New York in general

New York is a very popular city for many reasons; for lovely buildings, shops and for the general city life. It's sometimes known as the city that never sleeps. Yesterday I returned from a week in New York withe the college class. We stayed in Gershwin Hotel located in 7 East 27th street in Manhattan. I thought it was amusing and ironic that the college had booked us in a hotel next to a place called Museum Of Sex. The room I stayed in was rather pleasant despite the freaky showers. There was also a free library with a balcony that gives a birds-eye view of the cafe.

We went around the Manhattan area by foot, subway trains and taxi. I wasn't really fond of the taxis because the drivers came across as rather rude and they always went the longer routes so they could get extra cash. From the four times I've been in a taxi the prices ranged from $3-$8 Sometimes the subway passes didn't always work the first time and twice I had to get the staff to activate it again so it would work. I would recommend carrying a map with you at all times because it's quite easy to get lost. A metro card for a week will set you back $29.

One of my favourite areas in New York was Times Square. It reminded me of Piccadilly Circus in London because of thee huge screens and lights. Despite being miles away, I felt quite at home. I kind of liked how inside the stores at night, it sometimes looked like daytime. It's surrounded by full of nice restaurants, shops and theatre places. It holds a special place in my heart because I managed to meet up with an American pal in Times Square. We didn't get much time as the rest of my group wanted to be back to the hotel safe and early, however I still enjoyed meeting my friend.

We went to quite a couple of museums. My favourite was the American Natural History Museum because of it's variety of interesting exhibits and it's quirky gift-shop. The planetarium was a hot choice, but I really liked the models of the animals because of how well made and realistic they appeared. I would also recommend Museum Of Modern Art (MoMA) if you're an art fanatic. It has a lot of great variety and includes two book stores and has some of thee work of Andy Warhol, Claus Monet, Roy Liechtenstein and Picasso.

I was somewhat confused with MoMA PS1 as if was quite far from MoMA itself. I was also disappointed with a lot of the stuff there, but the highlight of the MoMA PS1 was downstairs near the restaurant where was just this black room, very noisy but the wall was covered with a projected screen of an 8-bit video game. It was rather fun to play as well.

Near MoMA PS1 is thee outdoor exhibition place known as 5 pointz. A lot of the guys in my group had a huge admiration for graffiti and were amazed at how vibrant the colours were. I could see why because I liked the use of colours and paints on the wall and how it all came together. One thing that made me squeamish about MoMA PS1 was how the grubby presentation that made the place looked like a dodgy collections of flats and random videos of people urinating in thee streets next to a bad quality collection of YouTube karaoke clips strung together. If there was something different going on, then maybe I would have liked it, but the stuff apart from the video game room didn't appeal to me.

I would recommend getting a city pass. They're available online at city-pass.com and they help give you a discount and sometimes help you skip ticket lines. With the city pass you can go to the Empire State Building, American Museum of Natural History, MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art), a choice between Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island or Circle Line Cruise, and a choice between Guggenheim Museum or Top of thee Rock. I thought the City Pass was very useful and saved a lot of money. I paid $25 towards it and the staff looking after our group were kind enough to pay for the rest. City passes online are $79 dollars and $59 if under 18. The city-pass won't get you everywhere but they're still well worth the money in my opinion.

The food was very nice, not the most nutritious as the sizes are usually very generous for the price you pay, but I still found it very enjoyable. It was very filling and I was never hungry during the trip. You don't really need to worry about it as there is usually a bar or an eating place very close to you, but sometimes it can be hard to decide which one is the best.

One store I would recommend would be Pearl River. Pearl River is located in the Soho area at 447 Broadway. It's opposite Topshop and near Bloomingdales store. Pearl River's location is wonderful and it has a lot of lovely things at surprisingly nice prices. Pearl River has plenty of oriental and Chinese material. The antiques and ceramics really stood out. The music section is very tiny and limited to classical and traditional music, but I bought one album (Zhao Han Yang - Autumn Momma Of The Han Palace) and enjoyed it.

I had a brilliant time in New York and would definitely go again. I'd recommend it to anyone especially if you are a shopaholic and don't mind walking long distances. It's a brilliant holiday location, but I don't see myself living there. I would also suggest looking at guides and reading reviews of other places in New York to make your choices of where to go easier.