Broadway and the pedestrian rush

I  am so much of a citygirl93. Have I told you how much I hate people who walk slowly on pavements? :<

I managed to catch two musicals on Broadway - Mamma Mia and Cabaret. Tickets on Broadway are so much more expensive than in West End so we queued for rush tickets instead. We caught the weekend matinee for Mamma Mia and thankfully we didn't have to queue for more than an hour. There were no rush tickets for Cabaret though, so I bought full price. It was Michelle William's last performance and I must say it was thoroughly entertaining. Alam Cummings is so sassy and I couldn't get the opening song out of my head for the next few weeks. The floorplan for Cabaret is also nothing I've seen before (suaku, maybe haha, but definitely different from the usual theatre). All the stalls were converted into dinner tables and there were 19th-century-provocative-dressed waitresses and waiters serving snacks and drinks throughout the show haha. Quite cool how the service crew are not just waitstaff but actors too. Mamma Mia was fun and left the audience standing and boogying to cheesy ABBA songs towards the end. I was so surpised to find Elena Ricardo - the Spring Awakening aka my all time favourite musical's protagonist, playing Sophie in Mamma Mia. Yay!

Also, I managed to catch Punchdrunk's Sleep No More. Punchdrunk is a British theatre company that does the coolest form of immersive theatre ever. The entire set is your playground and as an audience participant you wander around the curious rooms and landscapes, which are furnished to the minutest of detail. Once in a while you'll bump into an actor, whom you can follow as he/she moves across the set and acts (more like dances) out his story. It's the coolest thing ever and ever since watching their London play the Drowned Man I was craving so badly to watch another one of their productions. Imagine my delight when I found out they were still playing in NYC!!! Honestly I thought the Drowned Man was more engaging and less repetitive but I still had a great time. Okay, end of my gleaming, self-indulgent review hahaha.

I loved Central Park! It's soooooo big and I love urban parks. Regent's Park is my (almost) weekly haunt in London and I love how you can escape into open green space any time you feel like you need a break from the computer and people. Regent's is also big enough for me to take a different route every time I visit so it's always enjoyable. If I ever live in NYC (Masters? :P), this is surely going to be my weekly haunt too. We were lucky to visit the Park on a shining sunny day and had the pleasure of walking around coatless :D

We explored downtown Manhattan with Sandemann Tours, as always. I am a huge fan of their free tours in Europe and I have taken at least five so far. They guides never disappoint with their extensive knowledge of random city trivia. Not sure how much of what they say is true, but nevertheless entertaining.

We had such a hard time finding the pedestrian entrance to this bridge haha. I don't even know why but I thought the bridge would start from the river banks but apparently not lol. Trust Google Maps and not your insticts, girl.

Finally, after reading about this so often on urban geography texts, I finally get to visit the Highline and ooh I love it! I'm always a huge fan of urban greenery and adaptive reuse and I must say the New Yorkers are so lucky to have this! I am also loving how unlike many other regenerated spaces there aren't commercial establishments/ cafes/ restaurants on every corner. The last picture is a cute glass viewing window that goes across the street. I reckon this would be my Marina Bay of NYC. I'd sit here and watch the cars zoom past under me all day.

I spent 6 days in NYC, barely enough to get a glimpse of this city. It's definitely on my bucket list to be back there to see the rest of it. I did go to Brooklyn's Williamsburg (aka mega gentrified hipster land) for dinner and a pub crawl (also visited Barcade, this ultra cute vintage arcade bar) but I really want to see Brooklyn in daytime too. I think the next time I visit NYC I'll base myself in Brooklyn. I've heard so much about how diverse it is and I'm liking the indie vibe too. #notbeingactyigehipster hahaha :)

Hope you had fun reading about my trip! I had so much fun and I can't wait to be back and ooh you really need to be there yourself to experience it!! 

xx