In what was only my second-ever trip to the USA, on Monday 1 April 2024 I flew to New York City with my friend, Rebecca, and her son. We arrived after 10pm local time, and stayed in a nearby hotel for the night.
The following morning Becs took her son to her brothers to stay the week as he lives nearby in Pennsylvania.
I usually get very lucky with the weather. My first trip to the USA, Nashville I had sun all week and got to experience 40 degrees celsius for the first time. I went to Oslo, Norway one year with torrential rain and thunderstorms on the forecast and we only got a little of rain for a few hours on one of the days.
Unfortunately, my luck ran out in New York City. Rain was on the forecast and it rained for pretty much all 48 hours we were there. At one point, the power even went out for an hour or so in our Airbnb as we were trying to dry out our clothes.
Becs has been to New York several times previously, so this trip was all about me. And Becs was a great tour guide.
We only briefly visited Central Park because of the weather, passing Trump Tower on the way.
Times Square was exciting – bright lights and entertainment everywhere. Unfortunately, we never saw the Naked Cowboy! I did get a photo with The Rock though 😉 I had got a mohawk haircut for this trip but didn’t even bother trying to spike it because of the weather.
Oh and we saw a WrestleMania sign on the big electric board on Times Square. Yes, this trip to New York was the start of our journey to WrestleMania XL in Philadelphia at the end of the week.
Before returning to our hotel on Tuesday night i insisted we go to Margaritaville. Yes, I’d visited it in Nashville previously, but there was no harm in visiting it in NY too. Massive fan of Jimmy Buffett and his philopshoies on life. Oh, and the music inside was great. Not to mention the Margarita’s of course.
On this day, I had tried spiking my mohawk, only for the rain to destroy it. But don’t I look happy and at home in Margaritaville?
On Wednesday we crossed Brooklyn Bridge, but the clouds and fog were so heavy we couldn’t see the Statue of Liberty. And we couldn’t get a boat across to see her either. I am probably the first person in history to visit New York City and not see the Statue of Liberty…
Everything was extremely expensive in New York, the ubers obscene compared to Nashville and Philadelphia, as was the food. I found the odd person I spoke to on the streets, or tried to speak to, to be rude. Cars honk their horns constantly and you’ll hear lots of sirens. Other than that, and the weather, I still managed to have a good time. Would like to go back in the future when the weather’s better.