We had the intention of making the most of our first full day in NYC, but ended up sleeping until midday! We obviously needed the sleep and it's helped as neither of us feel jet lagged at all.
So we started the afternoon by grabbing our first American coffee from Starbucks. Note to self - don't order a cappuccino again... I was wondering why my cup felt so light... turns out that it was almost half froth! (see pic below). And how was the coffee? Let's just say it was hot and it was coffee!!
We walked down towards Times Square (what a buzz of activity to say the least!) And we found the New York visitor information centre. We spent about 20 minutes talking to 'Nik' who works there - such a nice guy and extremely helpful! I'd recommend going there to anyone who hasn't been to NY before, it gave us a few great pointers for our stay.
We headed to the heart of Times Square to catch our Hop On Hop Off bus. We decided to take the Downtown loop which took us by the Empire State Building, Madison Square Garden and the Flat Iron Building. We hopped off in Soho briefly - long enough for Sophie to buy a hat (freezing!) and buy another hot drink from Starbucks. Troy accidentally pushed in front of an older chap in the bathroom line and subsequently bore the brunt of an angry rant! It was starting to get late, so we will explore more of Soho another day. We did enjoy our short walk and loved the architecture around the area (the pic below was taken in Soho).
We hopped back on the bus and drove by Battery Park, saw our first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges before going through China Town, Little Italy and the East Village. Other sites we passed included the United Nations and Rockefeller Centre.
We jumped off at Times Square (see below photo) and ducked into the M&M store - closest bathroom we could find!
For those who haven't heard of or been to the M&M store before, it is 3 levels of all types of M&Ms and every type of M&M merchandise you can think of! There was even a dance routine performed by a human size M&M and the staff (see pic below). Just for the record - we came out empty handed as we're saving up all of our shopping for later!
We've got the Hop On Hop Off bus tickets for the next couple of days, so we decided to do the Downtown and Brooklyn Night Tour - great way to see the NY skyline at night.
We drove over the Manhattan Bridge which is where the below photo was taken (not that clear sorry). It was a little nerve-wracking driving over the bridge while sitting on the top level of a double decker bus and strong winds! But we made it.
We had a great tour guide who was very entertaining too, but it was freezing - we're going to have to invest in a couple of extra winter clothing pieces! We're not complaining though - we are loving the cold after the hot weather Melbourne has had (and is continuing to experience I hear).
We headed back to our hotel after a quick dinner and now that we are starting to get our bearings, we are planning the remainder of our trip. The forecast for tonight and tomorrow is rain and snow... we may have to find a shop early to buy some more gear - we were expecting it to be cold, just not this cold!! Loving every minute already though.
Lessons learnt today and observations:
1. What coffee to order - no more cappuccinos!
2. If travelling on the subway outside of busy hours, sit in the first or fifth carriage - the first obviously has the driver and a conductor sits in the fifth (supposedly) making them the safest carriages
3. There are A LOT of intersections. We actually saw someone with a foldable stool sitting at an intersection waiting for the lights to change!
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