We're back!

That's right, we're back! This time taking on China during our one month University holiday. We left Monday morning (what a great way to start the week) on our flight from Sydney to Hong Kong, arriving in the evening then quickly grabbed some delicious dumplings from around the corner from our hostel.


The view from our plane flying out of Sydney.


East Tsim Sha Tsui, the area we stayed in Hong Kong.


High rises are EVERYWHERE, along with huge mountain ranges.

In the morning we checked out early and took the metro to Lo Wu where we would cross the border into mainland China.

Burgers and fries

Highlights from my weekend in LA:

America..

In n out!!

Flying back to New York for one last day.

That evening, my sister and her friends took me out for a farewell dinner in Chin'a' Town.

I spent my last day in New York running around SoHo doing some last minute shopping.

Before meeting my sister for lunch and to say goodbye :(

At JFK, I had my last Shake Shack burger for dinner before boarding my flight to Japan.

Full flight!

Layover in Taipei.

NY to LA

After grabbing a bagel for a quick, on the go brekkie, I took a taxi to La Guardia Airport for my flight to Los Angeles where I was going to meet my best friend from Tokyo, Teri!

After some trouble finding the check in counter, I finally got to the gate only to find a bunch of people (more than usual) waiting. I sat down and watched the news, finding out that all flights to Chicago had been cancelled from 5am because of an accident at Chicago Airport (I was meant to stopover in Chicago). However, I was extremely lucky, and my flight was the first one given the ok to depart for Chicago that morning. So we took off on time, at 10:30 and flew out over Manhattan and the Grand Canyon (forgot to take a photo)..

..and eventually got to LA!

I never realised LA was so spread out..

I was greeted at the airport by Teri and her sister who dropped us off at Teri's college, Loyola Marymount University (her campus is so nice!!).

Top of the Rock

Just behind Radio City Hall is the Rockefeller Centre.

And from the top of the Rockefeller centre, you can see this amazing view. 

The other side featuring the giant Central Park.

I unfortunately chose one of the cloudiest days to go to the observation deck (and cold and windiest too).

New York really is quite the concrete jungle..

My fish eye lens turned one of the buildings rainbow

Afterwards, I found the line for the Halal Guys food truck, apparently the best in nyc.

It didn't disappoint! (It tasted a lot better than it looks)

MOMA

Thanks to the fact my sister works at MoMA PS1, I was lucky enough to get into the Museum of Modern Art for free (muchos gracias Cara). So not only was I super happy not to pay the $25 entry fee, I continued to get even more excited as I kept spotting artwork after artwork that I recognised! 

I started on the top floor with the Christopher Williams exhibition: A Production Line of Happiness.

First work I recognised, Marcel Duchamp!!! (aka King or should I say Queen of Dada)

Next up, Vincent Van Gough's "The Starry Night"!

And Salvador Dali's "The Persistance of Memory"!! This was one of the first artworks I ever studied, all the way back in Primary School!

Then I spotted Picasso's "Les Demoiselles D'Avignon" and nearly passed out! You don't understand how many quotes and symbols I memorised for the HSC about this artwork.

I continued to be surprised as I kept stumbling across more and more famous works.

Friday Kahlo

Robert Rauschenburg

Jackson Pollock

Jasper Johns

Joseph Cornell

Any Warhol

Claude Monet

Man Ray

And other works I loved!

Méret Oppenheim

Charles Ray

This..

..which was in fact this close up.. 

I can't even begin to describe how amazing MoMA was.. It was just so cool being able to finally see these works 'in the flesh'. Probably one of my favourite places so far in NYC, I still get excited just writing about it!