We finished up our time in North America with a few excellent days in NYC. It was so much fun to do things we didn’t get around to last time, plus a few things I’ve never done there.
On our first day we went straight to Chinatown and stuffed ourselves full of dumplings. To the brim. Oh it was so glorious, I’d been craving dumplings for months and unsurprisingly they are tough to find in South and Central America. We had xiao long bao, bbq pork buns, pan fried pork and steamed veggies. I’m salivating just typing this now.
After our gluttonous trip to Chinatown we headed uptown to The Met and made a beeline for the roof, no easy feat in a place that would more appropriately be called ‘The Maze’. Up on the roof we were greeted with this:
British artist Cornelia Parker’s rooftop installation is inspired by Edward Hopper’s 1925 painting House by the Railroad, which also inspired the spooky house in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie Psycho. It’s pretty spot on! Creeeeeepy.
The view up there is pretty spectacular.
The house is made from wood salvaged from an abandoned barn in upstate New York, apparently when it rains the wood smells faintly of manure.
It looks so quirky, out of place and contrasts amazingly with the skyscraper skyline.
While we were up there we spotted British actor Michael Palin of Monty Python fame, just hanging out having his photo taken.
Afterwards we wandered back downstairs and had a look at the Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology exhibition.
Chanel
Pretty.
Also Chanel
Dior? I have no idea!
On our final day we met my New Yorker friend Adrienne for lunch at the 2nd Ave Deli, did a spot of shopping, wandered through the Chelsea Market to escape the rain and then saw an evening of improv comedy at the Upstanding Citizens Brigade (an excellent recommendation from reader and fellow blogger Gabrielle). We topped off the night with knockout ice cream sandwiches from Odd Fellows Ice Cream Co.
And so ended our year in the Americas. Was sad to leave but excited for the next adventure: Europe!
My Bloggable Day 
Hi Bec,
Long time reader, first time commenter. Love your blog!
I’m curious about how you guys are going in terms of home sickness and general travel fatigue?
I’m not sure how much longer you guys are planning to travel, but given that you’ve been at it for a year and you’re heading to Europe next, i’m super curious about whether you’re getting sick of travelling at all or have a desire to go home or plant roots somewhere for a while? The reason I ask is that I often dream about going on a year (or more) long adventure but I worry that I’ll get sick of it after a few months. Any advice?!
Gem
Hey Gem, thanks for commenting! To be completely honest I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired in my life, I’m at the point where the bags under my eyes are permanent and I can’t even imagine what it feels like to be well rested! It’s not so great. And even though we’ve been in Ireland for 3 weeks now (I’m a little behind with blogging!) having a pretty relaxing time, trying to get sleep, walking a lot, eating well and doing lots of yoga I’m still absolutely wrecked. So it seems it’s going to take a while to catch up completely! Andrew doesn’t seem to have this problem though, but he’s good at sleeping whereas I’m prone to insomnia.
I’m not sick of travel yet, but I’m definitely sick of hostels and big travel days with planes, buses trains etc. I haven’t been homesick at all, have definitely missed people but not in a debilitating way. I think that’s because I don’t really know where home is right now! We left Kalgoorlie, which was never going to be permanent, I’m from Melbourne but who knows where we’ll end up when we get back!
I guess what I’ve learnt is that you just have to go with how you feel and not push yourself to go sightseeing if you’re just not up to it.
In the next few months we have some really exciting things coming up like a wedding in Scotland of two really close friends and almost a month in the Greek islands, so they are really keeping me going! But I’m also excited about having a home again and all the fun that’s involved with setting up a house.
I really recommend long term travel, perhaps you could do a six month trip or just not set a time frame and allow yourself to come home whenever you feel you need to? It also helps if you can stay with friends or family along the way if you know people overseas. That really helps break up the hostel living.
Sorry that was so long! Hope it helps!
Wow. Thanks for the time and honesty you put into this reply. It’s good to hear that despite being tired you’re still having fun and excited about the rest of your adventures. Good advice about going with the flow and staying with people you know. I think I will probably just start off with a 6 month adventure with the option to come home at the three month point or keep going. Hopefully soon. Reading your blog always gives me wanderlust!
No worries! Let me know how you get on with the travel plans, I love hearing about other peoples’ trips. Also if you don’t set an exact time frame then you won’t feel bad about coming home early. It’s so silly but we were telling people we’d be gone for over a year and even though that’s realistic for us and I never wanted to go home, I felt a bit of pressure to make sure we didn’t come home before a year?! Crazy! But if there’s no time frame to match up with people can’t ask ‘ohhh why did you come home early?’ ‘What went wrong?’ etc.
Beautiful photos. The fashion exhibition looks great x
Thank you! I totally forgot about the fashion exhibit until we were there, a nice little added bonus 🙂
I loved the honesty of your response to Gem – following along your whole adventure so far has been so amazing because it’s all so honest and genuine, bumps and all 🙂 While we sadly don’t feel like we’re really in the position to pack up, throw caution to the wind and leave right now, you have been a big inspiration contribution to the “big” 4 month trip we’ve decided to take next year, so thank you!! Cannot wait to see/hear about your time in Europe!
Four months is amazing Jess!! I’m so excited for you guys! Where are you going?! You have to remember it was a lot easier for us to pack up and leave because we were both living somewhere temporary (and not even together in our own house!) and we don’t have an adorable dog to look after. Hopefully all those things will come later!
Hehe that’s a good point Bec – bit different with a mortgage, a fur baby, and a husband who actually loves his job!
But yay 4 months!! We’ll be all over – USA, Canada, Iceland, Morocco, Turkey, Italy, UK, Thailand… And lots more! You really were a massive inspiration to just bite the bullet and commit to doing it though, so thank you!! 🙂 xo
I had no idea this existed! How funky and cool 🙂
There is a different installation on the roof each summer, so this is the one for 2016. It’s really awesome!
How amazing are dumplings! We found the cutest little hole in the wall dumpling store in the Lower East Side … love all the little hidden shops/restaurants around NYC! So happy to hear you enjoyed the comedy show in Chelsea x
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