NEW YORK Day 3

We started our third day in NY with visiting the Empire State Building (1). The best words to describe the building would be sturdy and solid as a rock. The whole interior is made of marble which is quite impressive! We didn't go to the top, but saved the New York City view for later that day when we visited the Top of the Rock. In the second photo you can see me hailing my first cab; I have to say, I felt very New Yorkish :) The first few cabes ignored me though haha. The cab took us to the end of the High Line (3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9). We chose to start our walk at the end so that we had the sunshine on our faces and the wind in our backs (believe me, the wind in New York can be extremely pierce). We were extremely lucky with the weather; the sun shone during our entire stay in New York! It is crazy to think that blizzard Nemo had hit the city a week before our visit. The High Line was truly amazing and if you ever go to New York, don't miss it! It used to be an elevated railway, but since 2005 it has gradually been renovated into an urban park which stretches out over 1,6km. You should look it up on Google Earth or Google Maps to get a better idea of the construction; I think it's brilliantly made and so innovative! I, as a future Social Geography student, am really interested in these kind of projects because they influence the surrounding neighbourhoods and change the identity of these neighbourhoods. They also provide a community spirit which I mentioned as well in my previous post. I bet the High Line is amazing in summer: I can already imagine children running around, romantic couples going for an evening walk and friends laughing and eating ice creams. I definitely want go back there one day! Halfway the High Line we made a stop at Chelsea Market (10, 11 and 12), which is an amazing project as well! It's a food market located in an old Oreo factory, which stopped producing cookies half a century ago. It is a really relaxing place where you can have something to eat or to drink: we drank hot chocolate to warm up a bit :)

We ended our walk at the beginning of the High Line (I know, it doesn't make any sense haha), which is in the Meatpacking District (13); another New York highlight on my wish list! I liked it, but I think the area comes much more alive in the evening and at night, so I recommend you to go then! My mum took the two photos of me (14 and 15) in front of the Diane von Furstenburg store, of which the opening back in 90's played an important role in the transformation of the area to the nowadays trendy and fashionable Meatpacking District.

We took the subway (16) to Central Park (18) where had lunch at the Boathouse (17). The Boathouse was great, with a beautiful view on the lake of Central Park. A lot of Upper East Siders brunch/lunch there and I was flabbergasted by all the people I saw! I always thought the characters in Gossip Girl were extremely exaggerated, but they are not! The women at the Boathouse were just like the women in Gossip Girl, and then I am mainly referring to the mums. The Nanny Diaries (with Scarlett Johansson playing the lead role) is another movie about the Upper East Side and to me it portrays the Upper East Side life perfectly; you should watch it :)

In the afternoon we went shopping on Fifth Avenue: Abercrombie&Fitch for my brother and Massimo Dutti for me :) I bought a golden bracelet which I will show you in a haul soon! We ended our busy day at the Top of the Rock (19, 20, 21 and 22) where we witnessed the most amazing sunset, truly magical! Sigh...

Sorry for this extremely long post, I just want to tell you all about my thoughts and experiences in New York. xoxo (in Gossip Girl style of course) Aimee

NEW YORK Day 1 and 2

I'm back from New York! It was everything I had expected and more! New York is definitely the concrete jungle where dreams are made of :) To my surprise New Yorkers are extremely kind and helpful unlike, for example, Parisians who in my opinion are quite uptight and snobbish. Although New Yorkers live their own lives and mind their own business, there is a certain community spirit which gives New York a great atmosphere. Taking Starbucks, which of course is a cliché (especially on blogs), as an example; it's a place where people come together to relax and meet up with friends, to work on their laptops and to have a nice cup of coffee while reading a book. 

I noticed that New Yorkers work hard, which is understandable since living in New York isn't exactly cheap. However, they have fun too and they love going out for dinner. My dad looked up the amount of restaurants in New York and there are over 8000! This means that you are able to go to a different restaurant every day for more than 20 years. That's insane! Another insane thing was the food: it was insanely delicious! :) I think I might have gained a few pounds haha. Every meal I ate was well cooked with fresh ingredients, amazing! My mum even mentioned that Italian restaurants in New York might be better than restaurants in Rome. This actually wouldn't surprise me given that a lot of Italians (and of course other Europeans) moved to the USA. I can assure you one thing guys, you will see a lot of food pics in the following posts! Now, about the first two days:

Day 1

We arrived at about two in the afternoon at our hotel the Giraffe. Our room was on the tenth floor so we had a New York street view (1). We were quite jetlagged, but we decided to explore our neighbourhood anyway. Our hotel was close to Madison Square Park (2 and 3), a beautiful park with squirrels! We had lunch/dinner at Eataly, a big Italian foodmarket with several shops and restaurants, which was on my New York wish list because I had read about it on many blogs and in many magazines. It was crowded, but the atmosphere was great! At about 18.00, we were all so tired that we went back to our hotel and I fell asleep immediately.  

Day 2

We got up early because of the jetlag and of course because we were excited to discover New York! After a delicious breakfast with fresh bread and strawberries, we headed for the subway. Our first stop was Grand Central (4 and 5) which was on my wish list, because the first episode of Gossip Girl was partly filmed there: "Oh my god, someone saw Serena getting of the train at Grand Central!" :) Our next stop was Soho. After spending approximately one day there, I can definitely say that Soho is my favorite neighbourhood in New York. I love the modernized industrial buildings and all the amazing art, interior and clothing shops. We went to several stores such as Dean&Deluca (6 and 7), a luxurious shop with delicious food products, and the Apple store, which was pretty impressive! The whole interior was white and it had glass stairs. My brother and I were goofing around a bit, which resulted in taking effect pictures (8), yes I know, we are very charming haha. Of course I had to stop by American Apparel and Topshop (9 and 10). We had coffee at Starbucks (11) and a few hours later, after we had explored Soho a bit more (12), we had lunch at Fanelli's. I ordered french toast, a sunny side up and bacon and, oh my god, it was so good! (13) I know the dish might look quite gross in the photo, but it certainly wasn't, take it from me! In the afternoon we went to West Village, which is famous for its brownstone houses and fire escape stairs (14). I certainly sensed the bohemian lifestyle which is centered in West Village; the neighbourhood isn't called Little Bohemia for nothing! Of course I had to walk by Carrie Bradshaw's 'house' on 66 Perry Street (15) and buy a cupcake at Magnolia Bakery (16). In the evening we went to Times Square (17, 18 and 19), which was quite an experience! It was freezing cold! It felt like I was walking around in Siberia, I even get goosebumps now thinking of how cold it was! I totally understand that New Yorkers avoid Times Square, because nothing in New York is more touristy than that, but it was fun to see it anyway. After a hot bath at the hotel, I went to bed exhausted, but satisfied :)

I hope you enjoyed this post! Many more New York posts will be following including a haul and two outfit posts, so stay tuned! Love Aimee   

TRAVEL DIARY - NY, here I come!

Source photos: www.tuulavintage.com

Tomorrow morning I'll be on the plane to New York! Gosh, I have been looking forward to this trip for so long! I have a long list with things I want to do: Top of the Rock, Williamsburg, Magnolia Bakery, the High Line, Soho, East Village, Guggenheim, Central park, Brooklyn Bridge, Meatpacking District, West Village and the list goes on... Of course I will also be doing some serious shopping :) I will probably leave NY broke, but with a happily stuffed suitcase! I don't think I'll have any time to post while I am in the Big Apple, but expect an overload of photos when I am back home! These inspiration pics are from one of my favorite bloggers Tuula. In my opinion she captures the New York atmosphere amazingly and I thought I'd share them with you! xoxo Aimee

PHOTOGRAPHY - overlay

Sorry for my lack of posts lately! My final year of high school turns out to be very busy. My weeks are filled with tests, projects and other (mostly boring) school work! Today I finally found some spare time to experiment with photography effects on www.picmonkey.com, the site on which I edit all my photos. I have been wanting to use the overlay effect for a while now and I thought I would just give it a try! I really like how these overlays turned out! Do you often use effects? Love Aimee

OUTFIT - romantique

H&M dress (new) | Six bracelet | Esprit booties

Time for an outfit post! I saw this dress in H&M the other day and I instantly fell in love with it! It is romantic, cute and flowy; just the way I like it! This dress might seem a bit cold at this time of year (and shooting this outfit definitely was freaking cold!) and I guess it is meant to be worn in spring and summer, but at school I always find myself feeling too warm in thick sweaters and layers of clothing. I like my clothes to be a little airy and thin, even in winter. My friends often use me as a heater haha, because apparently I always have a warm skin :) I am really glad with the way these photos turned out! Sunshine makes a photo so much better! Thank you dear An for facing the cold and taking these photos of me! xoxo Aimee