Megan Singleton: BloggerAtLarge.com writer on her trip to New York

Megan Singleton's been working her way through the US - and she concluded her latest adventure with a few days in New York.

The winter season is getting underway, meaning people are flocking to the city to take in a New York Christmas.

Megan unveiled her highlights, check out more here.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
We're talking travel with Meghan Singleton. It's sixteen to twelve. Meghan,
welcome home.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Meghan has just been in New York, big city of dreams.
You got out just in time before it got cold.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
I know I did. It actually snowed the next day.
New York is actually right now the most popular destination
on my blog. I've got tons of New York content
on there, and it always peaks around now as we
lead up to Christmas. So that was actually the reason
why I wanted to add on those extra couple of days.
I'd also been to Chicago for the All Blacks and
then Boston. We got the train down to New York

(00:49):
and about to about four hours, and then the plan
was we were just going to take that direct flight home,
but I thought, oh, you can't just pass through from
the train station to the airport or not stay a
couple of nights. So that's what we did, and I
actually was pleasantly surprised that that big, long flight was
an as arduous as I thought it was going to be.
It ended up only being sixteen and a half hours.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Good.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
I was anticipating eighteen. Yeah, so it was really good.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Well, the question is do you have less jet lag
at the end of one of these big things?

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Can I tell you? And you might remember years ago
we spoke about this. The seven eight seven they fly
out of New York and they fly the Triple seven
up to Los Angeles, which is what we did on
the way through. And the seven eight seven has a
different cabin pressure which actually makes you not as dehydrated.
You don't get you don't get the headaches. It was

(01:41):
actually really noticeable, and I didn't know that it was
that noticeable, even though I'd written about it in the past.
So it was really good, I know, and I haven't
really been jet lagged. I mean, you know, a little
bit of a lie in this morning, but that's all right.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Good stuff. Now, tell me about Christmas in New York,
because it is special. Other windows all decorated up now
are the trees.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Out The windows are papered over like may Cy's and
Saxsmith Avenue and in the process, wouldn't that be a
great job? So they're all covered up. But I peeped
through some sort of cracks in between the windows and
was able to see like Macy's is going to have
like gingerbread, biscuits and houses and things all around it.
And the Rockefeller tree had just been delivered the day before,

(02:24):
and so we were watching them put the scaffolding up
full like full floor stories of scaffold scaffolding with a
ladder like no stairs for it to be decorated. But
already Bryant Park's Christmas Market is open. The ice skating
at Rockefeller and at Bryant Park is already underway, and
so it's such an exciting even though it's drizzly and

(02:46):
it's going to snow on you, it's just so magical.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
To just dress it this tim Ye layers, layers, layer,
and an umbrella. Always travel with an umbrella, which is
one of my great hints. A blunt metro is one
of the best things to travel with. But there you go.
How did you get around New York? Did you brave
the subway?

Speaker 3 (03:02):
We did. We did a lot of walking, and you've
pulverized your feet to stuff in New York. We did
a bit of yellow taxi riding, but because the traffic's
so slow, that does add up. So the subway you
don't need to buy a ticket anymore. You can just
tap your debit or credit card. You can use that
for up to two people. So I went through, handed
the card back to my husband. He walked through and

(03:22):
it came out to I think about five New Zealand
dollars a ride. You can get off anywhere, so once
you get off, you know you've tapped off. And so
that was really easy. And in fact, my American friends
didn't even realized you could do that, so I taught
them a.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Thing you now. I well, Rathing Ramsey and Malcolm Jordan
together went to America the Eastern seaboard this year and
they commented about how many Americans came up and said,
thank you so much for visiting. We understand why you
might not because of, you know, some of the stories
about ice agents and you know, just the environment. Did

(03:56):
you find that as well?

Speaker 3 (03:58):
No? No, And actually I didn't notice any delays or
hold ups or anything at all. But what I did
going through JFK Airport checked with some of the customs guys.
I said, are you not being paid? And they went
and I said, well, thank you for coming to work.
You know, there still weren't long delays really were. They
were canceling more domestic flights I think than anything. But

(04:19):
I think that's all remedied. Now are we back to normal?
I don't know when that you know when it was
actually just deems that we're back to normal. But no,
I didn't find people bring that to.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Me excellent, excellent, though I do understand the tourism figures
it down into America so you can get some good deals.
And Megan Singleton's just been in New York and so
New York for Christmas sounds great. And I thank you
for your time.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio