Have you ever gone somwhere that you’ve heard, seen, and read so much about that when you arrive it all seems like you’ve been there before? New York is like that for me.

We arrived in New York early, having taken an overnight bus from Toronto. A huge, double decker overnight bus filled with adults who acted suspiciously like children. Antics on this ten hour bus included:

• Taking up two seats with feet, bags, and other things and then complaining when someone needed the seat.
• Stealing other people’s seats during stops.
• Tattling to the bus driver.
• Claiming a seat was yours when it wasn’.
• Being sent back to original seats with the bus driver watching.

So it was just like being on a school bus. But for ten hours.

But we made it and once we got off the bus and started walking to our hostel, all I could think was “Huh, New York looks just like it does in the movies.”

And the more we saw of the city, the more familiar it seemed to me.

We did all the typical touristy stuff. We went up the Empire State Building, to Times Square, to Macy’s. We didn’t got to the Statue of Liberty, partially because we didn’t have a whole lot of time. But also because now we have a reason to go back. Besides, we saw the M&M version. It’s sort of the same thing. Sort of.

We also did some not so touristy things. We went M&M World (Okay, this one is pretty touristy but what you usually think of when you think of New York. Did you know they make coconut M&M’s? They do and they taste kind of odd. We had dinner at Olive Garden and smuggled as many breadsticks out as we could. We walked the length of Broadway. That was interesting. But New York was fun and I will one day go back.