A New York Weekend

Island or city lover?

As you may have noticed now that I am definitely an island lover, and thought nothing could beat turquoise water, ocean breeze, palm trees, fresh fruits and cold drinks, until I spent a weekend in the most busiest, inspiring yet exhausting city in the world, New York City.

It’s a city of dichotomies, humbling yet inspiring, challenging but unfrogettable. It’s the city that knows no differentiating any one type of person as a “New Yorker,” it’s obvious that there really are no two people in this city who are the same. People flock to NYC from all over the world and with good reason. I would say that it’s one of the hardest cities to live in but if you survive you’ll never be able to live anywhere else.

Its a full on, all day and all night busy city and it takes you so deep to wanting to explore every corner, building, restaurant, and park. You will get tired but you would not want to stop and that is how my husband and I felt.

New Jersey stop

My husband and I are based in Ontario, Canada, so we took this chance to drive up to NYC since it was only 8 hours away. We both love road trips so we didn’t mind the drive there even though the weather was too shabby and rainy all the way. Our first breathtaking stop was the Mountain Lakes, New Jersey; it is only an hour and a half away from Manhattan, NY. We took this picture on the way up facing the mountain, overlooking the beautiful fall colours of the trees.

We ended up spending a little over an hour in our Subaru, taking in the fresh air and resting it up. We couldn’t depart from the quitness of this place, the whistles of birdies, cold breeze from the mountain, and calmness of the souls.

Brooklyn Bridge

As soon as we settled in our Airbnb which was right on the border of New Jersey Station and Manhattan, NY, we went exploring the city. Our first stop was the very popular tourist attraction; Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge can be packed with lots of tourists especially midday through sunset. Besides tourists, add locals who walk to and from work over the bridge where it can be claustrophobic.

It will take approximately 60 minutes to walk through the bridge if you’re walking in a relaxed pace, allowing your self to enjoy the stunning views of the city right across, and the river running underneath. You don’t need to feel in a rush, take time for photos, and plan to enjoy the moment. However, It took a bit of time to take a good picture without having anyone photobomb it but at the end it all worked out pretty well I’d say.

In spite of the fact that our weekend to NYC was planned very last minute, we were able to do some research for tours and city passes and found some really good deals. We paid about $85 CAD for each. I really reccomend purchasing your city passes or tickets for all the attractions before hand.

We booked our New York CityPASS tickets a week ahead of our trip and this what it includes; one-time admission to the following attractions:

The Empire State Building
American Museum of Natural History
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Top of the Rock Observation Deck – OR – Guggenheim Museum
Ferry Access to Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island – OR – Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises
9/11 Memorial & Museum – OR – Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum