Last day in the Big Apple

It's fair to say that yesterday was our most jam packed day so far! We were up and out by 10 in order to beat the queues to the top of the Empire State Building and the view was fantastic. So windy we all came down with that feeling you get when you've eaten too much ice cream, but totally worth it.

For some stupid reason Ferris and I then decided it would be a good idea to invest in large McDonalds meals at 11 oclock in the morning. Probably not the best plan I've ever had but it was proper tasty. The drinks machine was WELL cool, they had over 100 choices of fizzy drinks to choose from, like raspberry and strawberry flavoured Sprite and all sorts of crazy things like that. I just got normal though because I'm a wuss.

We then rolled off to do a bit of shopping and check out Macy's which I was rather looking forward to. However once we got inside we realised it was very similar to the seventh circle of hell and left rather quickly after Rach and Rach purchased so rather tasty Ben amd Jerry's treats. YUM.

Surprisingly, we got bored of shopping rather quickly and decided to check out Grand Central Station. I thought it looked oddly out of place, like someone had built it somewhere else then airlifted it into the middle of the city and plonked it where here was a space. It sure beats Preston Station though! HUGE and beautiful though. I got my picture taken next to the clock that Melmann the Giraffe gets his head stuck in in Madagascar :D

Aimee and I then tricked Rach and Rach into coming with us to the United Nations building (hehehehee) which was SO cool! Well I thought so anyway, some people just don't appreciate culture... :p As in the others were really bored so we just had to get pics and do, but at least I got to see it :D

Heading back to the hotel we came across a comic book store called 'Midtown Comics' so RACHEL (as in my sister, who always makes fun of my for being a nerd) bought some comics. Of course, I took pictures of this:

It was actually a pretty cool shop, I'm glad we came across it. It might just be because it's on the Simpsons but I felt like I was doing something proper american :P

After a few more stops we headed back to the hotel to get ready to go out for tea at Planet Hollywood. The food was SO SO SO good but there was so much that none of us could finish our meals. I accidentally ordered a sharing dessert (apparently that's how restaurants sell desserts in the USA, who knew?) which was like a massive bowl full of brownies and ice cream and general chocolatey goodness.

Our final trip of the day was to the Rockefeller Centre and went to the Top of the Rock. The view was incredible. Like truly amazing. I could have sat and stared at it for hours on end. However the awe didn't really last long as my Rach decided to tie her coat around her head like a loon and starting making strange noises (she helped me with my dessert, I think all the sugar went to her head). Which is when we decided it was probably best to head back.

We're currently sat in the lobby waiting to head off to catch our bus to Philly! I've been told it's really beautiful, properly excited to see it!!! :D

'I have a spill on my pants, a fluffy top and no money. Life is good' - Rach Storey

I tell you what, if we continue to walk this much throughout the rest of our travels I am going to have calves of STEEL. Honestly, looking at a map it is amazing to see how much of the city we've actually covered on foot. I do think it's the best way to travel though, we have stumble across so many things we didn't plan to just by walking around - things we definitely would have missed had we taken the bus or the subway.

However saying that we did cheat a little yesterday by taking the sub down to the Statue of Liberty. But to be fair, that would have taken up far too many hours and we slept in a little too late anyway :P

First we had to go through airport style security checks and I had to get searched because I set the security alarms off... After taking off all items of jewellery, excess layers and anything else I could think of, it turned out that the problem was... the underwire of my bra. Great.

Even on a cold and windy day, getting the ferry over to Liberty Island and seeing the Statue of Liberty up close was indeed a fantastic experience. It's one of those things that you always see in films or on T.V. but it doesn't really dawn on you that it actually exists. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be, but pretty amazing all the same.









Another thing I love about New York is how friendly the police people are. Not to say that they aren't friendly in England, I don't really know any members of the police force, I have just needed their help and noticed their presence more over here. HOWEVER they are a little rubbish at giving directions. We got so lost on the way to pick up our tickets for the 9/11 Memorial, with different policemen sending us all over the Downtown area, until EVENTUALLY a member of the Memorial staff pointed us in the right direction.

The Memorial really is beautiful. Two large square waterfalls with a 30ft drop into a pool, with the names of all the victims incribed around the outside. Family members and friends helped to decide where each name shoul be placed, in relation to where they worked or who they had close relationships to. Such a simple touch but it definitely helped to make it a perfect way to remember those who were lost. Of course looking at the names and contemplating such a tradgey gives you all sorts of mixed emotions; anger, sadness, empathy. How could someone do this and think that it as the right thing to do? But I suppose that's something I'll never understand. I'm just glad that the governement have provided such a meaningful place for the families and friends of the victims to go and mourn.

By the time we left the 9/11 Memorial we had already done a fair amount of walking, so Aimee and I had to pretty much DRAG Rach and Rach to Wall Street. This was also due to the fact that they have no idea what it is or why I would just want to visit a boring street full of boring business buildings. So as you can imagine we didn't stay to long and unfortunately I didn't get to see any of the Occupy protestors *sadface*, but at least I can say I went there!

Before heading back to the hotel we made a pit stop at Wendy's for our tea. I have to say, I do prefer McDonald's, but you canNOT beat Wendy's BBQ sauce. I may or may not have stolen some to take with me :P



Last night we were so tired we just chilled in our hotel room. To be honest I probably should have blogged about all this then but once I was upstairs I really couldn't be bothered coming back down to use the computers :P I'll blog about today in a seperate post, so that this one doesn't look TOO daunting, considering it is pretty long already.

(Oh, and for those of you who are wondering who the teddy is, he is called Tim and was my eaving present from the crew at Fat Face! He will be accompanying me throughout my travels.)

Pop Tarts for breakfast? YES please.

I keep waking up really early. I don't know if this is due to the fact that I haven't quite switched my body clock to the new time zone yet OR I'm still just very excited about everything. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing though, it means I wake everyone else up WAY before they'd have got themselves up (hehehehe) and allows us to enjoy our days to the full :D

Yesterday was just as action packed as Friday! We set out around 9.30 to Times Square to head up to Central Park, but of course this took a little while with so many distractions on the way. We stopped to have a look at the shop 'Forever 21' (which is like a cross between H&M and Topshop) thinking it would be a quick look around. However over an hour later and after covering all FOUR FLOORS we finally emerged with a few purchases - I got a top for $5.99, bargain!

Then there was the Disney store which was AWESOME. Although I would hate to have the job of the woman who just stands at the door with a microphone saying 'Hello, welcome to the Disney store, have a wonderful day!' with a cheesy grin plastered from ear to ear. I think I'd go mad.

Our final detour before our day really began was the M&Ms store. Rach and Rach were (well quite literally) like two kids in a sweet shop. A quote from my sister 'Are you not like in heaven right now??' No. It was so CREEPY. A whole franchise dedicated to a type of chocolate just by shoving a face on it. That's just weiiiiiiiird. So this is where Aimee and I swiftly took our leave and organised to meet up with Rach and Rach later on :p

In contrast Central Park was amazing. On our way down we bought hot dogs from a stand like proper New Yorkers and then rented bikes for an hour and had a lovely time cycling around the park. I did get a little upset that traffic lights, road markings and the idea that a cycle lane is for bikes, NOT people having a stroll, were totally disregarded, but this was soon forgotten and it was so beautiful. Up until now I wondered how people could live in this city, but with something like that in the middle I completely understand. It'd be so easy to live here and just forget that the rest of the world exists.

After that we headed to Central Park Zoo and we got rather excited about seeing a POLAR BEAR's bum. It was asleep so that was all we could see but it was still pretty exciting :D There was also very energtic puffins, a tropical bird enclosure (which my Rach would have hated) and loads of other cool stuff.

Around 3 we headed up to meet the Rachels at the Metrolpolitan Museum of Art which again was HUGE (this seems to be a running theme with everything here) and spent a few hours looking at genuine Picasso paintings, ancient egyptian artifacts (:D) and some really nice old Japanese art (which both Rachs thought was chinese, despite the numerous signs...) If you went early enough it would be easy to spend a whole day there, we didn't get round so much of it! However by this time we were so tired and with a long walk back we though it best to start heading to the hotel.

Then came one of my personal hightlights, The Hard Rock Cafe :D :D :D The food was amazing, the music was amazing and the atmosphere was amazing. It general amazingness really. And there was cool merchandise everywhere and next to our table was a floor tom signed by Chad Smith :D Imma buy a t-shirt next time we walk past :)

Today is Statue of Liberty day (or if you're Rachel Ferris Eifel Tower day :P) so we're all rather excited about that!! I'm also gonna drag the others to the United Nations building too. Which I'm very excited about. Should be a good day :D

It's a bit rubbish but I can't upload photos through the hotels computer because there is no socket thingy to plug my camera lead in it. BOOOO. So you'll have to make do with the ones that Aimee and Ferris are uploading via their fancy phones onto Facebook for now!

Shattered after Day 1!

I can't believe we've only been here for one day, we've already done SO much!!
We got up around 8 and went for a wander to Times Square, visited a few shops and bought lots of sweets from the Wonka shop :D Getting used to the money here is really proving a challenge - where is the sense in having a 25c coin but no 50c?? And why have a coin called a dime with no number on the front to indicate what it's actually worth?? Silly american currency.

On the way back to the hotel at lunch time we stopped at a corner shop and bought theses AMAZING cheesy soft popcorn things, which I now plan to live off for the rest of my time in the states. SO tasty. We also bought a $1 slice of pizza each from the place on the corner of our street, which is convient but probably not the best for our health :P

After that we headed out to an art exhibition called "Heads" that Rach wanted to see on 20th Street in some little art gallery. It was actually pretty cool. I really liked this image in particular, though Aimee said it was creepy:

http://www.flowersgalleries.com/uploads/49680.jpg

Then we wandered down to Greenwich to see the big arch and Washington Square Park. There was such a nice atmosphere there, like some cool buskers playing guitars and saxophones and a street artist drawing with sand on the floor. There was also a little area to let dogs off the lead - which looked like my idea of living hell with dogs running around like crazy in packs - and a strange man who was letting pigeons perch all over him... So we took pictures there and had tea in a quirky little italian place on a side sreet.

However I'd say that one of the highlights was walking back up because we discovered we discovered how to get to loads of places we want to see - Macy's, the Empire State Building (which looks fantastic all lit up) and a few others.

It's funny really, we thought we were staying in a pretty quiet area but the city seems to come to life at night. Nothing is closed yet and there are people EVERYWHERE. It's more difficult to walk down the street now than it was at midday! However I don't feel unsafe like I thought I would, there's so many people about and so much going on that the atmosphere really isn't sinister or threatening at all, even in the dark.

Also the people of New York obviously never ever cook for themselves because we cannot find a single supermarket. Surely they can't afford to eat out EVERY night??

Plans for tomorrow very much depend on the weather. Fingers crossed it'll be really sunny so we can go to Central Park and rent bikes :D

I've left my camera lead in my room and unfortunately that's on the 21st floor, so I won't be uploading any pictures on this post but hopefully I'll remember to bring it down tomorrow so you can see some of our antics for yourselves.

I apologise if I have made a lot of spelling mistakes/I'm not making sense; today we've walked around 8 miles in total and that mixed with jet lag and a lack of sleep is finally kicking in. So we've all crashed back at the hotel with ice-cream, crisps, fizzy pop and a pack of cards. Lovely :)

3 weeks to go? AKJGDUHVFJYVKSH.

I'm beginning to get a little nervous about travelling now, as it is starting to sink in that I am actually leaving the country for THREE MONTHS.

So yer, excited but flipping terrified.

Aimee and I recently bought tickets to see the Miami Heat vs Detroit Pistons basketball game, which I am actually really excited about, considering I'm not usually a big sports fan. I've been told that it should be quite a good game... we haven't exactly got the best seats but I don't really think that'll matter since we don't actually know the rules anyway, so I reckon we'll be able to follow it just as well wherever we're sat.

However, I am infinitely more excited about the fact that we get to see SNOW PATROL with ED SHEERAN supporting, which is going to be A-MAY-ZING. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK :D



*swoons* :)

ANYWAY, we've also booked all our buses and hostels, so can breathe a little easier about all that. I was having such a massive panic about finances, so getting that sorted felt brill BUT I just got all my taxes back from Fat Face which the greedy taxman stole, which means I got paid £700 this month. Which is AWESOME.

Currently trying to research things for under 21s to do in the US - more specifically New York, if anyone has any suggestions? Apparently the Hard Rock Cafe is pretty cool on weekends but apart from that I can only find like jazz bars etc. (Which I'd love but I'm not sure if the others are into that sort of thing).

On the Peru side of things Evie and I have booked our first hostel, first coach journey which is TWENTY ONE HOURS and hostel at Machu Picchu (whoop whoop!). So if that initial coach journey doesn't kill me, from then on we are literally just winging it. I am yet to decide whether or not this is a good idea, but I suppose I'll find out when I get there. Wish us luck eh?!

P.S. I promise that once we actually set off, these blog posts will be a lot more interesting :)

Here we go again...

I've given blogging a go far too many times and failed miserably at it. However I've had family members and friends request that I keep them up to speed when I go off travelling to the US and South America in two months time, so blogging seems like the logical way to do so! So I want to try and get into the swing of it before I go away...

I'm going to be travelling from New York - Lima (Peru), through Washington DC, Nashville, Orlando (to name but a few) and looping through Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil with a friend coming to the US part and then meeting another in Peru.

Which means I'll be seeing things like this:



AND this:


Which is all rather lovely.

SO FAR plans for the trip are going quite well - I have my routes planned out, flights booked and insurance paid for. Now all I have to do is save up as much money as possible to pay for everything else.

There's going to be so much to do and see, so obviously any recommendations and travel tips are welcome so we don't miss out on any of the best bits :)