Coming from a humid Ecuador to New York’s snow and chilling wind was a shock to the system, but to experience the sparkle and crispness of the city in the winter was worth every numb toe and runny nose.

On one of the days, the weather went from being grey and bitterly cold to bright and sunny so we took the opportunity to spend a lovely few hours strolling from the north end of Central Park down to 57th Street. I’d never taken the time to explore the park before and it was a perfect day for a walk; cold but crisp and bright. Central Park is a great amenity and were it not for the ever present Manhattan skyline in the background, you could be in the middle of the countryside. I thought we’d have seen the last of any real wildlife when we left the Galapagos, but the area was full of life and we even spotted a large red-tailed hawk watching the world go by from a tree.

We were quick to settle back into the land of plenty although I struggled to clear my plate when we ate out. We mainly stuck to budget restaurants but also managed to fit in a couple of nice meals. The Spotted Pig gastropub in the West Village was definitely a highlight. This is the only pub I’ve ever ate in that has a michelin star and their burger and chips was probably the tastiest I’ve ever had. I didn’t realise that a pub burger could be so good! It wasn’t too expensive either (about $18 for a main) although their pints were pretty pricey at $9 (plus) a pop. We had planned on visiting after Riona had read about the place in a few magazines, but it was while we were strolling around one afternoon that we came across it and decided to have some tucker. One of my favourite things to do in New York is to stroll around the city with no particular plan and let her quirks, sights and attractions find you. There’s something here for everyone, you could walk the streets for years and never get bored. Some of my highlights included exploring Chelsea’s Indoor Market, trying the gluttonously thick chilli-hot-chocolate at Jacques Torres chocolate shop in Brooklyn, having a post-dinner cupcake in the Magnolia bakery in the West Village and warming up the old bones with Hale and Hearty‘s cheddar and tomato soup. My desire to eat good western-style food again was pretty evident!

Mainly because of the cold weather (it was sometimes too cold to just wander the streets) we spent more time shopping than we had planned, just to be indoors! NYC really is consumer heaven, we picked up some great bargains in Macys (there were big sales on) and in the shops along Broadway from Canal St to Union Square. We also visited the Jersey Gardens Outlet, Filene’s Basement and Century 21- all of which contain lots of junk but we did get some good bargains in reward for our perseverance. Riona thought she had hit the jackpot when we stumbled across a sample sale in Chelsea Market and I had to leave her to it for a few hours as she wreaked havoc on her credit card

I had never been to a Broadway show and so on our last day we queued up at Times Square for discount tickets to one of the big shows. We ended up at Spring Awakening, which was great -it’s a musical tale about the sexual awakening of a group of teenagers in 1890′s Germany, but with modern music and a few raunchy sex scenes. Not one for the kids, but it had the audience veering between laughter and tears and we both really enjoyed it.

We stayed in the L Hostel in Harlem for $25 each a night and it was perfect, just a few months old, modern, clean and close to the subway. We hardly spent any time there as we were up and out each morning and not home until we were ready to sleep each night. On one of the nights we met our old friend Pam from home and another night we met Nina, a girl we had met briefly when we were in Peru.

After six fantastic days in NYC, it was time to pack our (much heavier) bags and start our final journey back home. After so long being on the road where our biggest worry was where we would go next, the thought of settling back in to a very different country from the one we left was a little depressing, but it would be nice to see our family and friends again and at least we had Christmas to look forward to.

This final entry is being written a few weeks later and already the whole trip seems like a dream! After a few days of being home, it was like we had never left. We plan to keep this blog updated from time to time with photos from around Ireland and from any other holiday we take (probably not anytime soon!). You can subscribe for future updates here. Other than that, thanks for reading! Good night, God bless and safe home ;-)