NEW YORK CITY (an overdue story)

Mirjam, myself and Hilary in Central Park

On Friday the 21st of September, my friend Hilary and I went to Union Station to get the bus to the Big Apple. It was all a big rush because my class didn't finish until 3 that day and I had to pack beforehand, run back to the other side of the university and run to meet Hilary so we could get to the station. She bought some salads at our favourite place, Sweet Green for the ride which was delicious!

On the way to Union there was a problem with the train in front of us which meant that we had to get off and catch a cab. This should have been an omen for us but we thought that that could be our bad luck for the day and were hoping nothing else went wrong... this was a serious error on our behalves, I'm pretty sure we jinxed ourselves or maybe it was just that the traffic in Maryland is 50million times worse than anything I've ever seen in Australia.

It took us 8 hours (YES 8 HOURS) on the bus to get to NYC. It should only have taken 4. Now I know you're my family and friends and that you put up with my faults (because you have to) but Edwina + a bus for 8 hours + a man behind her sneezing, coughing and saying "ohhhh mannn he's going the wrong way" = the worst mood of all time. I was cranky. Poor Hilary and I were trying to snooze on the bus but it was all so cramped and uncomfortable. The bus finally got out of the Maryland traffic and we had to stop on the New Jersey turn pike because the bus driver had driven his allocation of hours and we had to switch. After a 30 minute pit stop (where I was getting increasingly annoyed) we got back on the bus for another 2 hour ride to NYC!

By the time we got into town at almost 2am, I was ready to just go to bed. We got to our room where Mirjam and Saori had already arrived (Saori was on a bus that left DC after us and she still got there before us) and quickly got changed so we could go and have a drink in the Meatpacking district/Chelsea. I was surprised because NY was supposed to be a 24hr place, the place we had a drink was so quiet and closed straight after we left. We went back to the hotel for a well deserved snooze.

On Saturday morning I was buzzing - on Saturday night I was going to see Bon Iver at Radio City Music Hall...

The inside of this place was immense - it was so huge and I hate to say it but maybe it was better than seeing them at the Sydney Opera House in March! 

On the Saturday, Hilary and I split up from Saori and Mirjam and went exploring around Chelsea (we had breakfast at Chelsea Markets), 5th avenue (Tiffanys), Times Square (The M&M store, Hershey's mega store), The Rockefeller Centre and caught the subway back down to the lower east side and had the most delicious Arepas from here. I had the chicken and avocado ones with their special spicy sauce which was delicious! My mouth is watering whilst writing this, I wonder if they do delivery to DC?  

After walking around the Lower East Side we had a look at an art fair which to be honest wasn't that inspiring... and Hilary and I got $4 sangrias at a bar that was perfect for people watching. After that we caught the subway back to 14th and 8th Street to our hotel, got changed and treated ourselves to the most delicious Italian food on our street at a place called Crispo which was relatively expensive but definitely worth it.

After dinner Mirjam and I went to see Bon Iver at Radio City which was wonderful, I had such a lovely evening! When it was over we went to meet Hilary and Saori in Times Square - they were meeting some of the other French exchange students from Georgetown but I didn't feel like it so I went back to the hotel.

Skyline Park in Chelsea

On Sunday morning we caught the Subway to Brooklyn which was full of Hipsters. We had breakfast in a delicious little cafe that served baked eggs in little bowls full of vegetables and cheese. I also had the world's worst coffee there so I guess you have to take the good with the bad.

We had a look around some of the little boutique shops and wandered around for a while before catching the Subway back to Central Park. We sat up on a hill and were accosted by a crazy lady who told us that she was trying to write a novel (she wasn't) and we were talking too loudly (we weren't talking much at all). I also ate some delicious fairy floss (cue Dad's disappointed face).

We were getting pretty hungry by this point so we went back to Chelsea markets to grab something for lunch and ate in the Skyline Park. It was beautiful but pretty chilly up there...

The park was actually supposed to be a monorail link that never eventuated. It was nice to see how much work had gone into making it fit in with the rest of the city.

After this we had to go back to the hotel and pick up our bags to bid farewell to NYC. I must admit that NY wasn't quite what I had in mind and certainly a lot of exciting things were more underwhelming but I look forward to spending some more time there at the end of my exchange... providing it doesn't take 8 hours to get there by bus!