go to see Phantom of the Opera, and I was lucky enough to experience it on Broadway in the Majestic Theatre. It was amazing - although I did find it really scary because I'm a massive wimp with stuff like that - the story line was so sad, but the performance was amazing!

Another thing that we did was visit Ground Zero. I saw it in both the day and the night and I have to say although it was so impressive both times, when it's in the night and all the fountains are lit it is amazing to see. I also got to see the new World Trade Centre which I believe hasn't officially opened yet, which is a really impressive building. 

One of my favourite things to do whilst in New York was to go ice skating. I went ice skating on New Years Day in the Rockefeller skating rink which the most amazing experience! It was hard for me to choose between here or Central Park (which is such a beautiful place), but I'm sure I'll get around to that another time. I am so obsessed with ice skating so it was so exciting for me to go to one of the most famous places in the world. We didn't manage to get round to doing Top of the Rock so that's definitely on my bucket list for next time, but we did get around to doing the Empire State just before we went to Times Square on NYE. The Empire State was one of the scariest but best feelings ever - I am not one for heights, and those who say that you're 'so high you don't feel it' are lying, but it is an absolutely beautiful view. My phone doesn't like night-time-photo-taking so the photo's not the best, but I really don't think anything would be able to capture the view properly in a photo (they probs can but I can't). 

Another thing I was obsessed with was the Christmas Decorations. They're amazing! Above is the tree from the Trump Tower - which is Donald Trump's tower which is made of gold (!) - and below is the tree from the NY Public Library!

 

One thing that scares me in NYC is the transport. I think if I lived there, that would be the main issue for me. Being in a taxi is scary as hell but honestly, the underground 'Metro/Subway' station was bad. Let's just say, I fully understand why people love the London Underground so much now...

New Year's Eve
I thought I'd write a bit about my NYE experience just in case some of you are planning on booking to do this yourself. The obvious place to go at New Year's Eve is obviously Times Square to see the Ball Drop, which is exactly what we did! However, it was really complicated. Firstly, unless you have bought tickets which are insanely expensive for a family of five (around 130$ each), you have to queue from the early hours of the morning to get a good view of the ball drop. This is problematic for a lot of reasons - it's seriously freezing in New York at around this time, and the last thing you want to be doing is sitting down on the floor all day. Also, when you're in the queue, there is no food/drink/toilets. I have no idea how people do it. 
So, we clearly had to find a way around it. It was by pure luck that we managed to actually get anywhere near Times Square on that night. There are a lot of other really nice options for a person to do on NYE, there's fireworks in Brooklyn and many other events, there's fireworks above the Statue of Liberty, and there's also multiple parties in restaurants around Times Square that have a view of the Ball Drop. However, everything amounts to about $2948498248. By pure chance, we found free tickets to an Irish Bar on Times Square. They were handing them out for free because a table booked for 24 people had dropped out. So, we used these tickets to get past the NYPD and barriers into the side streets of Times Square but instead of going into the Irish bar, we just hung around the general area listening to the acts such as Taylor Swift, Fergie, etc. Although it was nice  because we could hear everything, we couldn't see anything so I probably wouldn't recommend this - although it was awesome considering this was literally a last minute thing. 
My recommendations, if you're in a pair or a small number or just paying for yourself and you don't mind paying around $100, would be to get tickets (get these way earlier in the year because they sell out fast) for a restaurant on Times Square that has a view of the Ball Drop. Some places have balconies that you can go out on to actually see the performances, but you'd probably have to pay a lot extra to see this!  

Apologies for the length of this post, but hopefully it has helped you in some way! New York is definitely my favourite city that I've been to. However, I'm going to Paris in March so we'll see how these compare! 

Thanks for reading xoxo

Book Talk #1

This is my first post on this new blog (aaaah!), and instead of doing an awkward introductory post, I thought I would delve straight into talking about one of my favourite things - books. So here are some of the books I've been reading over the past six months:

1. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Ahhh.. I had serious mixed feelings about this book. May I just start by saying that Rainbow Rowell is an incredibly talented writer. This was the first book I read by her, and immediately after finishing it I went out and bought two of her others. Eleanor & Park is, you could say, a 'love story' but it's not a typical one. Neither Eleanor or Park are your conventional good-looking teenagers that usually appear in these type of books. This book isn't on-the-edge-of-your-seat exciting, but it's a nice read. And the ending will make you want to rip your hair out (but that's the best part about it).

2. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

I think this is one of the most popular books by Rainbow Rowell, but in my opinion, Eleanor & Park is the better one! This was about identical twins, Cath and Wren, and the struggle when they both go to university and one doesn't want to be with the other anymore. For me, the best part about this book is Cath's relationship with a certain boy (it's so hard to write about books and not give away anything!) and I tended to find the parts between the twins quite boring. It's worth the read, but I wouldn't be busting your guts!

3. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

I'll start by saying that this book isn't for everyone! It is a classic, but the language is very easy to understand. I thought that the storyline of this book was amazing. The main character, Dorian Gray, has a portrait painted of him and, unknown to everyone else, the portrait is 'alive' and reflects Gray's inner character. So as Gray goes around doing whatever he does (bad things), the portrait gets uglier. I'm embarrassingly bad at trying to make things sound good, but if you like these kind of books, then you need to read this. It's definitely my favourite out of all the Penguin Classics. 

4. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

I picked this book up on a whim, I saw it on Book Despository and just bought it, having never heard anything about it. It took me a while to get through - about three weeks - which isn't a good sign for me, as I can usually finish a book within a few days (or sometimes in one day.. I swear I do have a life). The story was quite interesting, but I just feel that this could have been written in half the amount of pages it was. In other words, it dragged like hell. But if you don't mind reading long books, then I would reccommend it. I will warn you, though, the main character Don is a science geek and it's written from his point of view, so the language is a bit over-the-top (there's a lot of long words).

5. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

This was definitely my favourite read out of the 5. I'm sure most of you had seen the film - if you liked the film, then you must read, and if you hated the film... you still must read! In my opinion, the film didn't compare to the book. The book is exciting, and really hooks you from the first chapter. The ending isn't the best, and so it's one of those books that you need a second book for so that you know what happens afterward (same for Eleanor & Park), but nevertheless, I'd highly recommend this book to everyone!

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