Hi there!
Here I am again with a little blogpost about my trip to the USA, last week.
I went back with two of my girlfriends that I met on my 5-month adventure already two years ago.
We went to NYC for 4 nights and after, we extended our trip upstate to Vermont for another 4 nights.
On Saturday, we had a very relaxed and good flight to Newark. When we arrived, we took an uber to our hotel that was located in Chelsea, near the Flatiron. Once we looked out of our windows, we saw the Empire , so we had kind of a pretty nice view. We unpacked our bags and went for a walk in our neighborhood. Of course, while strolling around, we took some pictures. I really love to take a lot of pictures/videos to have as a memory where I can look back to to relive them. At Union Square Park, there was a market going on, so that was lovely to see. We ate some bagels at Dunkin Donuts, and everyone who knows me knows I had to drink an iced tea with that :) After our little stop, we kept on walking around, and the fun part was that we haven't seen everything that we walked by yet. There's always something new to discover in the city, and that's the thing I love the most. On our walk, we saw some cute doggies (with some cute bosses). We came by Washington Square Park, which had a fun atmosphere going on. It's in the college neighborhood, so a lot of students where walking around and just chilling there, while a music band was playing some cool music, another person was showing of his art work, there were children playing around,... As you can guess, there was a fun vibe around :) We also came by the tattoo/piercing shop we all had our tattoos two years ago & last year. But this time we didn't have another one haha :) We kept on walking around, to the Friends house, as the house that they film from the outside, in the series. It became dark as we had been walking around for some hours, and we arrived at the waterfront. We decided to walk to the Financial District, which is at the bottom point of Manhattan. On our walk, we had a nice view on the WTC tower and all the other way too pretty apartment buildings (that we unfortunately can't afford at the moment, maybe one day :) We took the subway in the Oculus, which is the architectural white building/shopping mall, and in my opinion a very special one. As we were becoming a little tired of the whole day flying and walking around, we forced ourselves to do something else. We went to the rooftop bar 230 5th, which is the one I already went to with my family when they were in the city. We had a cocktail and some snacks, with a pretty view on the Empire State Building, you can almost touch him from there. It was a pretty nice day.
The next day we decided to make it a shopping day. We went to the Glossier store in Soho. I had a list of things I had to buy, for my sister (& myself) :) As Soho is one of our fave neighborhoods, we walked around in the pretty streets and did some other shoppings in Zara, Victoria's Secret, American Eagle, Sephora,... We had a little coffee break (a smoothie for me) at Dr Smood, a new discovery of a hip and fun coffee shop for us. As we went back outside, of course it started to rain on our way to a very delicious Italian restaurant. We saw a glimpse of the Super Bowl game there. After we went back to our hotel and chilled for some time, before going to sleep.
The next day, we were so crazy to put our alarm very early, at 5:30am to get ready and to arrive at the Brooklyn Bridge an hour later. We wanted to see the sunrise and yes we did. We saw the sun coming up and sat there looking at the pretty view over the city, we weren't the only crazy ones out there. After, we walked towards Brooklyn and had some breakfast at Butler, avocado toast time :) We also went up in a warehouse there, to have a pretty view all over the Brooklyn Bridge. As we got up so early in the morning, we had a long day ahead of us. We decided to go midtown to see the Vessel, and it was only 10am. We also got a look at the Shopping mall next to it. We went up the Vessel, while the sun started to shine, so that was pretty nice. We felt the spring vibes. After, we walked the Highline and made some stops to sit and enjoy the sun on our faces, while talking :) We had a lunch at Pastis in the Meatpacking District and kept on walking around. I started to feel bad, but didn't give a lot of attention to it. After the walk in Central Park, we went for a drink in the Mandarin Oriental, which is a very expensive hotel. But you can just go for a (kind of expensive) cocktail, with the most beautiful view all over Colombus Circle and Central park. We sat there for some hours, talking and enjoying the cocktail and the view. After, we went back to 34th street, to the Webster Apartments, the residence we stayed at two years ago. A friend of us is staying there again now, so we went to visit her and relived some memories there. We went up to the rooftop and ate some Chinese food (not so much for me) while talking about our lives and the memories we made together. The next day, I couldn't get up and had to stay in bed all day, because the flu got me. I felt so bad and couldn't even watch a movie. In the afternoon, I decided to go to CVS to get some medicines, vitamins and something to eat (tried to) and to drink.
The next day, I felt a little better, and we decided to go for brunch at The Smith. After, we walked around and at noon, we took the train to Rutland, Vermont (where the parents of one of the friends live). We had a cosy night, watching High School Musical the Musical the Series together, we had to because the movies were a big part of our youth, right? :) The next day, there was a lot of snow and we drove around enjoying the snow, took some pictures and enjoyed a hot chocolate in a nice barn. After, we went to Wallmart to get some snacks and just experience the American life (big packagings everywhere). The next day we slept late and the others went for some skiing & snowboarding in Killington. I stayed inside with some magazines and a book to read. When we arrived back home, we made some cupcakes and enjoyed our evening. The next day, we had a typical American breakfast and after, we drove to the Ben & Jerry's factory in Waterbury. We had a small tour there and got to taste an exclusive flavor 'The Maple syrup flavor'. The next stop of our road trip was Burlington, a small village with some cute shops and spots. It was freezing cold there. We had dinner at Panera Bread, I got some salad & mac and cheese, mmm.
The next and last day already. We drove to Boston and had a good Belgian waffle there. We also did some shopping and enjoyed our last day. As there were some flight complications, due to the storm Ciara, we had our flight changed three times. Eventually, we had to fly to Iceland first, and after flew to Brussels. We had kind of a good flight, the second part was with some turbulence. But we made it back home.
It was (again) a very fun trip & I especially liked the variety of going to the city first, and enjoying the snow after.
I can't wait to go back!
Check out my Instagram for all the pictures I took and of course also check out my highlight 'USA2020'.
Also keep an eye on my IGTV that's coming later today!
xoxo Eline