arrival ｜ New York
September – October 2019
Back in 2019 (…and it’s nearly 2022), my husband, mum and I went on a trip to the USA! We had booked to do a tour with Globus – New England and the Hudson Valley and despite my initial reservations about a group tour, it was honestly one of the best things I have ever done in my life.
The plan was that my husband and I would fly from Tokyo to JFK and my mum would meet us there, flying in from the UK. Our flights were due to arrive at pretty much the same time, but different terminals. Off the plane, through immigration, get bags, then onto my Mum’s terminal. Perfect! I have never been through a queue to enter a country like that in.my.life! (Although, I’m yet to travel post Brexit/Corona, so chances are it might be beaten.) It was crazy. We were queuing for about 2 hours and I was fretting so much about my mum panicking that we wouldn’t there when she got out. We needn’t have worried though, because it seems like all the terminals were exactly the same. I had trouble doing my fingerprints and I commented to the customs man that it was quite hard to do, to which he answered, ‘Not really’ with a deadpan face which I didn’t know how to answer, so just laughed nervously, lest I be thought a fool for my incompetence and shuffled on my way.
We met my mum and then we queued up for a yellow cab at the airport in the official line and got it to our hotel. I’d read of taxi scams at the airport where people are touting for business and then charge way over the top, so I was being very vigilant! We did get asked by a random guy if we needed a taxi, so I suppose it does happen. I remember seeing the New York skyline for the first time from the taxi and it was amazing – I felt like I was in Gotham City! When we arrived, we dumped our stuff and then off out into the night we went to get pizza. We also saw Mark Ronson – I walked right passed him.
We had two days before our tour started. On one of them, my husband was taking an exam which he had arranged to do in New York. He said that was a good experience and it took us to Harlem which we probably wouldn’t have done if it wasn’t for that, so it worked out well, because it was good to see a different bit.
On the other day, we trotted around Manhattan. We went to Little Italy, Chinatown and we went on the *free* Staten Island ferry. We ate at a restaurant in Little Italy and it was mediocre – I suppose that’s what you get from not researching and this is why we can’t be spontaneous nowadays! It’s not because we don’t want to be, it’s because we’re met with nothing but disappointment when we are. We all enjoyed the ferry and we had excellent weather, so we were very lucky.
Times Square was fun but I wasn’t mad on it. I don’t like London either, at least the touristy bits. Every time we ventured to Times Square my husband was harassed by guys shoving CDs at him, putting them in his hand, in his pockets, in his face, not letting him move away. It just kind of ruins the vibe, but it was a small issue.
Thanks for reading, take care and I hope you are looking forward to the tour posts,
Emily
arrival ｜ New York
tour: day one ｜New York
tour: day two ｜NYC – Hartford, Connecticut
tour: day three ｜ Hartford – Lexington – Concord – Boston
tour: day four ｜Boston
tour: day five ｜Boston – Salem – Portland
tour: day six ｜Portland – Freeport – Jackson
tour: day seven ｜Jackson – Montpelier – Stowe – Essex
tour: day eight ｜Essex
tour: day nine ｜Essex – Lake Camplain – Lake Placid
tour: day ten ｜Lake Placid – Saratoga Springs – Berkshires
tour: day eleven ｜Berkshires – West Point – Tarrytown
departure ｜New York