New York

When I travel I tend not to sleep much the night before. I get plagued by thoughts over every possible thing that could go wrong; losing passport, missing the flight, losing my luggage etc. This time my nerves were of flying were fighting against the excitement over I am finally going to New York!

New York is one of my bucket list holidays. Me and my best friend have been talking about going since we met 12 years ago. I packed the essentials; clothes, phone charger etc. From past experiences I tend to bring back tons of souvenirs. So, I only filled up a quarter of my case.

I was quite nervous about the plane ride. I haven’t been on one in for over 10 years. I was fine as a child. But as an adult I tend to get travel sick. The flight there was just what I expected. Nauseating. It was a combination of travel sickness, anxiety, and a smidge of claustrophobia. But myself and my friend had made it through the worst part. At this point I have been awake 28 hours but oddly I was still wide awake. I believe it was because I was ridiculously excited I am finally here.

Upon arriving in New York, I was instantly aware I was going to struggle with their accents. At the time I put this down to lack of sleep. My friend said I had my concentrating face on every time an American spoke to me in the airport.

When we got through security and left the airport the excitement hit me. Little things like the yellow traffic lights and taxi cabs made me so happy. It was like stepping into my favourite TV show. The taxi ride to the hotel was terrifying. Again, the lack of sleep may have exaggerated this to me. But as the week went on I realised drivers are crazy. The taxi driver had to reassure me, I think I was gasping every time a car nearly hit us. We finally got to the hotel which is literally a few steps away from Times Square. We both checked in and went to our room. Rather than starting to unpack we just collapsed on our beds and fell asleep. We were exhausted and nauseous. After a short nap we went out onto Times Square. It was beautiful. The lights, the activity, the atmosphere. Obviously filled with tourists, we blended in quite quickly. We took a few pictures and got some food.

Now I am aware that prices in New York are much higher than the United Kingdom. But I didn’t think they would be as high as they were. The money here is fascinating to me. I’m used to notes being colourful and different sizes. The money there wasn’t. I adapted to tipping quite quickly here as well.

We both had a look around the shops and tried to get an idea of where some of the places are. It is true what people say. This city never sleeps. New Yorkers and tourists constantly rush around. I adapted to that quickly as well after several people barged into me and not one said sorry. Taxis do not slow down when you are crossing, and they still drive forward when they are on a red and you have the walk sign. They have the nerve to toot their horn as if you are in the wrong. I do love the size of the cars here they are huge. But I didn’t get used to having a seat belt on my left side instead of the right.

We went back to the hotel a couple of hours later and went to sleep. The staff at Edison Hotel are so welcoming when we got the keys to our room. Before drifting off to sleep it finally hit me. I am in New York. It is one of my long-term dreams and I have finally achieved it.

Tomorrow is when the fun begins!