New York New York

Stop press - Susie Law School has fallen in love. Oh yes, I have fallen in love with the gorgeous, exciting, beautiful, exhilarating and fabulous city that is New York. The Big Apple, the city that never sleeps. I am a City girl at heart, as those who know me will testify to. I love London, now I love New York.

So what's so good about it, and what's the difference? First of all, everything in NYC is high. Outside of the City and Canary Wharf, a few random buildings aside, London is essentially no more than six stories high. New York, in it's essence, is sixty. Less of Manhattan than of London seems old. I love little old houses in London, random mews cottages and Victorian townhouses, whereas Manhattan is more about the size, height and opulence. Condos replace townhouses, high-rise apartment buildings replace the cottages.

I like people. Lots of them. I like where I live because there are always people around. London has a lot of people, but they seem more concentrated to particular places. In New York, we didn't go anywhere that was even close to the exhilarating or suffocating (depending on your point of view and how much time you have to maneuvre through them) crowds of Covent Garden on a Friday night. People are everywhere but they are more evenly spaced out. In London you can turn a corner and find a completely deserted road right next to a busy area - in New York, everywhere you go there are people.

Central Park - the only thing that comes even close to this in London is Hampstead Heath and even that is forced to cough up the dust left behind by Central Park. It's like a nature reserve in the city. It has hills, little nooks and crannies, water, so many different beautiful places to see and you can truly get lost in it. Hyde Park is nice, it has pretty features and fountains and stuff but you can still essentially tell you are in the City because it is flat and there aren't that many trees. In Central Park you could just as well be in the forest miles from civilisation. The trees rise up to dizzying heights, hiding the surrounding buildings and keeping noise far away. Despite this the most spectacular views were those from the Jackie Onassis Reservoir and the meadows where park meets architecture, and the trees complement the rising Central Park Towers and Midtown skyscrapers. Gorgeous.

One thing we did miss in NYC though, were the men. I am forced to resign myself to the realisation that Americans do indeed work too hard - we did not see a single gorgeous Wall Street trader or high-flying lawyer so they must all be at work 24-7! Nor did we see any handsome specimen representing any other professions for that matter. This was a huge disappointment. London wins hands-down on this count. Ok, perhaps we just didn't know where to look but just walking down the street in London chances are you will bump into at least a few attractive males without really having to look. It's not hard work. In NYC specifically and USA generally, the talent was poor.


The Shopping!!! Shopping in New York is out of this world. Ok, so I didn't really get started until near the end, couldn't really find anything early on in the week (ok, read that as "couldn't find anything I could afford" as I found plenty of gorgeous things outside my budget) while the other two were racking up phenomenal withdrawals on their bank accounts. Even so, I stayed within budget but am still missing a few crucial items from my autumn wardrobe. However I did purchase Bruiser, a hangbag that is a chihuahua - yes I know, the Legally Blonde connection was too good to resist. In addition I bought a hat, boots, a pair of jeans, four pairs of trousers (oops, but I needed them and they fit so nicely!), a pair of trainers, three skirts, two jumpers, a cardigan, two belts, underwear, a top and two handbags. Wow is that all? The problem is though that in spite of all these trousers and skirts I still don't have tops to wear them with, or a winter coat. Which is kinda crucial. Oh dear... And what else did we do? I will not bore you to tears with a day-to-day description of what we did, if you want one of those you can ask me. Here are the main facts:

Our hotel was on W 25th and Broadway, which was an excellent location as it was bang on midtown and we had easy access to a number of subway lines. The subway was air-conditioned. That was a refreshing difference, although the stations were all truly grotty! But air-con made it seem all the more bearable! The room was about the size of a postage stamp and we had some amusing moments trying to navigate three girls getting ready in it but by the end we were champs! Breakfast was horrid and we stopped having that after about a day but generally we were happy with our little room.

We went to see Mets play Tampa Bay Mariners on the Tuesday night. The atmosphere was excellent although our seats weren't the best in the house. We had two hot dogs each and had our photo taken for the Mets website. Everything was orange and blue and what we didn't know was that that evening's game was a decider on Mets winning the series and heading up to the World Series (admittedly they got knocked out pretty sharpish but still...). So when the win was confirmed everyone went crazy! That was a nice experience and the hot dogs weren't too bad either...

The first day there (Sunday) we had a stroll around Brooklyn, then headed across Brooklyn Bridge to South Street Seaport. The weather was truly glorious, sunshine all the way, glimmering skyscrapers etc. A very good start to the week. The weather was a bit more hazy when we whizzed up 86 floors to the top of the Empire State Building. Views were still amazing though, and even though we couldn't see that far aclookross we certainly saw far down! People were so tiny! I am a great lover of heights because I like to be able to see far away and that was definitely top of the list!

The Sex and the City tour we did on Wednesday was fantastic. Abso-fucking-lutely! (For non-fans, thats from the show) The bus took us from outside the Plaza ("Your woman's so lovely, Hubble) to the Pleasure Dome to Greenwich Village. Here we stopped to have the most AMAZING CUPCAKES IN THE WORLD!!! It was from the small bakery outside which Carrie tells Miranda she has a crush on Aidan. From there we proceeded to Carrie's apartment stoop, which although located in Greenwich Village is actually portrayed to be on E 73rd in the show. We had photos taken on the steps and everything! Although apparently the woman living across the road gets really annoyed by people turning up twice a day to have photos taken! The journey continued to Aidan's bar for Cosmopolitans and concluded back at the Plaza, with lots of clips of SATC and quiz questions and all sorts! It turns out that the park where Elizabeth Taylor got gang-banged was the park across the road from our hotel, and when Carrie ran out of the taxi to get the subway to the Stock Exchange, it was the subway we would take from the end of our street!

Mostly we did lots of shopping. The only other sight-seeing thing we did was Ellis Island ferry. We went to see lots of various landmarks but didn't do any museums etc. We saw Hairspray on Broadway which was excellent - a musical just had to be done! We did no real going out apart from some cocktails at the W hotel on the last night. There were generally cocktails everywhere and they were huge! Love it!

So... in no particular order my ten best USA moments:

Having cocktails on the roof of the Market Pavilion Hotel in Charleston, SC

Riding the Gwazi rollercoaster at Busch Gardens in Tampa, FL.

Eating gorgeous medium rare steak at Angelo & Maxi's on 23rd and Park in NYC.

Strolling down the beach at Daytona, FL

The gorgeous four-poster beds of East Bay Inn after a balmy Southern evening and dinner in Savannah, GA.

Driving on the highway with the roof down and Boys of Summer playing near Jamestown, VA.

Catching a first glimpse of the White House from the Washington Monument, DC.

Looking down from the Empire State Building and listening to the sounds of NYC.

Getting off the subway at Shea Stadium to the lights and noise from the game in Queens, NY

The Manhattan skyline from the Jackie O. Reservoir.