A Whirlwind Wanderlust

A Whirlwind Wanderlust

Currently I am riding and writing on a bus from DC back to foxy knoxy. This is the 4^th time I have been on a Megabus in the last 5 days—a total of 27hours. It has been megabus mayhem…but that’s what happens when you are a poor college student. Even though it is not the most luxurious trip it has been safe and bearable. It has also allowed me to see an incredible amount of the U.S. for under 60$.

Me and my Big, Ashlee, left Knoxville on Tuesday morning and arrived at Union Station in DC by 8pm where my friend Emma picked us up. Emma has lived in Bethesda (right outside of DC) for the summer. Emma so graciously let us stay with her—which eliminated hotel costs while in DC. We stayed in that night and recuperated from the long bus ride.

The next morning Ashlee and I headed into DC via Metro from Bethesda. The great thing about DC is that almost all the sights are free. The Smithsonian’s are free and so are the monuments—which is fabulous for us college students. We went to the American History Museum as well as the Natural History Museum. 

After that we went to the WWII memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and the Vietnam Memorial. We also took many pics in front of the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument. We took the Mall metro back to Bethesda to meet up with Emma for some dinner.

The next day (Thursday) we took the metro back to Union Station where the three of us loaded on a megabus to NYC. The bus was packed but we didn’t care…in less than four hours we would be in the city of lights. We arrived in the City around 11:30am—the bus just kind of dumped us out on the streets. Thank the good Lord above for smart phones. We navigated our way to the Four Points Sheraton in the Garment District. Our hotel was about 2 blocks from Times Square. It was a very nice hotel for the price we got it. They also let us check in early!

 So we put our bags in our room then went to get some NY style pizza. We asked some locals where we should go and several people pointed us to the direction of Bella Vita Pizza!

 It was delicious. We wandered around Times Square with our mouths gaping at the sights. We still couldn’t believe that these three Tennessee gals were smack dab in Times Square.  It was such a whirlwind. We then went back to the hotel to get all dolled up for a night out. I must say…we cleaned up pretty nice. There are many rumors of New Yorkers not being very nice… but when we put on our high heels all the men were very nice! 

But then we quickly realized that the heels were a bad idea and changed back. Live and learn, I guess. Trying to avoid the storm that was about to break loose we stumbled into a restaurant called Inakaya. It was a very authentic sushi restaurant. They even had live entertainment—well if you call pounding sticky rice and yelling at the top of their lungs entertainment!

After the storm and dinner we met some friends from TN who were also in the Big Apple! It was nice to see some familiar faces in such a big place.

 

Later that evening the college girls in us came out to play. We decided to try and get into a lounge on top of a hotel next to us…and to our surprise…it worked! We got on the elevator and went up up up up! Finally when reached the 40^th floor or so we stepped out into this chic lounge overlooking Times Square! 

  

   

We met some really nice people from all over the US in the lounge. Later we went a few doors down to a pub/restaurant. After socializing there for a little while the Irish owner and his partner took a liking to us Tennessee girls! He said he liked out accents—which is funny because we were thinking the same thing about his! 

   

Then we went to Times Square to take some pictures with the lights and NYPD!

Then, us girls headed back to the hotel and got some much needed sleep!

The next day (Friday) was incredible! We went shopping (aka looking) on 5^th Ave. We stopped at places like H&M, Ann Taylor, Michael Kors, Prada, Harry Winston, and TIFFANY AND COMPANY! I definitely picked out my engagement ring while I was there. So boys: consult Ashlee or Emma about the details. After Tiffany&co we stopped by Central Park for a few snapshots. 

Then we attempted to navigate the subway to Canal St. By trial and error, we came to find out that the DC and NYC subway systems are very different. The three of us were getting pretty hangry (hungry+angry) at this point. We finally made our way to Little Italy where pasta and Italian sweets (food and men, haha) made us very happy girls. 

 

After that we decided to try our luck in Chinatown. It was pretty sketchy…but ultimately we made some nice purchases. I must say I pride myself on being an excellent haggler. I mean, can you believe I got a Tiffany&co necklace for 15$--that’s some skill (haha if only it was real)!

We tried the subway one more time to get back to our hotel—where they let us keep our bags for the day even after checkout! It wasn’t a breeze on the subway but we made it! We then went to Guy&Gallard—a café close to our hotel that we frequented within our 24 hours there.

We lucked out because our hotel was on 40Wst and the megabus pickup was on 41Wst—so our poor little feet were quite pleased. We got in line 30 min early…but to our dismay the line was wrapped completely around the block. Apparently the megabus is not an efficient nor organized way of travel when leaving NYC. There were about 600 angry people who didn’t know what was going on, and they bus lines were running an hour behind. While we were waiting, I went on a hot dog run and snapped a picture with NY fire fighter and his truck! 

    

I wasn’t going to pass that up! We thank our lucky stars that we eventually got on a bus. We stopped in Baltimore and then headed back to Union Station. We got back to Bethesda via Metro about 2am.

Needless to say we slept in the next day(Saturday). Ashlee headed up to visit her family in Annapolis while Emma and I took our yearly visit to a Cheesecake factory!

 We then ventured into the city via metro again. I really wanted to visit the Holocaust Museum with her. My best friend has a plethora of knowledge, and I love that she can tell me all about her Jewish culture and heritage. We putted around the city for a while taking pictures and just enjoying each other’s company.

We took the metro back to Bethesda and met Emma’s mom for some authentic Asian food! It was delicious! Then Emma and I went to a party/gathering in Potomac--  very rich neighborhood. Our theme song for the ride there and back was Ke$sha’s “Party at a Rich Dude’s House”. After a bit of socializing we drove back to Bethesda and met Ashlee. Shortly after, scrabble and sleep were our close friends.

And now here I am on the mega bus! I survived this whirlwind trip with two of my best friends! I had so much fun, and I learned so much about city-life and myself! It gave me just a taste of the world that I can’t wait to keep exploring. I now have a bad case of wanderlust, and I don’t want to be cured.

If you have any questions on how to take an inexpensive whirlwind trip like we did, just contact me at ocrowe29@gmail.com. I would be absolutely ecstatic to help spread this travel bug!