Trip to the States #1 Seeing the Sights

When work offers you the chance to go on a week long course to New Jersey you do not say no to that! Most importantly when you find out your hotel is located a mere 50-minute train journey to NYC, you go!! So off I went! Oh did I mention it was ALL EXPENSES PAID.

I mentioned this trip briefly in my June round up post. It was an amazing opportunity to visit Rutgers University, NJ to learn new concepts and techniques related to my work that they specialise in. Along with my friend and colleague Alice the 5 day course taught us so much. I don’t want to dwell too much on the course work but to share with you my tourist experience in USA.

My first exciting experience was on the train from the airport to New Brunswick where we were staying. The train was a double decker!! I had never seen a train like it and if I didn’t have my suitcase with me I would have sat upstairs just for the novelty! The heat getting off the train was the second thing I noticed, it was 33 °C which for a little lass from Glasgow took a lot of getting used to. A 5 minute walk later we reached our hotel, The Heldrich. From the outside it looked amazing, with a beautiful fountain and a valet service on offer. Inside was even prettier and not because of the lovely air conditioning! The lobby was huge with super comfortable sofas. The staff were very forthcoming and helpful and even though we arrived an hour or two before check in they had rooms ready so allowed us to check in early. On our floor was a beautiful looking spa which we made great use of the following Saturday when we both got massages. AMAZING.

After a quick change it was time to venture the town and see what New Brunswick had to offer. As it is a college town there was so much sporting pride for the college football team the Scarlett Knights which is something you don’t get back home. The main street was also lined with American flags the patriotism which was beautiful to see. 

Day two took us on a day long NYC adventure! When Alice told me she had been before so I had control over where we went and what we seen; I went crazy with excitement! On the train to Penn Station I was like a kid at Christmas. Visiting New York has always been on my bucket list. First stop, Time Square! I am a huge fan of musicals so getting to walk along Broadway was fantastic! All the show posters and bright lights was so beautiful. I wish we had more time to actually see a show but just being near them was enough for me….for now. And of course a trip to Times Square is nothing without a photo opportunity with the famous naked cowboy. I don’t think I was quite prepared for him to pick me up though!

Walking onwards we reached Central Park which gave us a little rest to drink an iced coffee just at the edge of the park. With the heat it was certainly needed. There was so many people offering bike and carriage rides around the park but we opted to walk around leisurely at our own pace. With the park featuring heavily in so many films it was like walking around a film set. We saw the fountain featured in Friends, the boat house from When Harry Met Sally, the Bow bridge from Spiderman and the famous carousel from Now You See Me just to name a few. We even passed through the literary walk and visited Strawberry Fields, the John Lennon memorial. Central Park is so big and we didn’t get to see everything but it was such a fantastic experience.

Across from the park is the American Museum of Natural History where we took a quick visit. The place is huge and really you would need a day to see everything so we visited exhibits that would excite us the most so made a beeline for the dinosaur exhibit and anything science related. We learned so much here and the collection of artefacts was amazing, so rich in culture. Have you ever wondered how much you would weigh on different planets? You can find out at the planetarium found in the museum.

On our last day in America we visited NYC again to take a trip up to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. This was such breath-taking experience. With the building now the highest in New York there was a non-obstructed view of all of New York. We could see everything! From the rectangle of green that is Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge and way off in the distance: Liberty Island the home of the famous statue of liberty. The views were spectacular. Had we more time we would have visited so much more. I really wanted to experience the Staten Island ferry to get a good look of the statue of liberty and to also visit ground zero. I guess I will need to convince my supervisor to send me back!

All in all it was an amazing trip and I am so happy and lucky to have been given the chance to go. Stay tuned to hear about the amazing food I got to experience also when I was there! And of course no trip to America is complete without a dog in heels and sunglasses!

Have you been to or want to visit NYC? What was your favourite experience?

Follow my blog with Bloglovin