Postcards of New York

I have a terrible habit of coming back from holiday and then not sharing the photos anywhere for weeks on end, despite being taking hundreds. Perhaps that's why, actually - that memory card full of photos can be more than a little intimidating.

Anyway, I'll no doubt do it the next time I go away too, so let's just move on and ogle some photos of New York at Christmas, shall we? It was just the perfect time to go. We went on the last weekend of November, so we crossed into the first week of December. NYC gets Christmassy pretty early, so all the decorations were up, the shop windows in place and Santa was everywhere. I don't know how he did it.
I deliberately booked this week because I wanted to attend the tree lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Plaza which is on the first Wednesday of December. Typically though, that one plan was the thing we didn't do - but with good reason! It was absolutely pouring, and the idea of standing in the rain for hours on end really didn't appeal, so we went to a bar instead and swung round the next day to see the tree all lit up - spectacular!








It was my third visit and Matt's first, but we worked out a good combination of touristy activities and slightly more unusual ones. Obviously food was a massive feature - there's a whole separate post coming about that! We rode the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, we met Santa at Macy's, hung out with dinosaurs in the Museum of Natural History, wandered through Central Park, and I took a lot of photos of squirrels. Did you know they have black squirrels in New York? It's all true.

One highlight was heading up to the Top of the Rock at the perfect time on our last night - 3ish - to catch the last of the daylight, an amazing sunset and the spectacular night view. Absolutely recommended - the views are breathtaking.






As always, I felt like I just scraped the surface of New York and am already itching to go back. Although, I must confess I was craving a beach holiday by the time we got home - turns out a busy, city-exploring break when you're exhausted from being a few weeks into a new job and have a chest infection isn't the best option - my Spartoo trainers were pretty much worn out - but we still had an amazing time.

Like I said earlier, a separate food post will be coming soon, plus one about the shocking amount of money I spent in Sephora. I will never admit how much it was. *burns receipt*