A City in Pictures: New York City

A picture tells a thousand words right? I'm going to be taking a trip down memory lane, easily done by going through photo archives, to some of my past travels. I will tell the story with some of my favourite photos as a guide. I've done quite a few "Trip in Pictures" now but the next set of posts will be a City in Pictures... I hope you enjoy!

I visited New York in March, 2 years ago and I'm actually writing this post now because I've been reminded of that fact on memories. Since March tends to mark the start of Spring, I was hoping for this to be reflected in the weather. However, New York had other plans and delivered a snow storm. I've never been so cold as I was trying to spend a full day sightseeing in -5 degrees. In fact, the last time I had visited New York, there was super storm Sandy so I've never really had the best luck! Nevertheless, I had a great time revisiting this city (and trying to do things I hadn't been able to last time).

Day 1 was super sunny (and freezing) and I headed down to the southern end of Manhattan which is an area I'd never been to the first time around. I don't quite know how but in one day I managed to tick off the World Trade Center area, the Statue of Liberty cruise, Wall Street and Brooklyn Bridge. I was absolutely knackered by the end of the day and stumbled back to my hostel!

On day 2 it was snowing, and it was pretty heavy in the morning. I tried to explore Chinatown area but ended up hibernating in a McDonald's for 2 hours, very successful! When it was time to face the weather again, I went to Washington Square Park for a people-watch. The snow was already melting but very pretty on the trees.

I spent much of my time on my first visit in the Midtown area (Times Square, Empire State Building etc.) and I was drawn back like a moth to a flame - I actually stayed on 34th street a couple of blocks from the Empire State Building.

My main point of unfinished business was the High Line as it was closed due to Storm Sandy. Conditions were absolutely Baltic, especially being raised and open to the wind! Although the cold does make some pretty pictures.

It was actually on the way back that I was so cold and had to pretend to browse a H&M for a while to get feeling back in my fingers.

The other place I hadn't been able to visit first time around was Central Park (because of risk of falling trees... fun). If you compare the first picture below with the same version covered in snow from Instagram, you'll see what difference a couple of days can make!

I've never really been a museum person, which is why I spent all of my time freezing my butt off outside, but the museums on the East side of Central Park definitely are striking!

I really enjoy New York City and I wouldn't pin it as the BEST city in the entire world, which I think is an entirely impossible measure to give anyway, but it is a really cool place to hang out. I was solo both times which worked well for me and helped me to not spend my life savings on eating out and instead living off Shake Shack burgers and street-side hot dogs (my fave!). I would recommend to anyone, and I think that it's definitely somewhere that everyone should visit at least once in their life.

If for some reason you need more pictures, check out my Insta'd pics from the trip below!