New York

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Love New York that's all I can say to describe it in a few words. Only been there about three times but I have a feeling it will be alot more in the future. Last time I was there I had quite the experience.......... come on Iren yeh you know what I mean................................... Thats right, got stuck for an extra two days due to the hurrican. We were staying at Upper East side, thats where you can find several apartements for rent and they aren't that expencive either (same with Upper West side, and that is if you have booked some time in advance of course). Anyway, we had been driving from Ocean City in MD and up to New York, me and three hungover gentlemen  and we got to the city on wednesday evening after a long drive, yes, of course I was the driver:) Yes it i spossible to drive around Manhattan even doh you are a foreigner, will I recomend it? Absolutely no f... way. Will I do it again? probably, if I have to. Was glad to park the car at Avis that night, taxi around from now on (well, I can walk, I like it, but the guys....... not up for walking that much).

I am married to an Irish man so obviously we were hitting the Irish bars in NY, and he has a few frinds who lives there so for moral support, and moral support only (LOL), we were at Molloy's Irish bar a good few times, know the owner:) It is located on 50th & 9th Ave, very nice place with good food and very good and friendly people, recomend everyone to go there! So every bar that starts with O' something, I have been there. Thursday night we were in one of thos O'sometihing bar untill 6 in the morning, crazy Irish people:)

Time Square, Hells Kitchen, Union Square, Chinatown, Little Italy, Rockefeller, Brookly Bridge, Statue Liberty and all the typical tourist places and attractions is must see in NY. I have seen them all and there is nothing more I can say about it than what already have been said in all the travel guides. So I will focus on other stuff:) :) :)

                     

                        

Food and drink!!!!!!! If you want a proper steak in NY there is a lot of places to choose from. We ended up at Outback Steakhouse and it was just brilliant, everybody should go there! That is a proper Aussi steakhouse and you find it in several places, we went to the one at 56th and 3rd right by Union Square. Loads of ribs and steaks to choose from, great beer and very busy. Huge portions by the way, be hungy:)

Another great bar, where they also have great food is Rattle N' Hum at 14 East 33rd str. Again big portions, great beer, good atmosphere, defo worth a visit. I find i t hard to stay at only one place when I am out and about, there are so many good places you want to see so a lot of times you only take a drink or two, or some food at one place and then you head over for another place.

Chinatown and Little Italy, okay during the day time, boring and quiet at evening/night time. We went there for dinne around 8ish and it was almost dead. At 11 everything had more or less closed!!! Dinner in Chinatown, not the best I have had, but okay, okay staff, okay beer, okay atmosphere. Price for it all was okay as well. This plase is defo best during day time. After dinner drink in Little Italy, very, very pricy in a very charming little place. Early dinner I think is best there.

Shopping!!!!!!!!!!! Everywhere is good:) I always end up buying something at Forever 21, very good prices there and you find it at several places. Next time I am going to check out the outlets in New Jersey. 5th Ave have all the designer shops, however, it is never in my price range. Well some of the shops I can go to, there is a very good Abercrombie & Fitch on 5th Ave.

As I mentioned in the begining we got stuck because of hurricane Irene, so sadly this time we did not have much time for shopping. We were meant to leave NY on the Saturday evening but friday night it all started............ We heard that all public transportation were going to close at mid day on that Saturday, bus, underground, train, everything. And of course we were going to check out of the hotel/apartment that day. Well, we knew that no flights were going so we were stuck in Manhattan (not the worst place to be stuck doh, lol). The Saturday of our departure came so did the grovernmental panic about Irene and shut down of all public transportation. We asked the apt hotel if we could stay there for en extra night or two as no flights were going in or out of the NY airports, but no, they were fully booked so no chance we could stay there. What now? Homless tourists in Manhattan, did not see that coming. Thank god for Molloy's Irish bar, who welcomed us with food and beer and free wifi so we could try to find a hotel. Love that place:) :) :)

After a few hours of being homless we found a hotel, and guess what, I have stayed at that hotel before, and I liked it:) Manhattan Broadway Hotel, not a 5 star hotel but it is good enough. The staff is very nice, the rooms are small but clean and it is located on 273 W 38th St (38th and 7th), location is perfect and the prices are good. I will stay there again.

Manhattan was very quiet that weekend, however, the locals they did not seem to worry that much, so neither did we. Irene was going to hit NY City on the Sunday morning at 8 o'clock and all the shops (more or less) were closed, so the only places that were open was restaurants and bars..................... what a shame.... ha ha ha, no that was great, lets hit the bars.

On Saturday evening/night it really started to rain, for me who is Norwegian and used to all kinds of weather, it was not that bad, seen worse. There was some people out, and the bars that were open were packed with people. We found this Mexican restaurant just by Time Square and of course it was packed as not many restaurants in that area were open. We had great food and tequila!

This doesn't seem like it is hurrican rain, but it was the start of it. Think by this time Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm. Picture below is taken on Saturday night around 2 am. Little windy perhaps.

Slept through the big hurricane night, actually I woke up at 8am on the Sunday (that was when Irene were meant to hit Manhattan "badly") and I didn't even hear any rain or anything. Fell back a sleep and woke a few hours later. It was quite windy that day and we could see some of the damages that had been done during the night.

Anyway, on the Monday the airports were open again so now it was time to try to get back home. Airports had been closed for two days so we knew it was going to be very busy. Better be there really early!!!!!!!!!

Not a bad thought to be at EWR early, only thing was that about 200 people had thought of the same thing. Luckily we managed to get inside the airport, the people on the picture above, who arrived about one hour after us, had to que outside!!!!!!!! We did not get home that day.

Tuesday afternoon, almost 4 days after we were meant to go home we got a flight.

So this is it I think..... until next time:)