snow showers

Everything about Frank Sinatra’s New York New York is true, except I don’t remember him mentioning the snow, especially not in October!

Arriving in New York after our Trek America tour, it was like we were in the middle of December (winter obviously). I think the temperature hit a maximum of about 5 degrees on the first day, and then just got colder, as the rain turned into snow showers. Now for an Aussie, who doesn’t see much snow, you would think this would be kinda neat right? Well not so when you are holding an umbrella, your fingers are freezing, your feet are soaked in your boots (which clearly aren’t waterproof) and everywhere you go inside it is just packed, since everyone is trying to escape the snow showers! Oh and I forgot about the BLACK ice – the stuff that you can’t see, but can mean the difference between standing or falling on your arse!

Luckily these conditions only lasted one day, and Nikki and I, who I was travelling with from our tour, at least made the most of it by spending the day in and out of shops – Macy’s, GAP, Bebe, Forever 21, H&M and Zara – just to name a few 🙂

We woke up on the second morning to sunshine – we were extremely relieved. But the temperature was still very chilly – a mere 7 degrees!

My top tips for NYC

Since I’d visited New York before, I was quite happy to go with the flow and just wander the city. I kind of enjoyed playing tour guide to Nikki who had never been there before! Some of the tourist highlights of our 4 days in NYC, and things I would recommend for people to do in a limited time included:

• Going up both Top of The Rock (above the Rockefeller Centre) and Empire State Buildings – of course we did the first in the day and the latter at night – the right combination!

• Riding the Staten Island Ferry (which is free) past the Statue of Liberty. Problem was it was feeezing and windy on the outdoor deck, and my hands felt like they were about to fall off!! But you get a great view of the Statue for no cost at all. Ferry leaves from South Street Seaport.

• Walking past Wall Street and the Financial District – we were unlucky not to be able to get up close but lucky because they were filming the new Batman with Anne Hathaway and Christian Bale and we were right there! (note filming in NYC is very common).
• Visiting ground zero and the 9/11 memorial – the site is a huge construction zone, but worth remembering the victims.

• Trying to grab some bargains in Chinatown (just watch for the fakes).
• Hiring bikes in Central Park – you can cover a lot more of the park than on foot. But unfortunately for us, a lot of the paths were closed after the storm which ripped trees down and caused a lot of damage. We still managed to get in to see the John Lennon – Strawberry Fields memorial.

• Eating pizza at the first pizzeria in NYC – Lombardi’s in Little Italy.

• Having bagels and coffee at your local Deli – they are WAY better than Starbucks.
• Shopping in Soho – just beware of the designer stores and high prices!
• Walking through The Village – Greenwich area – home to stars including Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick (and I was lucky enough to spot Matthew trick or treating with his kids!!!! Super awesome moment of my life!) It’s very quaint and home to the Friends Apartment block and SATC scenes.

• Doing a 4 hour Sex and The City Tour! OK, so this one might just be for the girls, but eating cupcakes and drinking cosmos while pretending to be Carrie is my idea of bliss.

You could see so much in New York, but thought I’d share just a snippet of what we did. And I’m actually heading back to NYC on 14 November to do more shopping and sightseeing as it’s just so big!