Overwhelmed by the options of rooms, we settled on the Cursed Carnival (I’d usefully forgotten about my fear of clowns until we arrived) as it had a three star difficulty rating and only one of us had done an escape room before. In hindsight, we should have probably gone for a higher difficulty, because there’s nothing like challenging yourself.
Of course, once we were in there we were scrambling around for clues and some of them were actually pretty simple, but only made it more difficult for you to get to the next step and there were a few duds that just aimed to waste your time – much like some lectures, may I add. The creepy carnival music that I forgot I love (Read: LOATHE) added that extra bit of tension that’s always needed when you’re under pressure.
You’re probably wondering how we did? Well, with two chemistry students and me and India (who almost have a brain between us) we managed to escape with a whole 15 minutes to spare. With that said, there was a screen in each room that gave us clues every so often and I think we would have been stuck in the first section if it weren’t for that. I’m not sure anyone would be able to get through it without some help – we did very little on our own accord. The screen also shows you how much time you have left, in case the music and general pressure of having to escape wasn’t enough.
My verdict? I absolutely loved it. There were no “jumpy bits” and the only clowns in sight were us- and some masks, but they can be removed on request. Breakout’s rooms are much more puzzle based than just rushing around to find a key, which I really enjoyed as it was nice to stretch my brain and not have to think about my course for a while.
A quick disclaimer: My friends and I were given free entry to Breakout in exchange for an honest and accurate review from me; as usual, all views and words are my own. I have had to nab the pictures from Breakout, though, as I wasn’t allowed to take photos in there.
The two staff members who I engaged with, Hazel, who looked after us while we were there, and Rei, who is in charge of PR and I had the pleasure of meeting at a bloggers event the next day, were both wonderful and super friendly. I can’t wait to go back!
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If you've read any of my posts about my trip to New York, you will know that I got up to a lot of costly things that were typical activities for tourists like us. What I haven't mentioned yet is that we also got up to lots of cheap and fun things to do, as well. Here are some of my favourite cheap(ish) things to do in New York City. The Highline The Highline is an old railway line that has been turned into a beautiful walkway with a lovely view of the Hudson. It's free to do and it gives you lots of lovely views of the city. We only had to take a stroll there as it's located in the Meatpacking District which is near to where we stayed. The ice cream and cold drink vendors were highly appreciated in the scorching weather (I definitely burnt!).    9/11 Memorial I've already written about my visit to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, but I don't think I mentioned the pricing. The memorial itself is obviously free to look at and pay your respects and entry to the museum is $15, which I think is relatively cheap considering the event and all of the proceeds go to charities for the victims. If you don't want to pay, the memorial itself is incredibly moving and I think it's something you have to do when you visit New York.   Parks When I say there are parks everywhere in New York, I mean everywhere. We spent a lot of our time at Washington Square Park, which was local to our accommodation and we fell in love with. A visit to Central Park was also vital and I think it would be easy to spend a day there, there's so much going on - we did get the subway to Central Park but it's only about $2 each way so it hardly breaks the bank. Visiting the parks of New York is obviously free and I felt that they gave a really nice vibe and truly showed the sense of community in New York. I found all of the parks very friendly and I enjoyed watching other people socialising - be it playing a game of baseball or sitting having a coffee. These were my favourite 'cheap' things to do in New York, and I'm hoping I can go back soon to do them all over again! What are your favourite things to do in the city? Let me know with a comment! As always, thank you for reading.  Want to read some more? Take a peek at my latest post.
Can't get enough of me? Follow me on Instagram. One thing I absolutely wanted to do when we went to New York was see a show on Broadway. I've always loved going to the theatre and was desperate to see an amazing show performed by the best of the best. I wasn't particularly picky about what we saw, but I think we definitely made the best choice in going to see 'The Book of Mormon'. The show itself was absolutely hilarious, but definitely not for the easily offended or the very religious. It follows two 'newly trained' Mormons on their journey to Uganda to convert the citizens of a small, deprived village. We laughed the whole way through the performance and there were a few moments where I struggled for air. I thought my knowledge of the Mormon religion (thanks, GCSE History) would be useful in understanding the plot, but it was covered very easily in a few catchy songs. If you want a good laugh alongside some music that will be stuck in your head for days, 'The Book of Mormon' is definitely for you. We also headed to Times Square as it was just around the corner from the theatre. It was definitely a lot busier than anywhere else we'd been but I didn't find it too overwhelming. It's just what I imagined it to be and everywhere you look there is a billboard or a street performer. It definitely gives you the 'chaotic New York' vibe. As always, thank you for reading. I'm sadly home from New York now but I'm already looking into going again. Have you been? Let me know your thoughts on it with a comment!  One thing I definitely wanted to do when I visited New York was go to an art museum. I've always been a big fan of artwork and I've loved going to art museums since I was a child, so I just had to see some of the work that New York had to offer. So, we headed uptown to visit the Guggenheim Museum to have some time away from the city heat and to look at some work. The architecture of the Guggenheim is sort of what makes it so special - the building is circular and you're meant to start at the top of the museum and walk downwards using the spiral walkway. It was definitely nice to not have to use any stairs! There was a pretty good range of art in the museum (obviously) with some side rooms showing different exhibitions. My favourite pieces were some of Picasso's and a painting named "Tall Nude" by Giacometti. There was also an exhibition named "One Hand Clapping" by a collection of Asian artists which was much more modern than the rest of the art in the museum. Here are some of my favourites! After the museum, we headed to Central Park which was just over the road and enjoyed an ice cream. So, overall it was a very good day. As always, thank you for reading!  Want to read some more? Take a look at my latest post. Can't get enough of me? Follow me on Instagram. New York is amazing, and it's even better from the sky. We visited the top of the Rockerfeller centre a few days ago to see what the city really looks like from above and the views certainly didn't disappoint. We had our tickets booked for 7:35pm so that we could watch the sunset, which was unreal. It only took a 45 second elevator trip to reach the top and you could walk the whole way around the ledge, so the views were 360. I was really blown away by how incredible New York looks from above and was shocked at how huge Central Park actually is (I hadn't visited there yet). If you follow me on Instagram, you will have definitely seen these pictures before.       There's not a lot to write about my trip to the Top of the Rock but I just wanted to share the view with you, so thank you for taking a peek.  Trigger warning: terrorism, 9/11 attacks. I am having the best time in New York and I have definitely fallen in love with the city. Between doing the really big tourist-y things we took a few hours out of our trip to visit the 9/11 Memorial, and I'm so glad we did.
I didn't take any pictures in the museum other than the two I've posted here, mainly because I just felt disrespectful to be experiencing the museum through my camera lens. There was just something about these two pieces, though, that really hit me. The blue mosaic was done by an artist who, over time, watercolored each of these pieces of paper with what he thought the sky looked like that day with the words "No day shall erase you from the memory of time" written in the centre. This mosaic was enormous and took up a whole wall, so was very overwhelming and emotional to see. The podium in the second picture is called The Last Column and was rightfully named due to being one of the last pieces of infrastructure to be standing after the attack. The graffiti and photos you can see on it were done/placed there by families and friends of the victims as tribute to them. For me, it was a very beautiful piece. I'm so glad I visited the memorial and museum for the 9/11 attacks because it made me so much more aware and educated on the event, and reminded me how ignorant I/we can sometimes be to the things happening around us. I could have made this post a lot longer, but I'm aware that the event is very morbid which is why I decided to focus on less negative aspects, such as the mosaic. However, if you do have any questions feel free to email me or drop a comment. As always, thank you for reading.  Want to read something a bit cheerier? Take a look at my last post. Want to see more of my New York trip? Follow me on Instagram.
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