New York - Best City in the World!

Friday 24^th August - Boston – New York

We had booked online a bus to NYC at 11.45am. So we rose early and with the continuing saga of arranging our deposit into the correct bank account for the NYC apartment we checked our email and found that our contact had confirmed the account number and we headed off to make the deposit. All done we headed back to Judith's house to collect our stuff and make our way towards the bus station. Unfortunately we usually leave plenty of time to catch buses/planes etc, but on this occasion we were running slightly late. This wasn't helped by the fact the rare breaks of the tram kept slamming on, so with our heavy packs we twice almost went flying down the tram. The lady driver was very calm (although yelled at one stage at the top of the voice that it wasn't her fault... duh!) and at a snails pace she got us to the next stop where we all changed to another tram.

We got to the bus just in time and departed Boston for NYC. The bus there was a real treat compared to our Bolivia buses - air conditioned, we travelled on a paved motorway the whole way and a toilet at the back of the bus that was actually unlocked! The bus runs from Chinatown Boston – Chinatown NYC and is Chinese operated funnily enough. It is super cheap for $15 each although they don't seem to have the best safety record, but again comparing to Bolivia the tyres are pumped up and aren't bald and the driver doesn't overtake on blind corners!! Arriving in New York was pretty cool. We could clearly see the island of Manhattan and all the massive buildings that make up the beautiful skyline. It almost seemed a bit surreal, like we were in a movie as it was a beautiful day and we could see all the landmarks that represent New York – statue of liberty, Chrysler building etc.

We got to Chinatown and jumped off the bus to be met with 90 degree heat and our first contact with a New Zealander as a guy that had been on the bus heard us talk then introduced himself as originally from Auckland. We had a good chat to him then found a spot to check our internet to get the directions to the apartment. To our horror there were no directions and no contact made after we had paid the deposit earlier in the morning. We were so unsure what to do, but decided to go to the address we were given. So, we jumped in a taxi and were greeted by the apparently “best taxi driver in New York”. He was hilarious and asked so many questions about our travels and New Zealand. The trip cost more than he anticipated – he quoted $13 but it cost $20.

We decided to go to a Starbucks to use the internet and check where we are to meet this guy, but at the same time were feeling like something wasn't right. We set up our laptop but the battery had run out and we lost our adapter, so Leigh set off and bought a new one. We finally got online again to have no response from the owner of the apartment. We felt like we had been caught in a scam. A guy sitting opposite heard us talking and asked what was going on, so we explained and I think he thought it was definitely a scam. So unfair as we had successfully travelled through South America with no problems then a few days into our States trip and we get totally had!

This guy was really nice and said he knew of a couple of cheap hotels, so he made a call for us and booked us in a place in Chelsea just for the night. So with our heads down we jumped in another cab as we didn't want to navigate the underground system with all our luggage. $15 taxi ride later we arrived at the Leo House. Little did we know about this place but it was in a great location right by a metro stop and was also a catholic house. The people there were so nice and the room itself was fine. It had a toilet and sink and 2 single beds as we are not married. There was also cable TV which satisfied Leigh's sports addiction.

Feeling totally annoyed at this guy who had ripped us off we thought we would at least try and make a report to the police. So Leigh walked across the block to the number 10 precinct. He was greeted by a rather large Italian New Yorker. Leigh explained the events of the fraud and to his surprise he received the following reply (in your typical Police/New York accent) “You've been duped”! With that reply and beginning to swallow the loss Leigh left and the saying “you've been duped” became our phrase for NYC.

We put the day to rest by going out for a nice dinner and a few drinks. So we walked to the end of the block passing about 6 restaurants out of 8 shops... this city is all about food, food, food! We decided on Dallas BBQ and ordered an Apple Martini to share, hamburgers etc. The apple martini was the highlight as it was a bowl, it had enough drink for 8 people and a tube with a shot in it also. It took just under an hour to drink, as did our massive meals. Starting to almost forget the days hassle, we went home, had a chat to the reception guys who were super nice then went to bed, really looking forward to exploring New York which has this instantaneous attraction about it.

Saturday 25^th August - New York

This morning we had to decide where we are going to stay during our week in NYC. Jo really wanted to stay in an apartment to be able to cook food and do laundry but after much efforts none of the apartments fitted our criteria i.e. under $100 per night, which seems like a lot of money but isn't really in NYC. We ended up deciding to stay put at the Leo House as it is good value for money and the location is excellent being in Chelsea.

We then went to the Bank of America to report the fraud that had taken place against us, but after much hard work it ended up that the account is under investigation for millions of e-commerce fraud. No one seems to care about our $700 loss though! So our only next step was to report it to the police again.

They didn't want to know about it because it wasn't in their jurisdiction i.e. the crime took place when we banked the money in Boston, so it had to be reported in person in Boston. They had a bit of a laugh to themselves and I wondered if they really lived by the Honor and Respect motto printed in large writing on their car doors. They took a bit more heart when I told them how it would affect our trip and how it doesn't seem much money but the impact to us was significant. We left the station with not much faith in the policing (well not in their attitude towards fraud anyway) and began our exploration of NYC.

We headed for a walk around Madison Square Garden and what is called Midtown. Lots of shops and thousands of people. We had a great time just walking around exploring and feeling very small against sky scraper after sky scraper. In the afternoon we decided to put our weekly metro passes into good use (very inexpensive $24 for the week!) and so got off at a stop by Central Park. It was such a lovely day so we decided to go to the shops and get food for a picnic. After a bit of walking around this gorgeous park, full of joggers and families playing, we found a spot by a big tree. We made up tuna, tomato bagels and had pretzels, they were good!

After having a wee kip, as the heat really gets to you after a while and reading our New York guide on things to do, we headed home to get changed. In the evening about 7.30pm we went to Choux cafe (a small cafe next to our hotel that became our regular coffee stop). After talking sport we searched on the internet and found out there was an American Football game on that evening, starting in half an hour at 8pm over in New Jersey.

So we got directions from the hotel on how to get to the stadium and jumped on the next metro to get to the bus. After asking the lady at the bus stop if its worth going to given it was 7.50pm, she asked “how many quarters does a game have”? That's one thing you get use to here... the slight sarcasm in responses to questions. To our amazement we arrived at he ground in just over 40mins after deciding to go. The next thing to do was to get tickets. We went to the ticket office and were quoted $75US each. Knowing it was only a pre-season game we were not willing to pay that much. A little disheartened we slowly walked away, only to be given the directions from a nice lady of a few scalpers.

We headed to the area and were greeted by 2 very drunk men sitting outside a RV who explained they were on a stag party and were to intoxicated to enter. The funny thing was they were sure we were police, we explained to them otherwise and to our shock they laughed and then showed us their badges! They were NYC cops and we thought we were done, as it happened they laughed their heads off at the look on our faces. We completed the transaction with our word that we would not admit to scalping our tickets from drunk policeman. We raced inside and arrived in time for the beginning of the second quarter. WOW what an amazing stadium, our seats were up on the 3^rd tear and as we have started to expect with stadiums in the US is there is never a bad seat. We had a great view and really enjoyed the evening.

Listening to the locals talk we heard that they the NY Giants are building a new stadium. We could not believe it - this stadium was better that most stadiums you will visit and could not work out how you would need a bigger newer stadium, but we are in USA were bigger is truly better. After the game we got back into town with the same ease. After arriving back in the city we decided to have a night walk around Time Square. It was about midnight and was really buzzing and was so busy, sidewalks were bustling and all the shops open. We strolled around for over an hour after having noodles and then headed home before getting to sleep around 3am! Your body clock really changes in NYC as you want to stay up all night and not miss anything!!

Sunday 26^th August – New York

The beauty with NY is that you can start the day late and still spend 10hrs sightseeing. So we slept in and and left our Hotel around 12pm, then headed off to the Chelsea Piers were Jo went for a run and Leigh had brunch at a cafe catching up on admin. The cafe was nice - Leigh's sandwich being enough for two as per usual and Jo had granola and yogurt after her run. We spent a few hours there before heading off to take in more sights. We decided to head up 5^th Ave to check out some more amazing architecture and shops.

Our first stop was the Flatiron building (refer to photo). It is really cool and Leigh found it particularly interesting as he studied it during Art History at school so he was rather excited to be viewing it. The building cuts between 2 streets and is almost arrow shape. It is just one of the famous buildings that you see while on Manhattan and you can almost always put a movie or TV programme next to it. We jumped on the subway and headed to 5^th and 45^th St, keeping the higher parts of 5^th Ave for later.

We explored more architecture and took in some of the city's cathedrals. The sight of such holy places usually have their own place on a street or on the landscape, but not in Manhattan were all churches seem insignificant in size but not in status. These are some of the most beautifully kept churches we have visited. We eventually headed to the Rockerfella center. The area itself is beautiful, with bustling restaurants and a busy pedestrian zone. The Rockerfella building itself is again beautiful. With an Art Deco design the tower climbed beautifully into the the sky for a few great photo opportunities.

As it goes in NY time was flying by and already heading for Midnight, so we jumped on the subway to union square and went to a really funky bar/restaurant for some Thai noodles for dinner before heading home again well after midnight. For so many months we had early nights usually due to no electricity, so our bodies really had to adjust for night time fun!

Monday 27^th August – New York

Today we decided to walk all around lower Manhattan. We actually got off to an early start for us and caught the metro to where the World Trade Centre use to be. It is horrific at how large the space is and picturing the twin towers and just how big they were. We walked around the open information area, where there are boards up detailing before and after. We decided to come back and walk round to the otherside of the site, after getting a bite to eat, so we went to Leigh's favourite subway and sat in City Hall park.

As we were eating we decided to count how many overweight people there were that passed us. We actually changed that to how many normal weight people there were that passed us. We didn't need two hands to do this. It made us feel better about eating a whole packet of biscuits.

Afterwards we visited city hall which was rather impressive then headed over to the St Paul's Chapel. This church was built in 1766 and has witnessed many important historic events, including Washington worshiped there on Inauguration Day in 1789. It also withstood 9/11 and was home to an 8 month volunteer relief effort. There is an exhibit set up called Unwavering Spirit which detailed what happened during 9/11 and the clean up after that involved so many volunteers. The church was a place where all the volunteers would go to rest before going back in to help out in the disaster zone. It was also where people missing loved ones posted notes and some of them where on display, it was so sad.

We carried on and walked all around ground zero where work is taking place to build the new freedom tower building. We then walked to the World Financial Centre and visited the winter garden, the centre piece of the building. The east side of this area suffered the worst during the world trade centre attacks, but it was really quite beautiful and would be a nice building to work in. We then wandered back around the otherside of the World Trade Centre site to head over to Wall street. On route we visited Trinity church with a bronze cast of roots from a sycamore tree that had stood for many years in the St Paul's church's courtyard. The sycamore was the only part of the church that got affected by the 9/11 attacks.

We eventually made our way over to Wall Street which was really cool. Some beautiful buildings and busy, important people about. We went inside Federal Hall which has a statue of Washington out front. It was very interesting reading the history and how the town hall used to stand there. We then continued down Wall Street to South Street on the East River. From here you can appreciate the beauty of the Brooklyn bridge and we read up in our guide book about the history. It was quite sad as the Chief Engineer's foot got crushed on a pier by a ferry and he got tetanus and died so his son took over. It took 13 years to build between 1870 – 1883.

We then decided to walk down to the catch a free ferry to Staten Island, which offers views of the Statue of Liberty. The boat service is really good and we pretty much jumped on the next boat leaving and got to see not only great views of the Statue, but also looking back to lower Manhattan, it was well worth the trip. After missing the next boat back as we were getting snacks, we got the next one 20 minutes later and were again excited by the spectacular views of the city. On arrival we decided to walk through Battery Park (a 21-acre public park at the Southern tip of Manhattan) and stopped at all the lovely statues in the park and Castle Clinton. We then visited the sphere and eternal flame. The sphere originally stood in a plaza between the two towers. Although it remained structurally intact, it sustained some damage from falling debris.

By this time we had worked up an appetite so caught the metro up to a sushi buffet restaurant that we had read about. Although it was well over our budget we were lured in by the promise of delicious sushi and Japanese food. As we walked down the restaurant to get seated our eyes were popping out of our head, with not only the amount of food but also the quality of the food.

Not only did we have some really good sushi including California rolls, maki, chicken terriyaki, fresh salmon, sushi topped with cavier etc, we also had tempura, crab cakes, dumplings. Desert was equally delicious including freshly made crepes, fruit, interesting flavoured icecream – green tea and lots of little sweet treats. During our meal we started talking to the people next to us – NYC is an extremely friendly city and everyone is very helpful. The guys gave us a good tip that we should not pay more than $50 each for tickets to tomorrow nights game to the Yankees/Red Sox. We thought it would be a good idea to walk home after over indulging, so again got home well after midnight but really enjoying the day.

Tuesday 28^th August – New York

We started the day a little later again, as you can do in NYC due to the late nights. We headed back to our favourite cafe at Chelsea Piers. Leigh enjoyed a peaceful breakfast while Jo went for another run. We passed the afternoon away doing a little more admin ie. booking onward buses and accommodation. After we finished we headed back to get ready for what truly was one of the best nights of our travel.

That evening after getting snacks from the lovely Wholefoods supermarket, we headed to the baseball where the Yankees were playing their most fierce rivals the Boston Redsox, (truly one of the greatest sporting rivalries)! Unsure if we were going to get tickets, we jumped on the subway and were intending to stop at Strawberry Fields in Central Park, the memorial dedicated to John Lennon. But we miss-read the train and ended up on the express train to the Bronx, so missed the sight. We were a little annoyed as we got to the game earlier than we should of to scalp tickets. Well it is funny how things work out.

We scouted out were our best chances to get tickets were and decided to pass the time observing the crowd just to the side of the stadium. To our delight almost as soon as we were seated we noticed a women very casually and quietly asking if people wanted tickets. Without giving any chance for anyone else to snatch them up we made it very clear that we wanted to buy them from her. She made an offer of $50US per ticket, but we made her and offer of $40 and she accepted quickly. We slipped her the money and were just so stoked! The tickets had a face value of $17 so to pay just over double to watch such a significant game was a thrill and more than reasonable for us.

We checked our bag into the bowling alley across the road and headed to the gate. There is always this nervous anticipation as you head through the gate hoping that the ticket is not fake. We got through the gate no problems and headed to our seat. We sat on the top tier behind the catcher, again it seemed like there was not a bad seat in the house. We can't say how excited we were. Just before the start of the game, the lady that sold us the tickets arrived with her family, which topped the night off as her teenage son and daughter were avid Yankees fans and just loved explaining the game to us. There were only a few slight problems... 1) Leigh is a Redsox fan and being a little nervous about the hostile crowd had to keep quiet about it, 2) Unlike football in the UK, there is no crowd separation so the opposing fans will say anything to insult each other, which as they get drunk it can become rather precarious. The game got underway and the atmosphere was amazing.

During the early parts of the game Jo had become a Yankees fan and had no problem cheering for them while Leigh was keeping quiet and was getting a few comments from the locals for being to quiet when they scored...if only they knew! It was pretty cool as being in New York your constantly walking past celebrities and watching a baseball game is no exception. Cameron Diaz and Tiger Woods were there, supporting the Yankees with Jo. As it happens the Yankees won and Jo with the rest of the crowd were very happy. Of course Leigh was too, but it is always hard to watch your team loose no matter who and were they are playing. We joined the crowds and headed back to the packed subway. As we had not taken enough food it was time for a little dinner and Leigh grabbed a famous NY Calzone on the way home. It was big enough to feed 3 people! We walked home still buzzing from one of our best ever nights!

Wednesday 29^th August – New York

We started the day a little earlier today at 9.30am and enjoyed the buffet breakfast in the hotel. The weather today was exceptionally hot and we had to move fast as we were heading to the tennis in the evening. Our first stop was Washington Square, another monument for the first president. The monument itself was reminiscent of the Arc De Triumph in Paris. It is set in a beautiful little park in suburban Manhattan. It was pretty cool as when you walk around Manhattan, you always seem to come across film crews. There was one right by the park so we watched a couple of takes, unsure of what the movie was. From there we began walking towards Little Italy.

On route we did a little shopping and Leigh bought a Red Sox cap. But we have to say the best buy of the day, in fact the trip although excessive was... well believe it or not VEGEMITE! To tell the story, we had been going into every supermarket and seeing if they stocked it. Most had the English version of Marmite, yuck! So in the flashest grocery store in NYC, where prices are not displayed, we approached a store assistant and asked if it was in stock. To our delight she lead us straight to it. We were stoked and had no qualms about paying the $6.50US for the tiniest jar ever. Happy with ourselves we carried on into Little Italy.

The bulk of the action was on one street that was being prepared for a festival in early September. It was not like a little Italy that you may think. Just a whole lot of Italian restaurants in a row. It was an interesting place and our guide book told of the history and some mafia stories. One in particular was a certain restaurant that was the sight of the murder of a mafia family godfather. We kept our eyes peeled for any mafia action but only saw one older man smoking a cigar bigger that you arm. We were not to sure if he thought he was the “godfather” of just pretending!

As we carried on we came across a gun shop where curiosity took over and we paid a visit. Little Italy runs straight into China Town, so we carried on the same street and similar to little Italy it is more a place with masses of Chinese People and restaurants set among NY streets. It made for some really great sights and we enjoyed our walk. For lunch at the very bottom of China Town we found a specialty dumpling house. Still full from breakfast we could not resist getting 5 dumplings for a buck. We enjoyed the little snack in a park full of Chinese men playing checkers then carried on our way towards the Brooklyn bridge. Being in the afternoon sun made for slow walking, just as well we had started early!

We decided to just walk to the first arch on the bridge. It was such a clear day and we got the best views of lower Manhattan, Brooklyn and the views up and down the East River. We headed back off the bridge to the subway towards Battery Park to visit the Sky Scraper museum. Although very small it seemed almost brand new. The museum itself was not quiet as we thought. We thought it was going to be more about the NY skyline but was infact more about the new worlds tallest building - Burj Dubai. There was lots of useful information but we passed through it rather fast and headed home.

On the way we picked up our picnic dinner from Wholefoods supermarket. Again it was a painless ride out to Queens where the Arthur Ashe stadium is. Just 2 trains and a total time of about 45mins travelling. We went through and collected our tickets, moved through the queue and went to our seats. Well again we will say there is not a bad seat in the house. We were sitting in the upper tier side of the court. We did not know what the evening schedule was until we read it in the paper on our way there.

We were absolutely stoked to hear that Serena was playing in the womens singles and Roger Federer in the men's. We took a few night photos of the Manhattan skyline, settled in and watched the tennis. It was unreal to be there! We can't really decide what we liked more, the baseball or the tennis. If it was not the tennis keeping us entertained it was the crowd and seeing what stupid dances people would do to get on camera. It was a real laugh and celebrities like Ralph Lauren were getting involved! Both Serena and Federer won in straight sets. After the game it was back on a packed subway home. Time for bed again after 1am!

Thursday 30^th August – New York

We started the day late morning again, still on a buzz from both the Baseball and Tennis. Jo needed to burn off a little energy so we headed off to the Chelsea Piers. Again Leigh enjoyed breakfast in peace while Jo hit streets. After our healthy start to the day we headed off to the upper part of 5^th Ave. Well the first stop was all for Jo - a visit to Tiffany's Jewelers! We spent the best part of an hour there, with Jo trying on her fair share of rings etc. Unfortunately for her they 1) don't offer a student discount and 2) did not have a backpackers rate on the 13 grand rings. The funny thing is that they only really serve you if they think that you are going to buy, so the service we received in our very worn clothes was abrupt, bordering rude. We had a laugh and decided to leave.

After the diamonds we headed to the electrical stores and decided to go into Apple to make use of the free internet. An hour later we headed to the Sony store and as it goes they also do not have discounts applicable to our needs. These are the days we have to remind ourselves that we are backpacking and not on a shopping holiday! We went on and hit all the clothes stores, Abercrombie etc. We then headed to Trump tower and had a look around. It was rather flash inside and of course you could find a Starbucks there. Those Starbucks seem to be around every corner. To keep to the theme of diamonds we headed for the diamond district. There were a few hugely expensive rocks there that appealed to Jo but again without the relevant discounts we were unfortunately able to buy.

In the pursuit of expensive things, Jo wanted to go to a bar at Hotel Algonquin which famously sells a $10,000 martini. The reason for the price is there is a diamond at the bottom of the glass. We skipped the drinks and instead opted for a coke from a 7/11, hoping to find a floating treasure in this instead... not to be. We then headed up the almighty Empire State Building. After the usual security checks we caught the 3 elevators to the 86^th floor.

We had decided to go up at around 5.30pm so we could appreciate the beautiful Skyline in both day and night. There were lots of people so getting a viewing of the sights was often hard, but we managed to push our way to the edge. The views were amazing, so many picture postcard photos and it was awesome to have seen the city and the surrounding areas while the sun was setting. Effortlessly the city transformed into night, with the flickering of lights. It was gorgeous! We spent a few good hours before heading down. After returning to the bottom we enjoyed Taco's for dinner before heading home for a earlier night.

Friday 31^st August – New York

This morning was cool as Rich called around midday to wake us up. It was good to talk to him and also discuss the luxury hotel they have got us for 2 nights in Miami... we are so excited! We set off walking up to times square which is always brilliant, then gazed at the beauty of the Chrysler building. Jo really wanted to go to Grand Central Station which is one of New York's most famous landmarks, so we went there for a visit and it was simply beautiful. The architecture and lightning makes the place feel quite open and large but still vintage like nothing has changed in a hundred years. It is the nicest train station we have ever been too.

We then caught the metro up a stop to the Museum of Modern Art. It was a good day for visiting museums as some had specials on for the entry price. As we were walking along we passed a boutiquey restaurant and who would be sitting there chatting away but Miss J from America's Next Top Model. Jo did a double take which he realised but not wanting to interrupt him to take a photo she smiled and walked on. Very excitedly she ran and caught up to Leigh who is always 10 strides ahead saying “Leigh Leigh look at who it is...” not the most subtle of announcements that you just saw a celebrity! We got to the Museum, not realising just how popular it would be to go on the free day. Well the queue went out the building down a block and snacked through an empty building space around specially set up gates for the afternoon. We finally got in and there was another queue for the bags, so Jo had the first visit of the museum while Leigh looked after the bag and then vice versa. It was an amazing museum but it was worth more time than we gave it. However we both saw the most important sections to us, the photography and architecture sections and appreciated the outdoor gardens.

We then caught the metro again up to Central Park where the Gugenheim Museum is. As we approached it we were both disappointed as the exterior is under construction. It is quite a beautiful museum, circular in formation and painted a crisp white. We queued for about 20mins then entered the foyer area which follows the exterior of the building with round ramps spiraling the way up to the top floor. The special entry price for Friday was to make a donation, but there was suggested donations as you got to the till. So we paid the Student entry (as we are students) of $4 each and both got a free audio guide. This museum is modern and contemporary and had some awesome exhibitions on display including Solomon's Gift – the founding collection. We wandered around and enjoyed some of the exhibitions and questioned why some of it was actually considered art, but that is our opinion. It was a really funky type of museum and we walked around for some time.

As we missed Strawberry fields the day before, we decided to walk through Central Park and stop by. It was starting to get dark so we moved quite swiftly as apparently its not the safest place at night. We wandered for about half an hour and came across a play going on in the Shakespeare theatre. The tickets were sold out but there was a real buzz around the place. There were also lots of people running, walking and cycling or staring at the moon lightning up the skyscrapers in the distance. Leigh asked a grounds keeper where the monument was which was quite lucky as we had to make a quick turn off the main path. We arrived and what is quite a humble tribute with a round marble plaque in the middle of park benches. It was covered with flowers. In the surrounding area was lots of homeless and drunk people so we quickly took in the sight and moved on.

It was starting to get quite late so we thought we'd head out to Little Italy / Chinatown for dinner. So we jumped on the metro and hoped off in the heart of Little Italy. There were heaps of people walking around and has lots of decorations up in preparation for an upcoming festival. We decided on Malaysian cuisine and were glad at our choice as it was highly recommended and not too expensive. We both really enjoyed our dinner then decided to head home as again it was after midnight. On the metro we were greeted by a whole lot of weirdos nutting of to themselves and guys that looked like gangsters, so we were sitting on the edge of our seat the whole way, but they ended up keeping to themselves thankfully. Again another enjoyable day and night!!

Saturday 1^st September – New York

As we got to sleep the night before around 3am we got up this morning about midday. We were in need of getting some laundry done, so a couple of shops down the road we put it on while we went to Choux cafe had brunch and surfed the internet. Once the washing was done we walked down to Chelsea markets. Jo lead us the wrong way so we ended up in a different market first, before backtracking all the way towards Chelsea piers. It was a great little market and we tasted some expensive free wines and bought some lovely bread and sorbets. Leigh of course had pizza.

Enjoying walking around we headed off to Macy's as there was a sale on. Leigh was in luck as he found a pair of Adidas trainers for $40, so made the purchase. We wandered around Macy's for a while, then decided to walk down 5^th Ave to Madison Square Gardens where the US Open was being televised. It was a really lovely afternoon/evening and everyone was out and about. There was a big screen playing the tennis and two mini stadiums where you could sit and also a grassy bit in the middle. We chose up the top of the stadium and enjoyed some good old hot dogs.

The tennis was very exciting and we ended up staying there a lot longer than intended to watch the end of a Womens singles match. During the evening we chatted to lots of people, again this is such a friendly city! About 10.30pm we decided to leave and go out to our favourite Dallas Texas BBQ restaurant for a big feed. Leigh again enjoyed hamburgers, while Jo getting absolutely overwhelmed with all the food had salad and a corn cob. Jo then called home and it was great to speak to Mum and Dad. We chilled out in the late evening and watched TV, before going to sleep around 2am. We are both a bit sad to be leaving NYC tomorrow and have agreed that it truly is our favourite city in the world!