It feels like day two

 Today was a better day. I woke up early to do a workout because I knew if I was in pain after the dentist I wouldn’t be able to do it and feel frustrated. I did the first day of the Chloe Ting 2 week shred. I had to do some modifications with them but I’m still proud that I finished them all and didn’t quit ahead. I even did 10 minutes of mild cardio after it to make the 60 minutes. I feel like I had a bad eating day because I had a ceasar wrap and smoothie after the dentist which the chicken ceasar isn’t the healthiest. Then an hour later I went to tullys for lunch with kea because I want to spend time him and tullys is one of our favourite things to do, I still ate 2 quarters of a club sandwich even though I was still full, this kept me full for the entire day, even uncomfortably so. When I got home I got in to writing out lists that I had wanted to make, one for my Chloe Ting workout, one for the books I want to read until December, one for my savings and budget and one for a life audit (another one). I also cleaned my room with Kea and just need to do my clothes. I found a great app called MammaMiya to brain dump on and I find it helping a lot. I hope tomorrow’s a good day. I’m really thinking of getting a new job. 

The Life Audit: Month One. One foot forward.

 I find it very hard to write positive things about myself. The first part of month one (Self Reflection) is to fill out a life chart shading in the levels of satisfaction or happiness in certain sections of life (finance, family, fun etc). That part was easy. Then came the pages where I’m asked to fill out positive qualities about myself, “what do you bring to the world”. I’m racking my brain to think of anything. It’s not that I think I’m an absolutely horrible person or anything, but I don’t feel like there’s anything that stands out positively about my personality. I’ve always felt very middle of the road. Blah. Forgettable. 

Next is “what are the beautiful things about you”. This one was a little easier but still very short, it says to fill more out in my journal if I have more to write. I barely have a paragraph let alone a full page or enough to spill in to a journal. 

I know this process is supposed to be hard, it’s supposed to break it all down to have a really good look at myself. I just feel like my successes in life aren’t much. Getting a full time job: who hasn’t done that? Saving my pets as strays: Millions of people do it every day, and it’s not like I saved them from burning buildings or puppy farms. Becoming supervisor: Even though I feel that I’m not that bad at my role, worse people got it too, so how hard could it have been?

This is as far as I’ve gotten so far. Will I even succeed. 

Laura x

Starting again....?

 It’s been....a while to say the least. As I’m sure it has been for most people, this year and a half has been up there with one of the most challenging times I’ve experienced. There has been so much that’s being going on mentally with what feels like absolutely every aspect of my life and honestly I feel so swamped. Over the years I’ve felt depressed, I’ve had my down days, I’ve had days where I’ve just cried in bed, but in these last few months depression really has just completely set in again. Everything looks really bleak and it’s hard to see how I’ll get out of it. I know once COVID is over and things are back to as normal as we can, things will feel better, but it’s hard to see the end of COVID at the moment. A lot of things probably wouldn’t even feel like they’re as overwhelming if I had my usual outlets (travelling) and if there was a bit of a future to look forward to. At the moment it kind of feels like everything is just going all a little wrong.

I’ve decided (again, for possibly the third time) to get my life together. I’m sick of hating myself, my job, my surroundings. I don’t even know where I’m beginning. I started a new self help book (one of many on my shelf) that is supposed to break down each part of your life month by month, slowly, over a year. One thing the book suggests is journaling and as much as I love writing I’m always afraid that it is too easily read and that it’s never truly personal and I can never be candid enough for a fear that someone will come across it. A blog however is completely secret, because who will ever find it unless shown? This seems more of a stream of consciousness, but I think I might start blogging along with this new Audit book whether it’s monthly or weekly maybe just as often and as long as I feel. 

I think I’ll start by explaining why I feel like I need guidance in this journey that probably seems so simple. I turned 30 this year, and I promised myself I would start having a life I love and stop hating myself. I’m sick of being unhappy, I hate to think of myself spending the next 30 years feeling the same way, what a waste of a short life! It’s been 3 months and I don’t feel like I’m any closer to any of that. Then again it has only been 3 months. And when I think about it, I’m wanting the right things but don’t know how to go about it, and that’s why I got the book. I’m at a place where I’m unsatisfied with my job, unsatisfied with my weight, my mental health, my outlook, my abilities and how I deal with relationships. Already, blogging things seems helpful because I can express exactly how I feel without burdening or boring the people in my life. As I write I can see not only a valid thought but I also seem to be able to sit back now and think “oh yeah…it’s not really like that” where as in my mind, thoughts get all jumbled in to one mess that feels like voices talking over each other, I can’t seem to see the wood for the trees. I get caught up in too much, I have too many thoughts and can’t focus on just one at a time making it difficult to sort through them and think rationally. A sense of dread and existential crisis creeps over me and I have to distract myself or I’ll spiral into a deep depression that no matter what I can’t pull myself out of until it’s daylight again.

i don’t know what to expect from this book. I have an awful habit of forgetting about things and although right now I’m in a “healthy body and mind” outlook, it’s happened before snd gone as quick as it’s come. I might have to set reminders for myself each month.

Hopefully tracking all of this will only help my journey to finally finding peace in my life. I can’t keep living thins way as they are. 

Laura x

Our Trip to New York City!

I had wanted to go to New York for so long, I had dreamed about this city and I felt like I was already in love with somewhere I had never been, I felt an incredible pull to this place. So much so, I cried nearly the whole last day of our trip. Since this was a long anticipated trip, and probably somewhere I might not get straight back to I wanted to make sure that we saw and did everything that we possibly could. I'm not a shopping type so that's not what that trip was, when I go somewhere I like to see everything! This probably seems like a lot for a week! And it was, but oh wow was it so worth the sore legs feet and back because looking back now I don't remember any of that, only the amazing time I had there.

We arrived in Manhattan on Sunday afternoon around 4pm, when we walked out of Penn Station and onto the street my first thought was how amazing and big and different it was!Our very first view was unbelievable, when we got out at 32nd street we could see the Empire State building a few blocks over to the right! New York City, we have arrived! We checked into our incredible hotel on 42nd Street with a room overlooking the bright lights of Times Square, we can see the New Years ball and the NYPD sttion from our huge windowsill. The first thing we did was call home to check in and headed straight out to see our new home for the week. We set off for Shake Shack which I had heard only good things about, I had been anticipating this New York delicacy for months now! It was so worth everything I expected, the burgers are a little small and expensive for their size, but they are so unbelievably delicious I crave it at least twice a week now that I'm home. After our meal we headed back toward Times Square for a quick look around with the idea of an early night. Times Square was so much different than I thought it would be, it was both bigger, and smaller than I thought it would be if that can make any kind of sense haha. 98% of any review or guide I read told me not to stay too long because it's too busy and not worth, but I absolutely loved the bright lights and little things we saw on the way. We walked right to the end of of the Square and took it all in, our first real New York experience, passing street performances and little markets that we there for that weekend along the way. We made our way back to our hotel and we stopped to watch a performance where people tried to encourage others to dance, a huge crowd gathered and everyone took different turns to go into the middle and give it everything they had! No one was shy from old to young, it was the best experience I had ever had in a city, the atmosphere was full of pure happiness and god it was just infectious. Remember how I said we were going to have an early night? Well it was closer to 1 am when we flopped down in our bed that night but it was worth it, I went to sleep that night with the biggest smile on my face.

I woke up not long after at 4 am on Monday thanks to the "wonderful" experience of jetlag. I couldn't fall back asleep so I watched some tv for a while, talked to my friends back home which was great because we were five hours behind meaning everyone was up anyway! When the sun started to rise I sat up in our massive windowsill, legs crossed, and started my makeup for the day staring down at Times Square which was really different than a few hours before, quiet and empty of crowds, I loved watching it fill up and come to life. We had an early start for our first day because we had to make it all the way downtown to the financial district to make out ferry to the Statue of Liberty at nine. We left our hotel and walked over two blocks to take our first subway from Times Square station to the financial district, I was nervous in case it would be busy considering everyone would be heading to work but we were pretty lucky and it wasn't anything we couldn't handle. We stopped by Eatily when we got out of the subway and picked up some fresh fruit for breakfast, even though I had heard a lot about it it's actually somewhere we just stumbled upon. Eatily is somewhere I'd love to go back and explore a bit better next time. We set off to find battery park where we were due to take our ferry and took in the extreme heights of the buildings on the way, they were so high they were almost too hard to look at them because you're neck wont go back far enough! I was literally walking with my head straight to the sky at some stages just to take them all in. We got to battery park and were in luck to find there were no queues! I had heard so many things about the atrocious queues for Statue Cruises and heard the tip to go at the earliest ferry and it seemed to have payed off, it probably helped a lot that we had our tickets purchased and printed before we came, we were literally the only ones in the security queue and even got on the ferry before our time because it was so quiet! It had started to drizzle and the fog had started to come down on the skyscrapers as we set off. We passed Lady Liberty and she looked bigger than I thought from that distance, I didn't think I was going to be that impressed with her to be honest and I wasn't overly excited about going to her but our main reason was to see Ellis Island and Statue Ferrys are the only ones with access to them both, but I have to admit I was really in awe when we saw her. We got to the island and walked down to the pier where we got such an amazing view of the Manhattan skyline with Brooklyn bridge, then we walked around the statue and again I was more impressed than I expected to be. It was still raining at this point when we headed to the ferry to go to Ellis Island, we got a cinnamon roll and a pretzel on the way just to keep us going. We got to Ellis Island and started to make our way around and it was nearly empty at this time in the morning which was great for us because we got to take it all in without being rushed, we took three and a half hours to go through it but by the end school tours had started to arrive and it got very busy and loud really quick so we left before we managed to walk through the top floor in full which was a pity but we still got to spend a lot of time there! It's definitely worth the trip if you have the time. When we got back to battery park we took a right and walked over to Fraunces Tavern where George Washington used as a headquarters to negotiate peace offers with the British, I'm not a history buff by any means but little things like this are so interesting to me especially if it's something that doesn't take much time to walk past on the way, then why not! We ended up walking around for a while trying to find certain buildings and decided to come back on Friday instead of wasting more time. We passed over to see the Bull but by this time in the day it was mobbed with people and tours, we didn't even know where it was for a while just because the crowds were keeping it from view so we thought no way is it worth getting crushed for and we decided to leave it until Friday also. We then went to Wendy's for some lunch and went back out in the rain and went to see Trump Tower and federal hall.

We went to go see the 9/11 memorial which looked very poignant in the rain and fog but I was taken aback and to be honest, a bit sick to see how many people were taking smiling family photos right where so many people had perished, it just didn't seem right. I have no problem with people taking photos but selfies and being in the photos? It just didn't sit right. The 9/11 museum was the one thing we didn't book ahead of time because I wasn't sure what time we'd get there and the queue for the ticket was pretty quick but the queue to even get in was super long even in the rain, but I can say it was so worth it! We didn't take a tour and decided to walk it ourselves but every now and then tagged on to the end of a tour for sneaky extra information. It was so heartbreaking and harrowing to be there especially in the second part of the exhibition where they show the moments people found out and you could listen or read the last phone calls to loved ones from the planes. I stuck to reading because I couldn't handle it. They have probably everything they could possibly get from the time from the fire trucks used, airplane windows from the actual plane to pieces of paper from people that had died in the tower that had floated down to the ground from their office in the explosion. It took us around three hours to get through it all and even then, by the end we kind of flew through it so we easily could have spent more time there looking at everything. We had tickets for a Yankees game that evening but after spending all day in the rain we were thinking twice about it, we made it back to the hotel to freshen up. We decided to go ahead and made our way to Grand Central subway station and followed some other Yankees fans all the way to the gates and headed inside. I know virtually nothing about baseball except it's basically rounders but it was surprisingly enjoyable and we had pretty great seats for cheap! We actually enjoyed it so much we decided to go again on Friday. Before we went back to our bed we walked a block or two over and got some $1 pizza, oh my god please get some $1 pizza! It's so bad that it's good. Trust me. It was around 3 am back in Ireland by the time we got home to the hotel so I was pretty exhausted and slept straight away.

I woke up again pretty early on Tuesday which would be a running theme throughout the week. We headed over to ihop to get some buttermilk pancakes with a side of eggs and bacon while Kealan got chicken and waffles. I was so excited about this breakfast and it didn't disappoint! After our fuel we took a subway back to Madison Square Garden where we had a guided tour booked. There was a graduation on that day so it was really busy but we got in pretty quick. The tour was really good and well worth it but I probably wont do it again as I think once is probably enough but I'm dying to see a game of some sorts there next time! I tried to find the hopes and dreams wall when we got out but it had disappeared unfortunately, maybe next time! We then headed over towards the flatiron building and walked through the beautiful Madison Square park. We had decided last minute to go to another Yankees game so we went to try find TicketMonster where we had purchase out first ones from, online was fine but if you want to get tickets while in New York I'd advise somewhere else because it was so hard to find the office and they didn't seem to know how to give us tickets when we were there even though they definitely advertise that you can buy them in person from them. It took a bit of time that I'd have rather spent walking around. We walked over to the Empire State Building and went into the amazing art deco lobby which was just unreal and very busy. We went across the street and had a papya dog which is supposed to be one New Yorks best hot dogs, and while it was good, the corn dog was much better! I tried to go into the Morgan Library (if you're a fan on books this library is something you should consider) but I wasn't aware we had to pay to get in to the room I wanted to see or even where it was and since we were already a little bit "behind schedule" we decided to leave it, maybe next time! Then we landed at Grand Central Terminal and it's everything you expect to see, I could have spent so long staring around. There was even people getting their wedding photos taken! How romantic! We walked over to the Chrysler building to have a look because you can't actually enter it because it's still a functioning office building. We headed back to the hotel to take a little rest and after a while headed back to the city and went to Radio City music hall and past the Rockefeller center to see the seated ballerina statue, after that we went to find St. Patricks cathedral and ventured inside. We love seeing cathedrals and bascillicas when we go away even though personally I'm not a very religious person I love that awe when I walk into a beautiful structure like that. Then we walked down the street and found the Lotte Palace hotel which was, of course, Serenas home in Gossip Girl. When we had finished there we caught a subway to blue ribbon fried chicken in the East Village (please have their mac and cheese for me because I could nearly cry at the thought of how good it was) and then like the fatty I am I headed straight over to petees pies to get a slice of real New York cheesecake, which, by far, was the best cheesecake I've ever had in my life and when I go back I'm going to order a whole one for the hotel room. On our trip to the East Village we saw so much incredible graffiti and even (I think, it was quite far up on a building) a Banksy piece. We strolled over to little Italy where everyones accents are so strong and it's filled to the brim with quaint little Italian restaurants, I was shamefully too full to have any nice treats or pasta (I promised myself next time we came through I'd get something) and we stopped by to have a look at China town which was next on our list and was just around the corner and it was so interesting to see how authentic both little Italy and China town were, it's like we stepped from one country to another! In China town the one thing I was really looking forward to was Doyer street where the most amount of murders in America has happened, it has a really interesting history if you want to look it up.

We headed back up the streets back through little Italy and went to the Rockefeller center where we had a half seven time slot. We made our way up to the top and made it for the perfect time (which I had cleverly planned) to see the city go from the bright daylight, through sunset and then watch the buildings light up with life. The Rockefeller is an incredible building to go to because you get a perfect view of central park and then on the other side you get to see the empire state building (and the one world trade center in the background) plus you can stay as long as you'd like which was perfect to see the city in every aspect of of the day like we did. Before we headed back to the hotel we stopped to get more pizza (seriously, it's so good) and sit in our big comfy bed and watch Family Guy before settling in to bed.

Wednesday morning I woke up and saw a crack of light through the side of our blinds and thought, yes! Finally a decent sleep! I bounced over to check the sky and...no such luck! I was actually just the bright lights of Times Square. It was still only 5 am. Shit. After a few hours and my new routine of sitting in the window doing my make up we walked down into Times Square and up the red steps to take some photos while it was empty and strolled over to Central Park to begin our adventures. I have to say today was the day I was most excited for. When we got into the park we walked over to the empire rock for a few photos and made our way to gapstow bridge, stopping on a big rock to take it all in. My favourite thing about Central Park is the fact it's so peaceful and easy going and green and then just over the trees you can see all the grey skyscrapers, it was the perfect juxtaposition.

The squirrels were super friendly too and Kealan even managed to make friends with one. While we were walking over to the Balto statue we met the cutest, fattest bounciest bulldog puppy called Violet and we made our way down the mall towards Bethesda fountain, sat and watched the row boats and listened to a busker singing with his guitar. Then we went to the Alice in Wonderland statue which we managed to see empty for a brief moment before a gaggle of school kids consumed it. and then we walked quickly across the road to the Natural History Museum so I could have a peek at the dinosaurs in the lobby, it's so strange to think these big beasts were walking around at one stage. I wish we had more time to actually go inside and have a look, another "next time" adventure. We came back over to Central Park to see Strawberry fields and listen to someone sing John Lennon songs, which I was really hoping would happen and we were in luck!

Walking through the meadows we decided to take a subway to Greenwhich village to see the exterior of the F.R.I.E.N.D.S apartment building (super exciting for me!!) and then over to see Carries house from Sex and the City, even though I don't watch it I just wanted to see those amazing brownstone buildings. I've officially fallen in love with them and now the dream is to live in one, even if they do cost a few million. Greenwhich is one of my favourite areas and I loved spending time just walking around the streets looking at the perfect houses. We walked down to the Chelsea markets where I got a long sought after lobster roll from C&P Galley. We headed back to the hotel after that long day of gallivanting for a little rest before our broadway show later! We went to see the Lion King which I had dreamed of seeing for the longest time and it was everything I had hoped it would be, it was the best thing I had ever seen in my life!

Thursday we had decided to have a rest day and do some shopping, we took a look at a few outlet malls and decided on Jersey Gardens, we started our day and took the bus to New Jersey to Jersey Garden mall looking for some great discounts!! We spent the day here and although I had great intentions of spending lots of money I actually had the worst bout of jetlag this day. Every other day it was just waking up early but today I had the worst case of vertigo and felt so sick to my stomach that I couldn't enjoy looking around at clothes so I picked up just a few things and some stuff from Bath and Body works, not to mention I was feeling extra bloated from our excessive snacking, next time I'll probably shop at the start of the trip to avoid any of this. We headed back to Times Square for a good look around and purchased some tickets to a comedy show that evening! We loved getting to see some really authentic New York experiences. Times Square seemed a lot quieter than we had expected, I thought we would be swarmed with crowds but we soon found out how busy it could get! We decided to go find some dinner at Shake Shack on W 44th and 8th but the line was literally out the door and around the corner!! Luckily for us, there's about a million Shake Shacks in New York so we went on google maps and walked a quick ten minutes to the one one on W36th and Broadway (Am I saying that right? I have no idea!) which was empty. After we filled up we went back to the hotel for a little rest before the comedy show and watched some F.R.I.E.N.D.S on tv (the perfect show while in Manhattan) and then we headed out to see our first comedy show! I have to say it was quite good with some being better than others, and because we didn't really know our way around New Yorks comedy scene and we had no intention of going to one we ended up at one that probably wasn't the greatest so I'd say to you if you want to see one, definitely do some research first.

Friday morning we wanted to head down to the financial district again to catch the sights we missed on Monday. We finally got to see the bull, the little girl and the Cunard buildings famous doors that we couldn't see the first time we visited, there were very little people around at this time and it was so much easier to get photos of everything, thankfully. We went back around to city hall as well while we were down here because Friday was a much more beautiful day than Monday and there was no rain to inhibit the amazing buildings. And then we went to something I was looking forward to all week! Breakfast in Denny's. I decided to have buttermilk pancakes with strawberry's and cream and a side of bacon and eggs! After our massive breakfast we were well fueled and turned the corner and headed over the Brooklyn Bridge!

What a beauty of a sight but slightly busy around eleven am when we went, so maybe go earlier again if you want a nice quiet stroll, and even busier again when we walked back. Along the way we had an offer from a photographer to take our photo on the bridge with the skyline in the background, he showed us and if we loved it (which I did) he printed it for us then and there for $10! It's only a half hour walk so I'd say walk it over and back if you can, it's really not that long unless you're short on time. Our plan was to visit Brooklyn all day today and we started by walking through DUMBO, which stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, to see that iconic view of the bridge. We spent some time at the river looking at the Manhattan skyline and counting out blessings that we were even sat there. It was getting quite warm and we took a walk over to the beautiful Janes carousel and down to the pier before we wanted to head into Brooklyn but by this time it was so hot and we were dressed for rain so we made the decision to go home to the hotel, shower, change and head into Manhattan (trust me we were gutted).

After we had cooled down we headed down to lower Manhattan to do some more shopping. We had another Yankees game this night so we went to Times Square and bought some Yankees gear to fit in. Then we went for a stroll through Little Italy again and as we came back through I had to stop at Ferrara Bakery which has been open since 1892, to pick up their famous cannolis and New York cheesecake (well worth over stuffing myself). The Yankees game tonight was, dishearteningly, not as good as Monday nights. This was mainly because it was much busier and the game itself was slightly more boring. We still enjoyed it non the less but I think I'm a bit baseballed out!

On our last day (boo) we didn't have anything planned so we took a walk down to the Rockefeller center to have a look outside properly, we walked up to the upper west side to visit Dylans Candy Bar. The upper west side is so beautiful and you can definitely tell that there is so much money over there. I really enjoyed this area and I'd definitely go back for a longer visit next time. We eventually made our way over to 5th avenue to walk down and see all the amazing shop windows that adorn the high end shops like Prada, Tiffanys, Gucci and more. When we got to the end of the 5th avenue, which is again somewhere I'd like to spend more time, we wanted to have a look at the Public Library and those famous lions, we also walked through the absolutely beautiful Bryant Park (where they hold outdoor cinemas in the summer) on our way back to our hotel where we sadly collected our bags and made our last subway to the train station where I silently cried the whole journey to the airport.
If I loved New York before I  even got there you can imagine just how hard it pulled on my heart to leave it! I honestly think about it everyday and I will until I can go back.

Laura xx

A Guide to Booking New York City

I went to Manhattan in May this year with my boyfriend, and it was about a year in the making! I spent hours scouring the internet for the best tips and blogs to help me have the smoothest trip possible. Travel tends to stress me out and the more planning I do, the more I know something wont go wrong, the better I feel. These are just a few tips that I learned through extensive research and used in my planning, so I put them all together and hopefully they'll help you too!

Beware: This is extensive! I've tried to compile a list of information that I found super helpful or that I struggled to find when I was looking for help.

Booking

I know it's fantastic to book through a local travel agency and pay back to the humans behind the desk but if you're like me and you can't afford a "full priced" holiday (because you don't to save forever you want to go right now please) sometimes a place like Expedia is best. I also know people have fears (like myself) about booking such a big holiday online. What if something goes wrong? Who do I contact? What can I do? I've booked a few trips previously on Expedia and each one went off without a hitch and with no fuss! With Expedia you see your full price for both flights and hotel when you search so you can easily see what your end budget is before tax. After months of research (we had to wait for my boyfriend to officially book holidays from work) I could see that for 6 nights and 7 days the average price for hotel for a decent hotel, close to the city and flights at the time we were going was around €1,100 to €1,300. We managed to book a 5 star hotel, in Times Square plus flights for close to €1,300, and when I looked the hotel up online, the hotel itself, no flights, for 6 nights was €1,300! We said why not, we may as well go big especially because it was within our budget and we had been looking at a 3 star for €100 less. You can definitely get any price range that you want and they have everything from hostels to big swanky hotels and all areas.

Luggage

I would recommend to buy lightweight luggage on four wheels. First of all buying lightweight or featherweight luggage can be such a lifesaver on the way home, as well as on the way out because your case isn't taking up 5kg of your weight allowance! You can afford to take more back with you without worrying about paying the extra fees at the airport. I bought a suitcase with four wheels before we went which was so handy for the airport to just glide it along beside me, and also once we got onto the streets walking from the station to our hotel it was so much easier to walk it right beside me or in front of me and not worry about getting in someones way, someone tampering with it or having it tug at my arm as I drag it along.

Airport

We flew in and out of Newark airport in New Jersey. This just happened to be the best flights at the time but I personally had great experience in this airport even though I have read some unsavoury reviews. It's a much smaller airport than JFK and LaGuardia and much less busy. As far as I know LaGuardia is usually used for domestic flights and JFK is the main airport but it's just as far, if not farther, than Newark. Newark isn't the best for shops or restaurants, in fact it's very quiet and bare so keep that in mind when you're thinking of flying home if that's something that concerns you.

Transport to and from the airports

I'm going to just talk about Newark airport mainly because we only had experiences here and I also found tons of information on JFK and LaGuardia but not as much on Newark. There's quite a few options to get to and from Newark to Manhattan. Taxi, train, car service and shuttle. Taxis can be expensive, especially if you have to consider things like tolls, time, traffic and even the size of your bag (they can charge extra for certain bag sizes)! personally I'd stay away from a taxi as it's just not worth it. If there's a few of you, you could hire a rented car which are usually hired by the hour and can be payed in advance and will stop you waiting in lines for taxis. These however can be expensive also especially if there's not a lot of you sharing and beware of traffic slowing down your journey also. Shared shuttles are also an option but they can be unreliable and also if part of your party is late you'll have to wait for them to arrive, if a flight is delayed, that could be a while! And the other option, and the one we chose, was to take an Airtrain to the NJ Transit and then we took a train (not an Amtrak) to Penn station New York, be aware there is also a Penn Station New Jersey, this is not your stop! The ticket for the train is $12.50 and it includes both the Airtrain and train ticket into Penn station. When we arrived we followed the signs until we got outside and then walked 15 minutes to our hotel. The whole journey took around 40 minutes. For us this was the clear way to get into the city because it was cheap, quick and easy. There was no traffic, no real wait times, no expensive trips.

Hotel

We stayed in The Knickerbocker hotel on 42nd street right across from Times Square, you could even see it from our hotel window (I used to sit and do my make up watching the Square wake up every morning) it was such a beautiful hotel that has been around since 1906 but has been recently  modernised and the staff were extremely friendly and accommodating. We were 14 floors up, our room had double glazed windows with black out blinds so the noise and bright lights never bothered us. I would 100% recommend this hotel if it's in your budget, it's so close to everything and to a lot of subways and bus stations.

Tips

Tipping is something that absolutely terrified me! I had tipped before but I've never been expected to especially a percentage of the bill, it's always just been the extra change. I downloaded a tip calculator to help me do this which I explain a bit below. Do keep an eye out as some places will add on a tip to the end of the bill and very sneakily not tell you so you could end up tipping twice! Also remember tax (on everything except clothes under $110) is not added until a purchase is made, so don't be surprised if the total is more than you had calculated in your head.

Subway

We had decided that we wanted to walk as much of the city as possible to get the most experience out of New York as we could, but when we had to, we took the subway! It was cheap and quick and with the help of the NYC Subway app it was really easy. When you step up to the machine it's all pretty clearly shown on the machine and they have different colour blocks for what section you need and everything is pretty clearly listed on the screens, all you need to do is follow the directions! Some things that are helpful to know are: no matter what your ticket will cost $1, a one way fare costs $2.75 (plus the $1 fee makes it $3.75) but you can top up your card with more than just that amount, for example, you could add $11 to your card and get 4 trips out of that rather than adding a ride every time you go. You can also refill your card at any time, just keep your card. Pay-per-ride tickets are very handy because they can be used by more than one person (up to 4) so one person enters, passes it back and the next person enters. The type of ticket we used was the 7 day unlimited ride ticket for $32 (plus the $1 fee), this was because I had worked out an approximate amount of time I knew we were going to have to take the subway (to get to and from Yankee stadium etc) and it would have cost us more to do it single ride every time. This card cannot be used by more than one person because there's an 18 minute delay on the card between each use, meaning if you swiped and passed it back, you can't use it again for 18 minutes.

Just in case you need more information, here is the site I used to help me and it's extensive! If there's something I haven't covered, you're sure to find it there including how to use your ticket, what's the difference between a diamond shape and circle on the train numbers and what direction downtown and uptown are.

Taxi

We didn't take taxis as we'd rather walk and see the city for exactly how it is, but if it's something you want to do, here's a website that I found very helpful when I was looking at the idea. I would have loved to take an iconic yellow cab but the idea of hailing a cab and paying god knows what for how long of a journey that could have taken ten minutes on foot just wasn't enough of a pull for me personally.

TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor can be extremely helpful when it comes to sights, resteraunts and tips but don't go on just these reviews alone, sometimes people have very different, and sometimes high expectations and the smallest thing can result in a bad review! I've seen people give one star reviews because the bathroom had no bath! If you're in New York, chances are even the best hotels have small rooms and small bathrooms and you're probably going to pay a price for that, it's New York City! Expect expensive for very little, anything else is a bonus. The same goes for experiences at tourist spots, a lot of what I had read we never actually came across. We had also heard the notorious things about how rude New Yorkers are, but we found them to be so nice and friendly and extremely helpful so don't be scared haha.

Go with what YOU like

As I read review after review and guides and blogs I was told a lot of what to do, I was also told a lot of what not to do ("Don't spend too long in Times Square, it's not worth it") well it turns out I quite enjoyed Times Square, especially at night. Don't go exactly by any of these guides especially if they tell you not to do something based on the fact they don't like it. Do what you want to do, if you enjoy it, go for it! Spend your time how you like! 

Prebooking sights

I know this isn't what will suit everyone but in my opinion it's much easier and makes the most sense to book and print out your tickets in advance of your trip so you can cut back on time queuing up to buy or collect them. Is the Top of the Rock something you know you can't leave without seeing? Why spend over an hour queuing up on the day to find out they have no slots left? It's so much easier to book your ticket for a certain day and time and know you're good to go! I know this is tough because what if you pick a day with bad weather etc. This may not suit everyone but for me it was worth the risk. I didn't want to go to New York and miss some of what I had waited years to see because I waited two and a half hours in a queue for something I could have bought online months ago. The things I'd recommend buying in advance would be, Top of the Rock or the Empire State building, a Statue of Liberty cruise and a larger broadway show. If you plan on going to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island go at the earliest possible time as later in the day the queue can get so long and the longer it can take you to get on the boat, it could be two or three hours before you even leave the dock! We went at half 9 in the morning and we just walked on and even got on an earlier ferry because it was so quiet! I've seen videos of the queue wrapping around Battery park, no thank you! Also if you want to go to the crown of the Statue book well in advance as these sell out months ahead. If you don't care too much about Ellis Island I'd recommend the free ferry to Staten Island instead where you still get a great view of Lady Liberty. I talk more about this site in a bit more detail on my other post, I'll post a link when that goes live.

Planning your "Itinerary"

I would really advise having an idea of what you want to see or even places you want to eat and even if you're not about having an itinerary like me, at least have and idea of where your sights are because it cuts down so much on time, the last thing you want when your trying to fit things in is waste time going from one end of the city to the other because you haven't planned anything and didn't realise the Moma is nowhere near Little Italy! It could easily cut down on a good 40 minutes on a subway or an even longer walk.

Apps

There was a few apps I found super helpful while I was in the city. The first one is NYC Subway. You can use it offline which comes in very handy when walking the city without using your data, you simply use the route planner which subway station you want to go from and which station you want to go to, it then gives you a few options and tells you exactly which number and colour train to get how many stops there is, if there's any changes to take and how long it will take you! This is your best friend when using the subway because reading those maps will give you a headache. 

NYC Subway app 

The second app I couldn't have done without (on any trip) is Google Maps. You can download any city map you want to use offline, and then you can tag places, restaurants and shops that you want to visit which I did and colour coded them to make it much easier at a quick glance. For example all the places I wanted to eat were in green so when  e were in a certain area I could look at the map and see where was close to us. You can also use the route planner to give you directions somewhere you want to go without getting too lost in the big city. Dropbox was a great app I used to upload photos at the end of every day so I could delete my camera roll to make room for more the next day! The last thing you need is to take a photo of an incredible moment only to be told you've no more memory (it's truly heartbreaking). It's an online file that you can connect to your laptop and download all the photos straight to your hard drive, and it's free to use. Tip Calculator is something that I didn't need to use much but it definitely came in handy, you put in the amount of your meal, how many people there was and the percentage you want and it does it for you automatically! No embarrassment of leaving to little or leaving way too much.

Comfort 

I'm not one for walking around a city in heels, the main thing I care about is being comfortable and enjoying what I'm seeing, I don't want to have to cut my day short or sit down every ten minutes because my shoes are hurting. I chose to wear trainers and something light and stretchy like leggings with a loose top for ultimate comfort. You can still be stylish without bleeding or chafing!

Insurance

Please please please don't go to another country without insurance! The last thing you want is to have something stolen, someone to get hurt or to be stuck in a different country with no help. We used getcover.ie for our policy and thankfully we never had to use it, but I don't think I could trust not to.

New Years Resolutions!

For years I would make New Years resolutions with over ambition. I would over excitedly think I was going to lose that 3 stone in a year, read 40 books and stop using my laptop to mindlessly surf the Internet and be a positive, enlightened person who judges no one all in 365 days. I’ve learned that they usually end in complete failure! I usually end up feeling very deflated and sometimes, in the opposite direction of where I wanted to be. There was so much pressure I put on myself to do great things that more often than not I pulled back and ate more from stress, got put off reading because I “had” to do it. 

I used to own a little notebook where I wrote down my to do lists, no matter how small the task “clean room, buy post it notes, lose 1lb, finish such a book” and ticking off things on this list made me feel accomplished, so I decided that making smaller, more attainable goals for New Years would be better and easier to achieve, therefore making me feel better at the end of the year. Things like “laugh more, lose 1lb by February (knowing I’ll be eating more and be busier so I’ll have less time on the gym), go to more festivals, unsubscribe for useless emails”. This will make me feel like I’m actively tackling my list of resolutions and I won’t feel so guilty or be angry at myself either. 

So instead of making huge goals that you know are going to be difficult to achieve or just not done at all, work slowly but surely towards your goals. Don’t forget it’s not just the new year that you can set goals for yourself! Instead of saying “I’m going to lose two stone this year” try saying “I’m aiming to lose 6lbs by June” and then work from there depending on work and events etc. You won’t feel so bad then if you don’t lose two stone this year, you can keep reaching through till next year until you get there. 

So to sum it up, the New Year makes people feel like they need to create a whole new self within a short amount of time, and as is human nature we need to have it done now and in the biggest way possible with maximum effect in order to make us feel like we made any kind of difference. But slow and steady wins the race!

XO

A little hiatus (again)

This is a little post just to announce (this sounds very pretentious and I'm very sorry) a hiatus that I feel I need to take from this blog. It's not that I don't have an interest in this anymore, because I do. I just feel like I'm not in a right place mentally right now to write in any kind of cohesive way, I feel like a lot of my recent posts are just not up to scratch and I'm not pleased. I have a few personal issues I need to work out before I come back to putting words together in a sentence that makes any kind of sense (did that even make sense?). This is a new kind of mental issue that I've kind of considered in the past but thought "Nah, I can't be" but lately it's been getting worse and worse. It seems to be a vicious circle as i feel like it's directly caused my weight gain and in turn I'm stressed, and when I'm stressed my body holds on to extra weight, and then I'm getting stressed about the fact I'm stressed and knowing that it's holding weight in my body! It's one of those things that looking in on from the outside it's very easy to see if I just stopped stressing it could be ok, but from an inside perspective it's really not that easy at all, and then if you consider all the other factors then we're really in deep! But that's for another day...maybe! So for now I'll take a little break (because I've never done that a million times before), maybe I'll post every now and then but perhaps not. We'll see! 

XO