NEW JERSEY & NEW YORK CITY (Part I)
- agirltraveling
- Apr 5, 2016
- 6 min read
After a 10:30 pm flight, basically not sleeping at all, and a 5 am arrival at Newark Liberty airport it was time to wait for it to be 10 am so we could start shopping. During our waiting time, we took our hotel’s shuttle to the hotel and we were actually hoping we could get our room, to have a nap and a shower. But, the hotel was totally full, so this was not possible. A very nice lady that was at the counter told us, even though our room was not ready, we could go to the breakfast area, have something to eat and stay at the hotel lobby for as long as we wanted. And so we did, we actually we were sleeping at the couches in the lobby.
Our first stop was The Mills at Jersey Gardens. It’s an outlet mall located about 10 minutes from the airport. It has around 200 stores, including Gap Factory Store, Forever 21, American Eagle Outfitters, Marshall’s, Michael Kors and many more. Most of the stores have different items than the regular store and also incredible discounts!!
We stayed at one of the hotels that are located in front of the mall, which is great, we just had to walk less than 5 minutes, and we were inside the mall. If you are not staying at a hotel, there is a special shuttle that goes from the airport (AirTrain Station P4) to the mall, and it has a cost of $9.
After a weekend of shopping, we were heading to New York City. It’s very easy to travel from Newark to NYC. We decided to take the train. We took the hotel shuttle to the AirTrain Station P4 at the airport, then with the AirTrain we transferred to the airport’s trains station. There we bought our train ticket to New York’s Penn Station, which has a cost of $13 (this is a one way ticket). The Newark airport train station is very easy to get around, you have machines were you buy the ticket, and then you wait for the train to arrive. The train stops at Newark Penn Station, Secaucus Junction and the last stop being New York Penn Station, making the duration of the trip around 30 minutes.
Arriving at NY Penn Station can be a bit crazy, there are people all over the place, the exit signs are not very visible, and if you have luggage with you it’s even worse, because there are no electrical stairs and just a few (kind of hidden) elevators. But just take a depth breath and you will get out.
NY Penn is located at Madison Square Garden, and it has 4 exists, one in every corner. Before heading to New York, be sure you know the street and avenue number of you’re hotel. If the hotel is close to station, I recommend to walk, even tough it’s a bit hard with the luggage in the beginning due to the amount of people and not so luggage-friendly streets; but if the hotel is far, then a taxi can be a good idea, yes, it’s expensive and it’s going to be a long time, but it’s the best option. We walked to our Hampton Inn Hotel, which was only one block away from Penn Station.
After checking-inn at the hotel and leaving are luggage in our room, we started our adventure.
First stop was Macy’s at Herald Square.
This is the biggest Macy’s all around the world. It has 11 floors in which you can find makeup, bags, shoes, clothing, housewares and so much more. During the spring they have the Macy’s Flower Show, were the whole store, inside and out, is decorated with all types of flowers. This is must if you’re traveling during the spring to NYC. For more info, visit Macy’s website.
After a great lunch at Uncle Nick’s a Greek restaurant, it was time for some shopping. We did it at 34th Street, from 7th Ave all to 5th Ave. This a street with all type of store, including Forever 21, Old Navy, Gap, DSW, Victoria Secret and H&M. If you walk a bit south, between 33rd and 32nd street, you will see The Manhattan Mall, which has stores like JcPenney, GameStop, Toys “R” us and Aeropostale.
The next day we took a Self-Guided Greenwich Village Walking Tour. I found this tour in Pinterest, and was exited to do it. Some of the places you will visit are the Friend’s Apartment, Cherry Lane Theatre, NYU (New York University), Washington Square Park, Rocco Pastry Shops and so much more. The tour takes about 1 ½ to 2 hours to complete, but trust me, time flies. I loved Greenwich Village, it’s a totally different place as the other parts of NYC, it’s more relaxed, and it has beautiful and not so tall buildings and so much nature.
I recommend stopping at Rocco Pastry Shop for a coffee and a sweet (the tour gets you there), and if you are a fan a pizza you should stop by Artichoke Basille’s Pizza (the artichoke pizza is the best and hugeee). A non-food recommendation is to stop and sit at Washington Square Park, we sat there for about 1 hour, and I never got bored. There are so many people, so much to see, it’s a good spot to rest.
When we finished the tour we headed to the 9/11 memorial. While we were walking to the location we saw City Hall and the St. Paul’s Chapel, which is located in front of the One World Building and 9/11 memorial. This chapel was the only building that was not destroyed during the attack; it’s called a miracle. Due to this, the chapel served as a place of rest and refuge for the victims and workers, and it did so for 8 months.
When you exit the chapel, straight in front of you, you’ll see the World Trade Center (PATH station) or World Trade Center Transportation Hub. This is a very new building, which opened on March 4 2016. It connects the PATH (Port Authority Trans Hudson between New York and Jew Jersey) and the New York City subway. The design is very unique; it resembles a bird being released from a child’s hand. From the inside you can see the same design too.
Behind it you’ll see the One World Trade Center. This building is 6th tallest in the world, and it’s the first out of 5 buildings to be build at the World Trade Center Complex. The building has an observatory at the top, a standard ticket is $32 in which you can access the 3 floors of the observatory, ride the fastest elevators, see a New York City film at the observatory cinema and access to the café and fine dinning. I did not go to observatory, but I saw some pictures and the view looks amazing!!!
But the most impressive and emotional part of the Trade Center, was the 9/11 memorial. There are 2 incredibly big pools, where the water falls down and in the middle falls even deeper. Around the pool are all the names of the 9/11 victims. When I arrived, I was speechless, for two reasons. One being, the beauty and size of the pools, and second, that exact day was the ISIS attack at Brussels’s airport and metro station, so I was very sensible about terrorist attacks and being there was very emotional. There is a 9/11 museum too, in between both of the fountains. The price of the ticket is $24, but on Tuesday’s the entrance is free!! You will see pictures, videos and artifacts that are related to the attacks.
Afterwards we took the subway uptown to Times Square. It’s a very fun and exciting part of NYC, there are huge billboards everywhere, with crazy lights, people walking everywhere, people dressed up as characters from movies and so much more. We walked a bit around it and the when sat down at the “famous” Times Square stairs, in which we could see the whole, not so square, Times Square and the New Years Eve Ball, that drops at the beginning to the new year. After sitting there for about a half hour, when went into some shops, including a very big souvenir shop and Sanrio. There are a lot of other stores including the M&M’s store, Hershey’s Store, American Eagle Outfitters, etc.
If you are a fan of good pastries or you know Buddy Valastro, aka owner of Carlo’s Bakery, you should visit the bakery. It’s located at 625 8th Avenue at 42nd St., but there are 12 more stores around the USA. We ended the day at the hotel eating 2 types of Cannolis, the regular and chocolate. I really liked them both, but I got to say the chocolate one was very hard to bit due to the very thick outside, but the taste was a-ma-zing.
Part II coming soon!!
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