Gossip Girl: Now In 3D

Who's Queen B now!?

Like some of my fellow College Candies, I was not smitten with the season 3 premiere of Gossip Girl. In fact, I felt lost, upset and alone after the show ended. All I wanted was the simplicity of Season 1, which got me thinking about just curling up on the couch, diving into a box of Godivas and rewatching my box set of that first glorious season.

By Melanie

For the 4th time.

Luckily, before I reached that point of desperation, our friends at On Location tours gave me a far better option to rekindle my love affair with GG. In the form of a bus tour of Manhattan, showing off the hot spots of the show. So. much. better. and only slightly less caloric than my original plan. Mostly because I brought some Godiva for the road(iva).

OK, so the tour was pretty touristy. So touristy that me and my friend were two of the five Americans on the bus. Pretty much everyone else was a visitor from another country. But I guess Gossip Girl and a love for all things WASPy and UES are the only things people around the globe can agree on. And despite the mix of languages and accents, we all came together to see the sites and scenes of our favorite TV show.

The tour kicked off at the Palace hotel, home of the Van Der Woodsens (and now Chuck Bass), in addition to being the office of the former Bart Bass (RIP, BB boy). As we moved on to each of the famed GG locales, our bubbly redheaded guide explained the significance of each location and spiced things up by showing us clips of the show featuring the very site we were visiting. (So I got to enjoy my Season 1 marathon afterall!)

I’d already been to some of the places before, like Dylan’s Candy Bar and Henri Bendel, but others were totally new. I got to gossip on the steps of the New York Museum, which doubles as the Constance Billiard School for Girls/St. Jude’s School for boys, take a frosting shot at Babycakes (the bakery that Dan buys pie at on the Thanksgiving episode), and glimpse at the exterior of the Archibald’s gorgeous townhouse on the Upper East Side.

Oh, and beyond all the hot destinations, our tour guide gave us a little something extra, quipping about Nate’s “mangs” (man bangs) and filling everyone in about the hottest off-the-set gossip. Did you know Lindsay Lohan was slated to play Blair Waldorf in the movie version of Gossip Girl? I didn’t. Also, gross.

From the steps of the Met to the Vera Wang on Madison (where Lily gets her fourth wedding dress fitted), the tour was a success. Sure, I didn’t get a little one-on-one time with Chuck Bass, but it did remind me why I loved this show so much in the first place.

Now I’m gearing up for tonight’s episode…much to the dismay of my male roommate.