Thursday, April 22, 2010

Sunrise over New York - Day 1


Even if the trip over from Norway to New York the day before had been fairly stressful with a 7 hr late arrival, I woke up early enough to catch the sunrise over Central Park and the surrounding area. The above picture was my first view on this trip of New York by day, as we had arrived at our cousin's home a little after midnight. A little later the same part of lower Central Park across to 5th Ave looked like this;


while my other bedroom window gave me a nice view in the morning haze, across the park over to the Upper East Side. As the trees back home still haven't started sprouting, seeing all that green put me in a super mood:


A little recap of what happened: I met my sister in Copenhagen for our onwards flight, which was cancelled due to a problem with one of the motors. My sister posed in front of the "villain" aircraft:


I did, too, however while I'm somewhat underexposed at least my trusty old (and crumpled) Burberry trench is showing, along with the mechanics working to fix the motor in the background:


Since we were rerouted via London Heathrow, we had time for some quick shopping there before boarding our flight with Continental Airlines. I got some snacks for our onwards journey, including a couple of very ingenious minibottles of white wine:


It comes with a plastic wineglass as a cork. Ain't that neat? Perfect for picnics! I wish we had those in Norway, too. My sister drank her's on the way across the Atlantic, but a mighty sour flight attendant spied mine sitting on my tray even before I had got around to open it, and sternly told me he did not appreciate passengers having any BYO picnics onboard his plane. Pay up for drinks from the bar when they eventually get around to serving you, or die of thirst.

Well, at least we got to compare Continental and SAS. If you can live with extremely small intercontinental planes with bad, hot air, no legroom at all and don't mind sharing the two toilets with 200 others, but love watching films and TV, Continental is your airline. The selection of entertainment on board was excellent. More than 40 movies and TV-shows to choose from, many of them brand new. If you can live with far fewer movie choices, but prefer more legroom and shorter queues for the toilets due to there being many more, and can stand cold, fresh freezing air (they do have plenty of blankets though), SAS is the better alternative. I highly recommend insuring your luggage, though. Haha...

After breakfast our cousin drove us up to Woodbury Common Premium Outlets, giving us an interesting guiding of the area we passed through on the way. It's about an hour north of Manhattan, and there are more than 200 stores in every price category, so it's the perfect place for every bargain savvy fashionista. The shops are all in small wooden houses, it's like a tiny, little village with small streets, benches, trees and flowers. There are shuttle buses from Manhattan and back all through the day every day, so even if one doesn't have a car it's easy to get there. I'll be certain to leave enough room in my itinerary on my next visit to NY to go there once again, it was soooo worth it.


Me, our cousin and my sis. Me wearing the same outfit I left home in a day earlier, apart from my new $1.99 white tank that I got in the middle of the night from a 24hr pharmacy. My sis and our cousin have both got the hair and skin genes from the maternal side of the family, while I got mine from the paternal side. It shows, doesn't it?

My first stop was the Levi's outlet store, to get new pants. It was huge, with a marvellous selection. I ended up getting 5 pairs for the same price as I paid for the one pair of boyfriends jeans I got at home a month earlier.


One pair of white denim capris, one pair of straight leg dark wash, one pair of grey skinny jeans and one blue denim boot cut. I also got another pair of boyfriend jeans with a slightly darker color that my first ones, which I was wearing when I took this picture. While they all fit when I bought them, it'll be interesting to try them on again now, as it feels like a couple of kilos have mysteriously (well, maybe not, considering all the running around) disappeared from my hips since I left home.

I also made a few other stops, getting among other things a pair of Ray Ban aviator sunlgasses at 25% off, a velour track pant from Juicy Couture at 30% off and half an outfit from Converse at a cost less than half of what I pay for a pair of those same shoes back here:


We arrived up there at noon, and didn't leave until they closed at 9 pm, after enjoying a dinner at the Italian restaurant Positano:


Starting to get a bit tired there, I think. But I was certainly not the only one who went wild in the stores. When we arrived back home, my cousin's hubby just couldn't believe his eyes when he saw our combined haul:


Bet he was mighty glad he had to go to his office and couldn't come with us. :D

11 comments:

  1. Hi girl:)
    Looks like you had a wonderful trip:)
    Really liked the photos you have taken...

    Welcome home:)

    SP

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  2. Hi - wow I am jealous. The view from your window looks amazing. I love that about staying in cities - especially high rise; it just couldn't be any more different to my normal view when I open my curtains at home! Good to see you did some serious shopping! LB x

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  3. New York is always more seductive behind the camera. Love the views of the City. Great shot!
    Hmmm, that's quite a bit of shopping there, young lady;-)

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  4. Looks like you had a great time. Isn't Woodbury great? I haven't been in a while. Now you've inspired me to take a trip back up there :)

    Oh and that mini bottle of wine is ingenious! I love it!

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  5. 1.What a grumpy flight attendant! He must not be a wino ;)
    2. Although you say crumply, I say fabulous to your Burberry trench
    3. You make 1.99 look wonderful!

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  6. i'm sooo jealous... sounds like a total blast!

    but what i really love.. was the little baby bottle of wine.. HOW FREAKING CUTE.. can something get!

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  7. I love the look on your cousin's husband's face! Priceless! Glad you got some great deals - Woodbury is amazing isn't it?

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  8. Yay for shopping in NY but seriously - I'm squeaaaling over that bottle of wine! I would totally buy them all the time!

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  9. That is such a gorgeous view of the city and Central Park. The wonderful architecture was one of my favorite things about New York City!

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  10. Did you stay with Cousin Denise? I haven't seen her in years and wouldn't recognize her in a crowd of one.

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