Thursday was our last full day in New York, our original plan for this day was to keep it free and do anything we might have missed. Mam was hoping to go to Jersey Gardens to do some more window shopping but given that we didn’t get to go up to the One World Observatory on Tuesday and we had already paid for the tour we decided we’d make the most definitely longer than 5k trek down to the Financial District to do that.
As we were up and out of the hotel by 7:30 or 8am every morning we made it down pretty early & thankfully there was no rain or strong winds on the day so we were able to go up to the observatory. The elevators are pretty cool inside, there is a warning for anyone who is afraid of heights or gets motion sick to either close their eyes or face the elevator doors as you go up the 102 floors in 47 seconds and you see the city build it’s self around you as you go up.
The view’s from here were much the same as the Empire State Building but still worth the visit! Mam had made a promise to conquer her fear of heights by stepping out on to the glass floor of the observatory however there isn’t any – that’s in the Sears Tower in Chicago! But there was a little screen that mirrored the ground below us so we’re all really proud that Mam stepped on that!
There’s a couple of observation decks in the observatory and you can buy a tablet to use as a guide to point out the buildings you can see and gives you some facts about them. We didn’t bother with that as we got so much information from our bus and boat tours we decided we’d just enjoy the view!
Next we walked over to the Irish Hunger Memorial – something my cousin mentioned to us before we went over but neither of us had heard about it before. Reading up on it, it’s a memorial for the Great Irish Famine back in the 1800’s. There are stones from each county in Ireland in the memorial and there is a reconstructed Irish cottage incorporated into the memorial. It was nice to see a bit of Irish history in New York as so many Irish fled to the states during this time. The only downside to this is you wouldn’t really know what it is unless you went looking for it. There isn’t much information on the site about what it is or represents. It’s kind of just left to speak for itself and maybe that was the intention but I felt a little bit lost trying to understand it when we were there!
After the memorial we decided to be idiots and WALK the entire way more than 5K back to our hotel! Luckily it wasn’t raining but man are my feet broken now (especially since we did a 10K walk on Sunday when we came back too!!). When we eventually made it back to our hotel we freshened up and went to John’s Pizzeria on 44th street for a whole load of garlic bread, chicken wings and pizza cause how could we not have pizza in New York?
After dinner it was showtime, literally.. We had booked tickets to see Wicked on Broadway before we went over. I had a half an idea of the story line but the show was absolutely amazing! I’m still listening to the songs!! One thing I loved was a little novelty to trick people into buying a drink at the show. When you bought a drink it was served in a Wicked travel cup so when you got your drink you automatically got a keepsake from the show rather than having to buy a t-shirt and if you didn’t add alcohol to the slushie it only cost $7 which of course is all I spent cause I’m a cheapskate sometimes!! But it was well worth the $7 for the travel cup!!
And that’s it our New York trip certainly went out with a bang! Friday all we did really was have a dash around the shops to pick up some presents and sweets to bring back & checked out of the hotel and went to the airport 5 hours before our flight for fear we’d be late!!
New York has quickly become my favourite place, I just loved everything about it! I was afraid that I’d hate the busyness about it and all the hustle and bustle but surprisingly I think that was my favourite part! The place was buzzing all the time and it was just incredible. I was 100% not ready to come home when we did, I’d have stayed there so much longer if I could! I guess I’m just gonna have to go back again!!
Click here for New York Day 1!
Click here for New York Day 2!
Niamh's World 