Let's be clear before we get started: I'd never been to America before this trip and neither had Nicola - so we were on this journey together to be the biggest tourists you've ever witnessed. I'll be writing about all of the places we visited and breaking some places/experiences down in to multiple blog posts to focus on key experiences more clearly. New York being one of those.

And first up on our touristy list? The Empire State Building.

We purchased a ticket outside that was around $60 dollars for both the Empire State Building viewing and the Statue of Liberty Boat Ride for the next day, not too shabby.

I don’t know how we managed it, but we avoided all of the people. We were in and up to the top within a matter of minutes with pretty much no waiting time – we’d expected to be queuing for hours to get to the top but the whole experience was over in less time than that.

The Empire State Building, sits proudly in Midtown Manhattan, on Fifth Avenue just between West 33rd and 34th Street. At 1,454 feet high it’s a monster of a building but funnily enough, walking down the street you could almost miss it. The concrete jungle that is New York City makes you feel like there’s no escape but in the best possible way (apart from the oh my god I might die humidity). The buildings sit so tall you feel like an ant and the sky feels completely out of reach.

And I mean, you can’t really take in just how high you’re going up in that building until you’re out there, on the platform, but when you’re travelling up 80 odd floors in a lift it feels pretty mega.

Nicola and I could barely contain our excitement. I couldn’t stand still for all the bodily jigging I was doing and both of us had face ache from the constant smiles. We just wanted to get out there!

IT WAS SO HIGH, but weirdly I didn’t feel scared. The viewing area felt incredibly safe, the fencing that surrounded us was high enough to make you feel completely at ease but was wide enough that you could put your camera through the gaps to get some undisturbed, picture perfect snaps of the insane view.

And guys, the view was mental.

Totally and utterly, mental.

I literally felt like I was on top of the world. And whilst it’s by no means the highest building in the world, it’s certainly the closest to the top I’ve ever felt.

The day after my 26th birthday I got my first tattoos. Plural.

Because: Why not?!

(Well, I was massively hungover from my birthday celebrations, so that would've been reason enough to avoid it but...sensible is my middle name).

And hungover or not, it was happening.

I decided at the beginning of the year that I'd do a lot of things in 2015 and getting a tattoo was one of them.

I'd never wanted one before - I'd always said I'd have to be so sure on what I wanted, and there was just nothing I felt strongly enough about to go ahead with.

And then, 2014 was one of the crappiest years I've been through, but there was one particular quote, that kept me going:
And when I read that, I knew I needed it to stay with me, in a permanent way. As cheesy as it sounds, I wanted it as a constant reminder.

As a tattoo.

Having the entire quote would've taken up too much space on my body, I wanted something simple, delicate - so I decided on an arrow. The message would be clear to me, and that's all that would matter.

The second, is a jigsaw piece and it comes from my friendship group at home. All of the girls have a jigsaw piece somewhere on their body - to show how we'll always slot together in some lovely (but absolutely mental) way. They were a huge part of bringing me back up from a very low point in my life and I wanted to join the tribe to show how grateful I am for their presence in my life.

I asked Charly, my best friend and Jamie, my boyfriend (oh, well that feels weird to write on here!) to  come with me. It certainly wasn't something I would be able to do on my own - I am the definition of wimp. Deciding on a tattoo artist was a pretty big part of the process, too. I didn't want just anyone doing it - it needed to be someone I knew I could trust to do a good job.

Alex Candela is a tattoo artist at in Leicester City Centre. He's also Jamie's friend and designed the most badass piece on his arm - once Jamie suggested me going to Alex, it just made sense. I already knew that his work was amazing and bringing Jamie along with me meant I'd feel far more comfortable with the whole process, too.

Hours before, waves of hard hitting anxiety washed over me and I was sure at any moment I would throw up, physically crap myself, or something equally dramatic. When I arrived at the shop it was no different and I think Alex could see the panic written across my face. But he was certainly the right pick!
I couldn't have asked for a calmer, more understanding person. Alex is covered head to toe in tattoos, yet hates getting them done himself, so he totally appreciated my 'first time' fears!

He very kindly offered to have a go with the tattoo gun on my back without any ink in it - so that I could feel the sensation of how the process would feel, without committing to actually having it done.
I was so grateful, because even though I was so certain about what I wanted, I wasn't sure I would be able to cope with the pain. So getting to feel it before there was anything permanent on my skin, really helped.
Deciding on positioning was easy. I knew from the off that I wanted the arrow in-between my shoulder blades and the jigsaw piece somewhere on my wrist.

We started with my back and funnily enough, it didn't hurt. Being right on my spine I was convinced that I would be crying like a baby with the pain - but it just felt, well, a bit irritating and uncomfortable to be honest, and my face was constantly scrunched up to match the tension in my body. People are right when they say you can't quite explain the sensation and that everyone experiences it differently. What's painful for me, might not be for you and vice versa.

My wrist however, hurt like a bitch. I didn't look at it once and my hand was so sweaty that I had to put a piece of tissue in-between mine and Charly's hand to soak up the sweat...attractive, I know. I can't really explain the pain, it just didn't feel good. 

Here are a few snaps of the process...