NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Okay, so a week in the beautiful town of Howth proved just what the doctor ordered. After boarding our wonderful flight to Abu Dhabi both Prince Charming and myself started having the inevitable sniffles that only airplane air-conditioning systems can bring. With the help of some wonderful days in Howth, Dublin CBD and a country outing into Wexford we were right as rain for a last leg of the journey to New York City. However before the inevitable farewells began we were treated to a true Irish shindig in celebration of our marraige. Wonderful people, delicious food and broadway musical renditions of some old favourites, the night was fantastic and one for the memory banks! A fond farewell was said to Ireland and an excited couple boarded the plane for the final leg of the journey to New York City!

WOW! Okay, you'll have to bare with me here for a while because there are very few words that can actually describe the pulse of a city like New York. Firstly, after landing we took our lives into our hands by getting into one of the famous (and infamous) NYC yellow cabs. With our small african country's worth of luggage we held our breath as we speedily weaved our way from JFK airport into Manhattan over 59th Street Bridge. Now there is nothing that quite prepares you for your first sight of New York City. It literally rises imposingly in front of you from out of no-where, looks you dead in the eye and quashes all preconceived ideas you may have had of it based on movies and your own personal imagination. Imagine for a moment being stared down by pack of hungry alaskan wolves. Now translate that into hundreds of highrise buildings all showcasing what they have to offer, where they are located in the city that nevers sleeps and how much taller and more imposing each one is to the other. Now put yourself in that picture... feels like being eaten by a pack of wolves. You are tiny, you are in the busiest, most franatic, continously moving city in the world. It smells like the busiest kitchen in the universe might smell if it was cooking with elbow grease, paprika, diesel and good old American enthusiam! It engulfs you, seeps into your pores, re-calibrates the beats within the core of your heart and then releases you to your own devices. You smile, you glow, you look up and continually asses your size, you spin yourself in circles trying to take everything in and then finally you realise: You're in New York City Baby!

It smells like childhood dreams, tastes like the last perfect bite of your favourite meal and feels like the hugs your grandfather used to give you when you came over to save him from gran and her bridge friends! It sings your favourite songs into your ears, tells you all the jokes that make you laugh and reminds you it's amazing to be alive. And the people... they move like the beat of a drum. They are the rythmn that flows between the forest of buildings like an electric current getting as quickly and efforlessly from point A to point B. They never stop. The city is always bright, there is never a permanent evening, only a beautiful evening glow the presides over the city like the gods suggesting it may be time to sleep but that's up to you! It's wonderful, amazing, far beyond expectations and nothing short of breathtaking. It's New York City Baby! 

New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of
There’s nothing you can’t do
Now you’re in New York
These streets will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you
Hear it for New York, New York, New York