I've lost count of the number of Americans who have described Halloween as their favourite holiday of the whole year, I suspect it's got something to do with everyone losing their inhibitions when in costume...and an excuse for the girls to dress slutty, obvs. New York goes crazy for it, you can't move for Halloween references! So it was with great excitement I agreed to join a group of friends on an ultimate pub crawl around the uber-cool LES (or Lower East Side to out of towners).
Now I'm not traditionally one for fancy dress...I didn't go to a campus uni so it wasn't one of those things that was done regularly and I always felt slightly awkward dressing up with the same enthusiasm as a 5 year old...plus fancy dress is expensive! But when in NY...I decided to embrace it. After planning to create a black swan/dark angel style costume several weeks in advance I failed to actually purchase anything. Upon the arrival of Saturday...designated bar crawl day I realised that it was time to panic buy (with no money left in the bank it had to be cheap)!
Luckily my housemate was just as unorganised as I am and had also left the costume till the last possible moment...never fear we thought, to Hoboken and the infamous Ricky's warehouse we shall go!
What we hadn't counted on is the fact New York was experienceing a freak snowstorm! It was FREEZING! We walked 10 minutes up the road in heavy snow and wind pounding against us whilst the man upstairs threw in thunder and lightning for extra effect! Pub crawl was beginning to sound like the worst idea we'd ever had!
Having ventured to Ricky's in the snow to purchase black items I was distinctly unimpressed with both the selection and the prices...yet the child costumes were all 50% off. Now I'm not usually one to force myself into a dress that would be too small but budget limitations combined with me being a short arse and sticking with the assumption that American kids are fat I decided to risk it and purchased an Alice from Alice in Wonderland costume for a 12 year old...it fit!
In the end I went to a flat party with friends which was every bit as fun as I had hoped my Halloween would be. It wasn't quite the tour of LES i had hoped for but it was really fun nonetheless! Everyone had made a real effort, there was a Cleopatra, a One-night-stand, a golddigger, a fly, a beetlejuice, dr love, and a pirate (to name a few)!
I think I get why Americans love this holiday!
XOXO
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