In 2021, we want to give you some special editions of the Travel Book throughout the year. Whilst there is still so many places to write about, I think it is also really fun to write about actual experiences that I have had whilst travelling. There have been so many interesting stories so I thought what better way to celebrate them then by telling you all about them.

July 4th and The Bucket List

I am currently re-reading Karl Pilkington’s book Idiot Abroad 2 and one thing that apparently is in the Top 100 things to do before you die is to spend July 4th in America. I didn’t know that was a thing and I have done actually done that! How exciting one thing ticked off without even realising it!

In 2010, I was working in New York City and I was lucky enough to be there for July 4th. I worked with some people who knew the place to celebrate the holiday in style so they asked me along an we all went together.

The main place to go was the waterside, it’s terrible because I don’t actually remember which part of NYC we went to, all I remember was that it was really hot. I vaguely remember going to a Whole Foods near Central Park but I have no idea where we went on the waterside.

It was a really hot day and we went to the waterside early afternoon to get a good spot for the fireworks as it is the place to go. We found a spot, set up a base camp, had a picnic and chilled out for the next lot of hours. The area filled up so fast, it was so crowded that you couldn’t really walk around very easily.

I don’t remember much about the wait but I remember the amazing sunset as I took a lot of photos of it. My favourite memory of the evening was the fireworks – they were the best fireworks I have ever seen in my life they were so good!

I have such happy memories of that night and another thing that stands out in my memory is the walk after as is was incredibly busy and we had to walk back to Central Station which was quite far away.