You know these people that you'll see in museums, standing in front of some picture for at least 10min with this sceptic/brainworking face, deep in thoughts? Well i am definitly not one of them. Therefore i usually not go to museums, or at least i do not stay long inside. I stroll around and have a look most of the time, approving or not what i see. But even I stayed in MET museum a whole morning, due to it's size and this was a rare moment i actually liked it.

The museum is built on 2 floors, representing different types of Art from all over the world. You'll first enter the centered entrance hall, which is already impressive and huge. Also you'll recognize it from the MET Gala Pictures or different movies, eg. Percy Jackson and the lightning thief.

This is playing mainly on the ground floor, where all sculptures and ancient art is presented.

Here the influence of daylight is very impressive. On a nice day, which we had a lot of, the sun is shining brightly in most of the huge halls and the atmosphere is really impressive. This makes you feel connected directly to the sky, home to the gods and myths represented here.

Nevertheless the museum also always feautures current exhibitions. During our stay it was a really nice collection of Irving Penn, which i have never heard of before, being no art connoisseur. But my friend is a fan of him and has been in several of his exhibitions. So she was really excited. Indeed it was quite nice to see.

If you proceed to 2nd floor, by the central stairs, you will find yourself between the most famous european artists paintins. The french part was my favourite, being honest. Many of Monet's famous garden paintings are placed here, as well as Van Goghs masterpieces in the Dutch Rooms. For not knowing much about art, i at least recognized these. 

There are also a lot of historical paintings from different european personalities, history lovers will feel really comfortable here.

Another great experience is to visit the roofterrace, which can be only accessed by the elevator in the right wing of the museum. It's a bit tricky to find, since it's not advertised as much, but worth a visit.

Prices up in the bar are insane, so we just went up for the view, which is incredible and giving you another perspective over central park.

This museum is really big and although we skipped the modern art wing, it took us several hours to leave. Also my friend, who is the biggest giftshopper ever got lost in the huge shops. There are at least 3 over the place.

The entrance for the museum is almost for free, since you can decide yourself how much you are willing to pay. Many people do not know this, since there is a big sign with 25$ entrance for adults, with a tiny, tiny star (suggestion, you pay as much as you wish to donate).

The museum is sponsored by a lot of huge companies, and i doubt they actually need the money. Our air bnb host avised us strictly not to pay as much, since Americans also do not pay, she thinks it's not fair to "exploit unawared foreigners"

Nevertheless you will have to live with a very grumpy assistant of the museum, if you say you'd like to donate 1$ only. Next to me there was a girl, who bravely only gave 10cents. Well, there are only a few, few people who have too much money and we do not belong to them.

I have been extremely excited to see New York City, because my very favourite TV show was filmed here. I have seen Gossip Girl for the first time during my High School Years and since then i already rewatched it several times. Might watch it once more, when winter is coming to Sweden. Just to beam myself back to the Upper East Side. I can never get enough of it. If you feel the same, prepare for some of the nicest tv sets, that i visited in New York. I literally dragged my dear friend to all those spots, since she is actually not such a big fan. But THANK YOU for standing out my obsession!

Grand Central Station
"Spotted: Lonely Boy - Can't believe the love of his life has returned. If only she knew who he was"

Every fan will remember the opening scene at Grand Central, when S returns to town and also Dan and his sister Jenny are fetched from their father at the Train Station.

Of course this was the first stop of my little GG trip. Nevertheless Grand Central is shown also in many other movies and films and definitely as stunning as shown on TV. The architecture is incredible and compared to other places, the entrance hall is indeed really big. Most famous the watch in the center on top of the information center is a must-see and from the different balconies all around you can stop and watch the endless amount of travelers and commuters running to their trains. Of course this place is packed with tourists and i guess some teenage gossip girl fans like me as well.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
"Blair: Would you do me a favour? Anything. Move down a couple of steps"

So the very famous stairs Blair Waldorf and her clique sit on every day is located at 1000 Fifth Avenue At 81st St · 10028 New York. The entrance of the Met Museum. Many fights and scandals have been created by sitting too high, too low on the stairs, which symbolises the hierarchy on the Upper East Side. The origin of a lot of drama is worth a visit. There are indeed lots and lots of people who take pictures on those famous stairs, so you will never find it empty.

Bethesda Terrace and Fountain
Whether it is Nate Archibald and his Father running in Central Park or other endless scenes, this fountain is displayed several times in many episodes. Most important and amazing scene is the incredible wedding of Blair and Chuck. I will never forget how Chuck runs down the stairs, Blair in her light blue Elie Saab Robe and when Blair's stepfather Cyrus promises them to each other under the bridge in front of the Fountain.

Actually this is definitely leading to misunderstanding the location of different spots, since they all gather at the Metropolitan Museum before, one thinks that they just run out the back yard and are found in the archways. In reality the terraces are around a 10min walk at least away from the museum, one of the reasons i did not find it at once.

No matter if you are a GG fan or not, this scenery is very beautiful and one of the hot-spots in Central Park.

Conservatory Pond
Between the MET and Bethesda Terrace there is a small pond, where lots of people are driving their small electric boats. Remember when Jenny Humphrey turned bad? This is where she discovered that Damien Dalgaard is actually a drug dealer and using these boats to do his dark business. In real life this place is just peaceful and innocent. Not as big as other spots in central park, but if you are anyway in the area you can just sit there with a cone of icecream and enjoy the small sails crossing the water.

Lotte New York Palace
Bart Bass' Hotel and Home to the Van der Woodson's is located on 455 Madison Avenue and is one of the many examples for the contrasting architecture in New York. While this building is fairly old and reminds more of an idyllic big country estate, the high rise blocks in the background display Manhattans skyline. This spot was again misplaced, since you never get to see the actual surroundings of the "Palace". Also i got the impression that the Palace is indeed a very high hotel, while it actually has only 4 or 5 Floors.

Dylan's Candy Bar
This is the world's largest candy store, located 1011 3rd Ave. Here Vanessa and Dan shop for Nate's Birthday in the TV show and i have to say that this is indeed a sweet heaven. With over 5.000 different types of Candy, ranging from Chocolate to Licorice and rainbow candies, no one will leave without a treat in this shop.

The Empire State Building

"Chuck Bass: We're never going to be safe. So are you brave enough or aren't you? I'll be waiting at the top of the Empire State Building."

In Seasons 3 finale Blair has to decide meeting Chuck on Top of the Empire, where he is waiting with a bouquet and the biggest engagement ring ever. Nevertheless she never reaches the Empire, because Dorotha is getting her baby.

During that episode, the Empire is shown from many different spots all around Manhattan, since Blair drives around in her Limousine. I have not been on Top of the Empire, a Ride up costs 49$ and since we have been on the Top of the Rockefeller already, it felt a bit too expensive for a view only. Nevertheless you'll always spot Empire State building, even from Brooklyn through Manhattan Bridge on a sunny day.

The Humphrey Loft
"Dan: Did you come all the way to Brooklyn to yell at me? Because that's not necessary."

When you have never been to New York, you think that Brooklyn must be so far off from Upper East Side and Manhattan, especially if you have watched GG too much, as I did. Indeed the Humphrey Loft is located directly under Manhattan Bridge, which is just a stone's throw away from the Upper East Side.

"New York, I Love You XOXO" - Gossip Girl

* all quotes are taken from Gossip Girl by the CW and belong to their original owners

Budget: 1100€ (330€ Flights Norwegian; 300€ Air BnB; 140€ Broadway Musial; ca 300€ Activities, Food and Transport)

Duration: 5 Days (6Nights)

Travel Time: Middle of May (no risk for snow or bad weather, but not too hot yet, although we had 32°c already)

So i was going to NY! Hitting the big apple, and this time with a dear friend!

This journey was originally planned alone, so i booked a very long time ahead (6month), since Norwegian had very good offers, i could not resist. My friend booked 2 month later and got even a better price. Obviously both-way direct flights from Stockholm to JFK for 330€ is unbeatable. Also the flight times were pretty well, since we flew Sunday afternoon and arrived Sunday evening, so one can directly go to bed after a tough, 7h long flight and start fresh into the week on Monday. We left Friday evening, so in total we had 5 amazing days to spend in this Metropolitan City. Coming back on a Saturday also gives you time to recover from Jetlag before going back to work on mondays.

I have to admit i had really high expectations towards NYC, since it is shown in all movies and a lot of my favourite tv shows (including Gossip Girl) are filmed here. Honestly, TV is creating an image of this city, which is quite unreal. New York was not disappointing, but different.

One always thinks this city is incredibly huge and i was really scared not to find our way here, but due to numbered streets and a very good public transport network it is super easy to get around.

Our air bnb was located in East Harlem on Manhattan, so first challenge was to get there.

American people are in general really helpful and open, so if they see that you are lost, they will all directly offer help, which is almost never happening in Sweden.

If you want to go from JFK to the city, you will take the airport Air Train first to Jamaica station, which will cost you 6$ and from that station you are connected to the Metro Network.

I would definitly recommend you to buy a weekly pass for 33$. For us it was the best decision ever, since the days got warmer and warmer and we got more tired. In the end we used bus and metro all the time, even for one stop sometimes.

We were really lucky on Sunday evening to find boarder Control almost empty (remember to sign up for ESTA or apply for Visa in advance if you travel to the US). It took us only 30min from our Gate to airport shuttle, which is absolutely amazing. We arrived therefore much earlier at our air bnb place and could go to bed early, which we urgently needed. I will add some info about our Air BnB later, since it was a really, really great host and place to stay.

As mentioned above it was really hot during our stay in New York, almost unbearable during Thursday and Friday, since temperature rose to 32°c and the air is standing between the high rise blocks, but anyway that is far better than rain. I would definitely go around end of April/during May again, since one can mostly avoid snow in April and too hot summer days in June. Otherwise autumn and winter have to be amazing times as well to hit the streets of NY.

We had a rough plan about what we wanted to see and where to go to. My friend bought the lonely planet advisor, which helped us a lot to find different spots in the city. Since there is no free Wifi all around the city, as in many other places, it's best to have an oldschool map or download a Google offline map. Due to low phone battery i would recommend first one.

We both have never been to NY so we needed to see of course all the typical touristy stuff, which was at that point more important than shopping, although we shopped a lot more in the end, than we thought. Check out Citypass for good deals if you want to combine a lot of Tourist attractions.

Easiest to plan your trip is to divide the days in different districts, you would like to see. Although metro connection is quite good, it takes quite a while to go from one end of Manhattan to the other, or to Brooklyn for example.

So this is how we split our days in the end.

_______________________________________________________________

Monday - Central Park/Central Manhattan

Tuesday - Financial District/Lower Manhattan

Wednesday - Metropolitan Museum/Top of the Rock/Broadway Musical

Thursday - Chinatown/Nolita/Little Italy/SOHO

Friday - Brooklyn/Central Park

________________________________________________________________

Originally it was planned a bit differently, but my poor friend suffered from a bad jetlag on Monday, so we decided to stay in town and not go to far away from our Air BnB, in case she needed to rest. Otherwise we would have gone to Brooklyn already on Monday. Anyway if you have planned the days you can easily also switch them, due to weather conditions. We did not visit a lot of museums, since that is not our thing. But in case of bad weather, there are uncountable possibilites for every interest.

First impression...Maspalomas is huge! I printed some maps before i went there, to be sure where to find everything, but then it's even with a map quite complicated to walk around. Not enough, the whole city is built around the mountains, so even if a distance looks short it can be quite exhausting to walk.

There are mainly two sides which are Las Meloneras on the western side and Playa del Inglés on the eastern side. 

I arrived in Maspalomas in the very evening, but i observed everything in the bus driving around the city. The streets are not built in a logical way, a lot of them are only one way and i directly got the impression of driving in a lot of circles when the bus was dropping off people at their different hotels, not only because they built roundabouts instead of crossing lights. So maybe after 3 or 4 rounds, it was finally my drop off point, I directly thought i would never get around here.

All streets are named after big traveling companies and sometimes streets are only built because of a specific hotel, added to the city.

Anyway i lived on the western side, which is more calm and less touristy. There are a lot of Bungalows in this area and not the high rise complexes like in the east.

If you do not walk a lot, you can take a lot of different local busses that drive around Maspalomas and Playa del Inglés every 10-20min during the day.

Maspalomas is known for it's attractive nightlife and generally very gay friendly bars. As i do not go out partying during my vacays, i don't have anything to tell about that, but i am sure it is a lot of fun!

Well, there are a lot of activities during the day, one can do in Maspalomas. First and biggest attraction are the dunes of course (read more), then there is the Faro de Maspalomas, the canal, and endless beaches. There are two promenades, one close to Faro and one at Playa del Inglés, where you can shop souvenirs or eat in one of the tiny numerous restaurants.

Another really nice place to see is the Charca de Maspalomas, a small natural lake between the dunes and the beach.

If you like golf, there is a huge field in the middle of Maspalomas. I have never seen such a big field. I guess a lot of People just travel here for golfing their time away.

Of course you can book a diving trip, one can do riding in the mountains and go windsurfing. In the evening you can go to the Moonlight Cinema which is showing new movies, 2 each day after sunset. You can seat yourself on a Sofa and order pizza while watching the newest Blockbusters. Find the weekly programm on their website.

Maspalomas is consisting as many of the canary Island cities of a lot of hotels, pools and restaurants. Many people do their charter all-inclusive vacay here, you will meet mainly german and swedish retirees. They sometimes stay for months!

So if you are a more active person and do not want to tan on the beach or read by the pool each day, you should take a bus or rent a car to explore the mountains and surroundings along the coast, which have a lot to offer as well!

As already said, i was quite late in booking, so i took what i could get. The air bnb of Patrick and Ralf had not so many feedbacks, but the few they had were good.

The Bungalow is located quite central in Maspalomas on Méloneras side, very close to the Shopping Mall Faro 2 and the botanical garden. The bus stops are really close and a supermarket can be found only 5min walk away. If you would like to go the beach it actually takes a bit longer (around 20min walk) past by the huge golf area.

Lying in a very calm area, with a lot of small houses around, this part of Maspalomas feels less charter-all-inclusive, which is indeed really nice.

On my first evening i had some difficulties to find the place, but i called Patrick and he found me quite fast. He showed me around in their quite small home, which has access to a pool as well.

The house consists of a small very cute kitchen combined with living room, several sleeping rooms and one bathrom, which unfortunately can't even be locked.

Of course i had read about the shared bathroom before, but forgot it until i came there. Also it was quite irritating for me, that this was the only room in the house that could not be locked.

Anyway i did not know that there were other guests to be coming as well, so first night it was totally fine, although i never spent more than 5min in there.

The second day, two older men over 40 arrived and took the rooms next to me. The rooms are small, but they offer everything you need, still i would not want to stay longer than a week here.

If you live with other guests, you really need to take more care. The unspoken rule of the bathroom became: door open, no one is in - door closed, pls do not enter. Still it feels quite uncomfy to take a shower, knowing there are only old man around -I have never showered that fast. Also the men did not seem to care as i did, so they tend to let the door open while they peed. Not so fun.

The first night this was really driving me crazy and i did not want to leave my room, to be honest, but then i realised we had totally different day schedules. While i was doing a lot during the day, coming back at around 9pm, they were leaving to party around that time. Perfect time for my shower!

Also in the mornings, they were still deeply asleep, snoring insanely loud, which left the kitchen for myself to have a calm breakfast. Ralf and Patricks host does not include breakfast, but they always offer you free drinking water and you are free to use their kitchen and fridge. Also food is fairly cheap around there, so you might not need to cook at all.

Another inhabitant of this place is their very cute dog Isabelle, who always wants to play with you. Sometimes when i got up in the morning, she already stood in front of my door with her innoncent look and her ball in her mouth. She is really the nicest dog i have ever met, and i am quite scared of them actually.

After all i can say that this AirBnB experience was something totally new for me, but really valuable. Looking at it now, i would definitly go there again, since now i can only laugh about my uncomfort. Ralf and Patrick are both really nice hosts and willing to help you with anything. Especially Patrick is such a sweetheart and a very patient person, i could learn a lot from him.

Since they are moving to a new place, they will have a new accomodation, which will then have spared bathrooms for almost every room. Of course, this will be a bit more expensive, but still far cheaper than anything the hotels offer and it is way more authentic! (The price for the room was 47€ a night, which is indeed fairly expensive for what you get, but you are in the most popular spot on Gran Canaria - Maspalomas)

Gran Canaria is bigger than you actually think and the nicest spots are far away from the main Hotel cities, like Maspalomas and Las Palmas. So if you want to move around, there are several options for everyone.

Transport from Airport to Hotel/AirBnb

Usually your Hotel already offers a pick up from the Airport, if not you can go by bus to Las Palmas (Line 60 and 91) and to Maspalomas (Line 66), there are also other busses going further in the south. This is the cheapest way to get to your place, but takes a bit longer. Those busses are only going between 6am and 8pm approx, so if you arrive very late in the evening as i did, you need to find another way. You can take a taxi, which is very expensive or make a deal with a local shuttle bus company, which can be quite cheap. I booked a Transfer with hoppa which was 16 euros both ways and worked totally fine. The bus was a bit late on return, but all in all they do not stop as often as the local busses and they are never that full either.

Bus

Within Maspalomas and Las Palmas it's best to walk around, although it's quite big distances. If you want to go from one end to another, you should take the bus though, since parking lots are not easy to find either.

With the local global bus you can also easily travel around the whole Island. You can easily go to Puerte de Mogan and Puerto Rico from Maspalomas, as well to Las Palmas. Here's the timetable. If you plan to travel every day, you can maybe get some discount with a card, otherwise you pay for every journey.

Car

If you want to go up in the mountains or are more people, you should definitly rent a car. This gives you so much more flexibility and you can go anywhere you like, since the busses are not driving up in the very natural mountains. Also you can do your food shopping more easily. There is a lidl located in Maspalomas as well, and i had quite problems to carry around my food. You can rent a car directly from the airport, which saves a lot of time and effort, or rent it in a local place, where it is also possible to only take them for one or two days. If you want to make a reservation online, most places only rent them for a full week.

Motorbike/Bike/Scooter

You can rent motorbikes, bikes and scooters in local places around Maspalomas. A bike can be quite useful to get around in Maspalomas, but still it is very steep hills sometimes, so maybe a bit of effort.

I do not have a proper Motorbike driving license and have only driven a scooter 3 times my life, once in Bali, so let's say i am not experienced. I wanted to rent a scooter on one day and drive along the coast, but actually it's quite a difference to Bali for instance. The streets are built as fast tracks and especially spanish bus drivers have a crazy style, so if you are not born with Motorbike skills, you should maybe take the bus instead as i did. They also rent out mainly the big fast scooters, since in spain that is allowed to be driven with a 3year old driving license. Remembering me only driving 20km/h at Bali, maximum 40, i thought this might not be the best idea.