Birthday in the Big Apple

I always hear people complaining about airline delays, I do usually feel sorry for them until they say that it's only delayed by an hour or two. Try being 27 hours late, missing a day of your holiday in New York, the day before your birthday... No fun!

After waking up at the unreasonable time at 6 am, we set off to the airport from the hotel that we had arrived at the night before. We checked in and 'flew' through security, unfortunately, that was the only flying we did that day... For breakfast, we tucked into a large full English meal and arrived at our departure lounge not long after. The minutes, and eventually hours, passed. Suddenly there was an announcement  explaining that the flight was to be postponed until the following day. This was due to the plane having a problem with the engine and having no replacement parts at the airport, so they had to get it shipped to Manchester overnight from the USA. At least the airline was kind enough to book us into a nice hotel with free food and accommodation for the night, but it would never have been as good as getting to New York on time.

We tried to look on the positive side of the situation, at least we'd had a good nights sleep and a lovely (free) breakfast. The coach picked us up at the hotel and drove us to the airport, to continue (or begin?) our journey to New York. The whole checking in situation was more complicated than the previous day and took a lot longer too, security wasn't any better... We arrived at the departure gate to see the familiar faces of our fellow-passengers, everyone looked fed up. This was made a lot worse when the staff announced a 'short' delay, immediately everyone's hopes plummeted. People threw their heads into their hands in frustration, but half an hour later, they let us on the plane. As we taxied towards the runway, the engine started to make some concerning noises, the staff debated whether we should take off or not, yet again... our trip was put on hold.

After two agonising hours, the plane eventually took off, but we were closer to New York than we'd been before! The plane journey and arrival at the airport was a blur. We caught a taxi outside the airport to take us to the hotel, between naps, I managed to get a glimpse of the stunning New York skyline in the sunset. It was one of the most rewarding sights I've ever experienced.

Upon arriving at the hotel, we were surprised by our American family who had flown up from Alabama to meet us in New York for a couple of days!

Before we even had time to sit down and relax, we were ushered out and taken to see the Broadway production of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime". It was amazing and certainly made up for the otherwise crappy journey! After the show had finished, we walked down the street and straight into Times Square. In case you've been living under a rock, Times Square is one of the busiest plazas in New York, in the heart of the Theatre District, known for its bright lights, shopping, and shows. I stared in awe at everything, the colours and huge adverts. It looked a lot better than it did in the movies!  The clock struck midnight onto my birthday as we stood admiring the view. I couldn't have wished for a better first moment of being 16, than being in Times Square!

We were understandably hungry after our long journey, so we decided to go to one of New York's best sushi restaurants, the Blue Finn, which certainly lived up to its title! After eating unacceptable amounts of sushi, we headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.

Usually, on my birthday, I'm up very early begging my parents to let me open my presents, but this time, I was too exhausted to get up at all! Not until my parents forced me out of bed to go ice skating at the Rockefeller Centre. The skating rink was in the centre of New York, surrounded by skyscrapers - definitely an experience I'll always remember. The Rockefeller Centre is a famous business complex that is home to TV studios, during the Autumn/Winter season, they have an ice rink and a giant Christmas tree within the plaza.

After skating around for an hour or so, we explored the shops, mainly the giant Lego and Nintendo stores (I'm still 10 at heart). The Nintendo store is huge! (10,000 square feet to be exact). It is filled with interactive game demos, accessories and collectables. The Lego store was just as big and had huge Lego sculptures on the walls!

Eventually, we walked to Times Square for my surprise birthday meal at the Hard Rock Café! If you've read some of my other blog posts then you'll understand that I LOVE the Hard Rock Café! This was the first one I ever visited, despite owning plenty of their merchandise. The food lived up to the expectation, with the portions being unhealthily large. The Hard Rock Café is a rock n' roll-themed restaurant chain with rock memorabilia throughout the restaurant.

We had to say a sad goodbye to our American friends who were travelling back to Alabama, but we were sure that we'd see them again... less than a year later!

Upon arriving back at the hotel, we all had a nap and went for dinner at a small Irish pub on our block. 

After a long nights sleep, we woke up easily and headed out to the Rockefeller Centre to go to the Top of the Rock. The building is styled to look like an ocean-liner (obviously it's hard to tell what it looks like when you're on top of it!) The view from the top was breath-taking and had incredible photo opportunities of the New York skyline. We spent an hour here before heading back to ground level and walking to the New York Public Library.

The library is located within the grounds of Bryant Park and is known for being the set of many famous films, such as in The Day After Tomorrow. It was fascinating to read through some of the old archives, and of course, explore the gift shop! Next, we had some lunch and took a break in Madison Square Park - turns out it's nowhere near Madison Square Gardens! After admiring the nature, after not seeing a single tree for days. Our final stop was at the Flat Iron Building which was designed by architect Daniel Burnham and built in 1902. The triangular tower gained its nickname for looking like an old fashioned iron. 

This was our busiest day, we started by going on a bus tour from Times Square to Battery Park. We had a quick drink at Starbucks before hopping onto the Staten Island Ferry, which gave us a great view of the Statue of Liberty without the outrageous fees! The Statue of Liberty is one of America's most famous monuments. It was given to the USA by France and was opened to the public in 1886, offering guided tours, a museum and city views.

Next, we walked to Ground Zero where the 9/11 memorial is, honouring the victims of the 1993 & 2001 World Trade Centre terror attacks. The museum experience was an emotional one, but it was lovely to see the remembrance fountains and the stunning Freedom Tower. We walked back to the bus stop to Times Square before walking to the Empire State Building.

The Empire State Building is famous for it's iconic, art deco architecture, built in 1931. The queues were monstrous but we eventually made it to the observatory on the 86th floor. The night view gave a perfect contrast compared to yesterdays daytime view of New York. From that height, it suddenly became clear what people mean when they say New York never sleeps, because there's always something going on, always sirens and horns sounding, and there's always crowds of people in every direction!

Day 5 was our last full day in New York, so we decided to explore the North by starting off in Central Park. Central Park is truly massive, so big that it's easy to forget that you're inside a huge city. It's so big that it houses; the Central Park Zoo, Metropolitan Museum of Art and acres of parkland and lakes.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the Museum of Natural History, which was interesting and had hundreds of exhibits to see. From the dinosaurs to outer space, and everything in-between, the Natural History Museum is huge and showcases a variety of natural and man-made wonders. I spent most of my time in the South American exhibition which had many exhibits on the Mayans, Aztecs and the Inca civilisations.

We didn't have much time to do anything exciting as we had to pack and check out of the hotel, but we still managed to say a final goodbye to Times Square and explore some of the giant shops in the area, such as the massive Toys r us which is so big that it has a Ferris Wheel inside! 

The flight home was interesting as we were all separated and had to each sit by ourselves surrounded by strangers, this was a new experience but it was exciting too (and not as bad as I expected it do be...)