Chitchat: My Trip to the United States (Long & Picture Heavy)

It feels so good to sit at my computer and blog again! Hello ladies, I'm back! Those of you who follow me on Instagram know that I went to Washington DC and New York in the beginning of September. I haven't been on a real vacation (longer than three days) since March last year so I was very happy and excited! 

After a long plane ride, my parents and I arrived in Washington DC at about 3pm where took a shared taxi van to our hotel in Georgetown. We were staying in the heart of Georgetown, in a hotel near M Street. This street is a shopaholic's dream. Beautiful stores EVERYWHERE. 

 The white stone is the exact center of the capitol

I found myself a handsome boyfriend at the capitol, I think he looks a bit like Bruce Willis.

We spent two days of our stay there to visit the National Mall, which is a big park with lots of monuments and museums. The first day, we visited the Capitol, the Smithsonian American Arts Museum and we went to see the White House. All the museums and monuments are FREE, which is a very cool thing so we walked into a lot of places just to take a little peak. Talking about walking... We walked a lot. My feet were killing me! I got stung by a bee, who got all close and personal with me by getting under my dress and stinging me in the thigh. Luckily, our hotel was close to a CVS Pharmacy and we found a cream for insect bites (which will be included in my September favorites for sure!) It really helped!
The day after that, with a lot more walking, we visited the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery and we went to a mall in Pentagon City, Virginia.

The next day, we hired a car to drive to New Jersey, where we would be staying. We rented an appartment in Newport, at the waterside. We had a complete view of the skyline of New York from our bedrooms and living room. I can see myself living there. There was a subway station nearby, so we could go to New York city very easily. That night, we just stayed at the appartment and ordered pizza, so we could get some rest and be ready for the next day.

First day in New York - It was the second time we visited New York, first time was 5 years ago, so we made a list of things we really wanted to visit. But we also decided to go at our own tempo, a bit more relax than last time. The first day started AMAZING when we went into the Marc Jacobs Beauty store, where they told us that they were doing free manicures with Marc Jacobs Nail polishes. I choose a classic red color called 'Lola' and my nails have never looked better! We walked around a bit and also visited Magnolia Bakery, Chelsea Market, Macy's and Times Square that day. Nearby Times Square, we had an amazing dinner! Steak with buttered noodels and wild mushroom sauce. Waw, that was one of the best pasta dishes in my life!

Second day in New York - We took a ferry to Pier 11 and passed by Ground Zero. Suddenly, we saw Century 21, which is a gigantic outlet department store. I got a little black Guess bag and a Tommy Hilfiger makeup bag. They were so inexpensive! You really have to know what you are looking for when you go shop there because there are so much jewelry, clothes, bags,... You can get a bit lost there! We decided not to stay too long because we really wanted to visit Brooklyn Heights. We took the subway to get there and by that time, we were pretty hungry.We went to a restaurant where I drank a white Cosmopolitan, the best one I've ever drank and I ordered the classic Mac 'n Cheese. My dad had the tuna salad and my mom the tuna BLT with fries, which all looked amazing! This was one of my favorite restaurants of the trip. After that, we walked around a bit more and took some photos of the skyline of New York. We then went back to New Jersey to visit a mall nearby the appartment.

Third day in New York - We did a lot of walking, again! We walked on Fifth Avenue, Strawberry Fields (which was created by Yoko Ono in remembrance of John Lennon), China Town and Little Italy. We went to an amazing Chinese restaurant 'Dim Sum Go Go' and had the best dim sum of New York. It was delicious and we had lots of left over for the next day.

Fourth and last day in New York - We went to visit Bloomingdale's, where I had a big fan girl moment. I'm a really big fan of America's Next Top Model, I've watched every season about 6 times and I'm following the new cycle. Suddenly, I saw Don Benjamin, AKA my favorite contestant of last cycle. I was like: OH MY GOD! I went to say hi and his (very handsome) friend suggested he'd take a photo of us. I still can't believe this happened. He was there with other models to show the new line of clothing created for Bloomingdale's. They had to do a runway in the windows of the store, which was very cool. My mind was blown. We then walked to the Whitney Museum of American Art, where every friday after 6pm, you can pay whatever you want to come in instead of 18$. I'm a big art fan and there was a gigantic Jeff Koons exposition so I had a blast. We went home and had the leftovers of the night before. The day after that, we visited Jersey Gardens, which is an outlet mall in New Jersey, went shopping (my oldest brother asked for jeans, my sisters in law wanted perfumes and i got a few birthday presents for friends that have or will be having their birthday soon!)

Wauw, I spent two days writing this blogpost! I hope you guys made it this far and I hope you enjoyed! Do you guys want to see a haul? I got a lot of stuff so I will have to do a haul in parts... Let me know if you guys are interested to see that!

Have a nice evening, my ladies!
xx, 
Astrid