America - Part Three, Nightmare in New York

New York…..

27.10.2017 – 29.10.2017

We landed pretty late in New York and if any of you have been to LaGuardia airport at the moment then you’d know the frustration of getting an Uber. Basically, the airport has the rule that before 10pm you have to be picked up by any Ubers down the road. So we landed around 9:30pm and didn’t know about this before 10pm rule. We booked an Uber and assumed he’d come to the airport, but then we looked at the location and realised he was going outside the airport.

So we start walking with our suitcases and backpacks to this random location which was completely frustrating. We walk, and walk, and walk until finally we reach some pop up bus/taxi station. While we wait for our Uber we notice that he’s cancelled our trip. We then go to book another Uber BUT since it’s after 10pm they’re now only picking up at the airport and not at this random bus station. Luckily we manage to get on the last shuttle bus going back to the airport.
Our Uber shows up a minute before we do and instead of waiting he leaves. So another Uber was booked and FINALLY we’re in a car heading to our hotel.

Driving into New York at night is pretty spectacular. All the lights and hustle of the city is pretty cool to look at. We were staying on Wall Street but our driver couldn’t find the hotel. While I was sitting in the car I noticed a man walking his dog (It’s about 11pm) and then he tied his dog up while he went into a bar.

People, if you’re planning on going drinking then don’t take your bloody dogs. The dog could’ve easily been stolen.

My boyfriend realised that the driver was on the wrong street and the hotel was just around the corner. We decided to get out and walk rather than get the driver to actually do his job and take us to our hotel. By this time, we were both hungry and exhausted. We had just done a full day at Universal, stressed out about nearly missing our previous flight and then walked 20 minutes with heavy suitcases for no reason. Let’s just say America, you weren’t treating us right!!
We ordered Maccas (McDonalds for all you non Australians) which didn’t come until 12am but once we finally ate we could sleep.

The next day our first stop was ‘Top of the Rock’ which is an awesome lookout over New York. It was super busy and the only way in was to push yourself in. The line was big but nothing compared to the line we’d later be in. It didn’t take us long to get up to the top where we took some awesome pictures of New York. All in all, we only needed about 30min – 60min here.

After we’d finished we headed to Central Park. This was definitely our favourite part of New York. It was just more peaceful which is what we’re used to. We walked through the park and ended up at the museum. If you haven’t been to New York’s Natural History Museum, then I’d definitely recommend it. I’d also recommend buying tickets beforehand as the line was pretty big.

The museum had a little bit of everything in it and we especially loved the dinosaur exhibit. Unfortunately for us, the mummy exhibit was closed whilst we were there but hey everything else was pretty cool. After the museum we headed back to Central Park and relaxed for a bit. We planned on going to the Empire State Building for sunset.

UNFORTUNATELY, if you are ever ever ever planning on going to the Empire State Building please allow at least 2 – 3 hours to actually get to the top. The line was ridiculous and even though we got there an hour before sunset we still missed it. The workers were very rude and people even had to line up for an hour just to get back to the bottom of the building.

Once we finally got to the top the sun had gone and there were only lights. We took a few pictures before lining up again to get out of the damn place. We spent 10 minutes up there but lined up for 2 hours – honestly Top of the Rock was a million times better.

So after another hour or so of lining up we finally reached the bottom and were out of the building. The last thing on our check list was Times Square. It was overcrowded, stuffy and very overrated. Definitely something I’ve done once and will most likely never do again.

After the ups and downs of this day we decided to head back to our hotel and order some Maccas before bed, hoping the next day would be a little bit better.

The next day was raining... a lot! We had no coats or umbrellas and today was the day we were visiting the Statue of Liberty. First off our Uber didn’t show up again and then the next Uber we ordered drove away from us and then took his time coming back around.

Once we got to Liberty State Park (New Jersey) we thought we were out of the woods. We brought ponchos but the arms weren’t covered so they got nice and wet. We then had to go through security. We had to take everything off because Americans need to make sure that the see-through poncho’s we just brought from their shop don’t have any dangerous shit hiding in it.

Then, what really pissed us off was that they took away my boyfriend’s mini cans (deodorant, toothpaste ect) because they ‘might be harmful’. We were getting on a plane later that day with these things and yet we weren’t allowed to take them on a boat? New York get your shit sorted out about what’s harmful and what’s not.
We weren’t carrying lighters if they thought we were going to try and burn the bloody statue down.

Once we’re on the boat and on our way our spirits are really shattered. It’s raining so hard and we’re simply not excited to see the statue anymore. We get to the statue, get off the boat, go through more security where you have to buy a locker before going into the statue and then once we’re inside at the top of the thing it’s raining too hard to get any decent pictures.
We get back on the boat and head back to New York.

Once off the boat, we head straight into a Starbucks to get out of the rain. We didn’t buy anything as Starbucks is stupidly overpriced but instead we tried to dry off and waited for our Uber. Back to the hotel we go and luckily there’s a place for us to get changed and sit down before heading to the airport (we’d already checked out that morning but the hotel held our bags while we went to the statue).

(Totally unrelated picture)

Okay, so this Uber driver did the same as our previous one did. He drove past us while we were standing outside in the rain, this time we had our suitcases which were getting soaked. He came back around and we go to the boot (trunk – I think that’s what you call it!) of his car but he doesn’t open it. He didn’t get out of the car but instead watched us. He wanted confirmation and proof that we were who we said we were before he opened the boot. As you can imagine at this point I was pissed off, exhausted and wet.

Luckily for us our next flight was taking off from Newark which doesn’t have silly rules about Ubers. We got to the airport really early as we wanted to get through security quickly. We were hungry as usual but decided to eat once we were through security. We got through security rather fast and unfortunately once through security there was a total of two places to eat. The food wasn’t great but we were grateful that we’d just made it on time.

Our plane was delayed due to the rain. We’re lucky it was delayed as they’d changed the original flight time to an earlier flight. They’d sent my boyfriend an email but he just failed to open it. So we would’ve missed the flight if they hadn’t delayed it!!

Once the plane had taken off and was in the air we were able to move seats. Since we were at the back of the plane there were rows of seats unoccupied. My boyfriend and I both got a row each to stretch out on.

I was excited to be heading back to Orlando for Disneyworld!!
Thanks for reading.

Check in tomorrow for my post on Disneyworld!

Until next time,

Meliss

P.S – I forgot to mention in my last post that we went on a water ride at Universal that left us super wet for the rest of the day… with no change of clothes!! And that was only the beginning of our bad afternoon.