What a month it has been! If you follow me on Instagram or we have spoken in person, then you most likely know that a couple of weeks ago I went on my first ever trip to New York City. From the photos above, you can see how absolutely beautiful the city is, but what you don't see is how much of a whirlwind this trip was.

To put it simply, this was my first time visiting the city and the first trip that I had planned solely by myself. I have to tell ya, if you haven't been somewhere, don't try to plan it all alone. Find someone who has been there or lived/lives there and rely heavily on their advice. I hadn't ever really done public transportation either - living in Florida, there's not much need for it since everyone usually has a car or someone in the family has one. I quickly found a tremendous appreciation for cars and being able to drive everywhere. Public transportation for a beginner is no joke.

The first day of the trip was actually spent traveling, with not very many pictures taken, and no glamorous ones at that, so I decided to just start the trip recap with the day that we actually got into the city.
Ready for day 1 & 2 rundown?

So, silly me thought it would be a good idea to stay in New Jersey because it was cheaper. I also thought it would be ok to stay at an Airbnb instead of a hotel. I tried to research public transportation to get from the LaGuardia airport to the Airbnb, but there's only so much you can find online. Once we arrived to the airport, we were just completely thrown into the whole thing. We had to find a metro atm and then figure out the bus to the city to the bus to New Jersey. All this time we were carrying loads of luggage too. Then we gotten off on the wrong stop in Jersey and ended up walking almost half a mile to the Airbnb. It may not seem far, but walking with luggage up hill, it really is a hard walk. After 5 hours, yes 5 hours, spent traveling from the airport to the Airbnb, we finally arrived. But that wasn't the solving point of the situation.

Once we had crawled up the stairs of the Airbnb, the host greeted us at the door. She then noticed that there were three of us and went into panic mode. Apparently she only allows two guests, and even though I had made sure it was okay to have three she still had not understood me and my previous message weeks before booking this place. I was honestly afraid she was going to kick us to the curb and we would be stranded in New Jersey after a day full of traveling.

All this time, the entire first day I had been sick to my stomach from nerves and just hit my breaking point after the host acted this way. I showed her the message exchange in which I had already made sure that it was ok with her for three of us to stay there, and she agreed to let us stay after all. But after realizing how far the place was from NYC, at least 45 minutes and $7 in exact change - like who really has exactly $7 sitting in their wallets at all times - and having plumbing issues in the bathroom and the host being there every time we turned around, we decided to go on the search for a different place to stay. My friend and sister found a cheap hotel that was only 7 minutes to the city and easier to get there. They booked the place, and we got up bright and early the next day and got ourselves out of that Airbnb. The host saw that we were leaving, so I had to quickly explain it all to her while our Uber driver helped with our bags. I never did get even a partial refund since we only stayed one night, but what's done is done and I have learned a lot from that day.
Always stay in the city, even if you have to pay a little extra.

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Now that you've heard the first day story, you can probably see how so not glamorous and absolutely miserable that day was. But the next day we tried to have a fresh start with a new hotel and actually getting into the city.

We started the day - once we got the whole hotel and luggage situation in check - visiting the Plaza hotel, looking around the beautiful place, checking out the cutest little Eloise shop, eating mini donuts, and picking up a croissant for our next stop: Tiffany's. I always wanted to dress up in a black dress and eat a croissant outside of Tiffany & Co to recreate the opening scene of Breakfast at Tiffany's, and that I did. The photos came out amazing so I couldn't be happier with that. We then browsed Tiffany's three story building that was famous for Audrey Hepburn's letter and priceless yellow necklace.

Next for the day we made our way toward Times Square, saw a bit as we walked, and found refuge in a quiet sit-down restaurant. After eating and quick outfit change, we went to the Rockefeller Center to see the Top of the Rock. It's all still a blur as to how we made it there - walking and subway rides eventually got us to where we wanted to go. As you can see from the photos above, the Top of the Rock was absolutely beautiful, definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip. We had a chance to slow it down a little and take in the breathtaking view of the city.


Once we had our fill of  the view - although I could honestly spend all day gazing out at it - we caught a subway to a fashion party in some other part of the city that I for the life of me can't seem to recall. We saw, took photo booth selfies, drank little champagne glasses, filled candy goodie bags, and left before it became too crowded, finding a Shake Shack for a quick bite. We still had some time left before the bus came, so we took another subway to the Empire Hotel, famously known as Chuck Bass's hotel in Gossip Girl. Another beautifully extravagant place, the only photos I have are on my phone, as we kicked up our feet for a little bit and went up to the rooftop bar to see the view.

As the night grew later, we made it back to Times Square to catch the bus that took us back in to the hotel. It was a long but great day of seeing and doing and experiencing the city.

All I can say is that while it was an incredibly hectic, exhausting beyond words first couple of days, I was blessed in that God continuously provided for and protected us through it all. If it was a money situation, He made sure we were covered. I had been saving since March of this year but honestly often didn't even know how the money showed up in the flight changes or the metro pass add-ups or food expenses. It just did, and that can only be explained as a God thing, along with nothing even remotely harmful happening to us the entire time we were there.






Stay tuned for Day 2 & 3 recaps in the next posts!

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