So before I left, lots of people very kindly gave various different forms of advice about NYC from their experiences so here is mine:
Macy’s is tacky, its lures tourist in by giving them 10 per cent off- but this is done by other department stores in the city too. If you visit the much classier establishment of bloomingdales where the staff aren’t constantly in your face, you will receive a lovely atmosphere as well as 11 per cent off if your not a new yorker!
American fashion is either very preppy or just very last season european, I found this at the shops but the girls there seemed to dress normally. 5th ave is rubbish, unless you can afford the like of chanel and dior. Yes they do have the normal high street chains but see above to what I found in the shops.
The posh chain shops may be very expensive but if you visit the department stores they have some amazing bargain. We even found a dress that had gone from 88 dollars down to 15.
The staff everywhere are overly friendly!!! Now in a way this is good but when you come from a very british environment like mine we are definitely not use to this and find this “too in your face”. We expect staff to be lazy and have a “can’t be bothered attitude” so us brits have become quiet accumsted to this, and find the friendly attitude too much.
Everyone drinks venti sized coffee’s (that’s 20 oz of coffee for people that don’t frequent starbucks). No wonder everyone is overly friendly.
The portion sizes are huge e.g. One day I ordered parmeasean encrusted chicken with pasta in a tomato sauce. Now I would normally expect some pasta, chicken (one breast usually) and some side salad, but instead you receive two large chicken breast and a bowl full of pasta. This was enough to feed a small 3rd world nation. The chicken breast were huge and only 1/2 – 3/4 of one would be more than enough.
The drinks are strong. Like europe they don’t use measures to measure the amount of spirit per a drink (well not in the bars we went too) they just count, now don’t get me wrong this is not a complaint! I couldn’t ask for better! If your near time square, go to smith’s bar. Very big sports bar, cheap as chips. 2 drinks for 9 dollars!
The new york sky line, claims to be one of the best in the world. To be honest its just a whole load of different size blocks put together (I could do a better job with Duplo)- looks like a concrete jungle and when walking through the streets let’s very little natural light in.
A ride on the metro is a must (well it was for me). I’m a frequent user of the london underground and I love checking out other cities underground system, to compare! Their stations aren’t as nice as our interior wise, but what they lack in that they make up for with their carriages. They are roomy and air conditioned! Also if your lucky ( or some may say unlucky) a homeless man pops insides sing you a song and asks you for money. You don’t have to pay him, not many do but if he’s good you get to enjoy some live music in your journey. We have an exceptional homeless man do a very crowd pleasing rendition of a sam cooke number. I was very tempted to follow him into each carriage at each stop- but my instinct told me it wouldn’t be wise. Also each journey is $2.25, no matter if your going one stop of 70. As long as you don’t leave the station you only pay once, which I think is an amazing idea- one they should introduce to london (however knowing boris that solo cost would be 5 pounds).
Okay so I’ve complained an awful lot in this , but I did have an amazing time, and I wouldn’t change a day of it! NYC may have its faults but which city is perfect? It was very metropolitan and very welcoming but nothing compared to our city of dreams, as they say…you can take the girl out of london but you can never take london out of the girl!
PS. Hope you like the photos, I was extremely snappy happy while I was there, and there were 3 of us on holiday, myself, the boyfriend and merkovo (as seen in the photos).
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