Until next time New York!

Friday 8^th December

Our last day is finally here – we deliberately left the day unplanned as we wanted to use the time to see anything we missed or revisit any favourite places. Another perk of having an unplanned day is having a lie in! We got up a bit later, spent some time getting packed and ready for our final day and eventually we headed out in to the cold New York air.  

Our first stop was Macy’s which we have walked past a dozen times but never actually went in to. Not going to lie, I was expecting to walk right on to the set of the Miracle on 34^th Street department store, Cole’s, but it wasn’t half as magical. It was a huge store, full of holiday shoppers and tourists which is my actual worst nightmare! I liked that the escalators were old school and made of wood but we were both glad to leave!

After being here for a few days you really get to know how to get around, at least on the main streets so we spent the rest of the morning re-tracing out earlier steps. We considered going back to Ellen’s Stardust Diner for our last lunch but the queue was twice as long as our first visit so we gave in and stopped at the closest burger bar. We lucked out because the burgers and fries were delicious and we were only a short walk from Central Park!

After a last walk round, we stumbled across an impromptu acapella performance at the Bethesda Arcade! The singers were great and seeing the different street performers throughout the city has definitely been a highlight of our trip. 

Finally, we made our way back towards the hotel, stopping at Target to spend the last of our dollars. The queue was so long and the nicey selection so laborious that we were short on time and ended up running to the Port Authority Bus Terminal.  Thankfully we didn’t miss our bus and in no time at all we were at the world’s smallest airport, which was great when we were arriving but less than great when we were hoping to buy snacks for the plane!

The journey was quick, I think we even managed to get some sleep before arriving in Belfast at 9am. The trip has been a long time coming (thanks to all those childhood Christmas movies) and I’ve really enjoyed myself! It was nice being somewhere that was so easy to get around, where we had delicious food, millions of donuts and some of the most amazing sights this side of the pond. I imagine we’ll come back one day, but for now, I’ll finish with the words of Tom Wolf, one belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.