New York!

New York, New York. New York is awesome! Now I understand why all Americans think they come from the best country in the world, because (apart from Australia, possibly Vietnam and a few other places I haven't yet been to) they do!

So we left Venice on a Wednesday and flew to London. Our night in London was fairly uneventful, just organising bank accounts and sim cards etc. The best part was that our hostel had a gym, so we worked out in the evening AND the next morning, making my workout total for the last 8 months a sum total of...two! Feeling good.

The next morning we made our way to the airport to fly to the United States of America. We certainly picked the worst flight security wise. After taking off practically all our clothes for security and removing our shoes not once, not twice but THREE times, we were the lucky winners of a 'random security check' where we got to take off our shoes and clothes again and be subjected to a large amount of poking, prodding and questions.

Arriving in Washington we had about 2 hours to get to our connecting flight to NY, unfortunately customs too about 1 hour and 55 minutes. We rushed through another round of security and customs (yes, our shoes again posed a large threat and had to be checked...did I mention they take about 10 minutes to take on and off?), then we sprinted through a massive airport, took a shuttle to another terminal and sprinted again to our gate and JUST made our flight by about 2 minutes. After all of that, the flight was delayed and we sat on the tarmac for another hour!

This did give us time to make friends with the flight attendant who was really friendly, gave us lots of local knowledge, lots of aurplane food to take home and even offered us free accommodation! But we already had our hostel booked so when we arrive we said our goodbyes and gratefully accepted more food and drink.

New York has actually been really surprising. We were both expecting rude, pushy, busy people who would shove you on the subway and pick your pockets. Perhaps it was because of these low expectations that we have been so impressed, but quite literally we have yet to meet a single nasty person. Everyone we've met has gone out of their way to help us and each other and will always wish you a happy day. We have found it really easy to get around on the subway and the street system on Manhatten is so simple!

On our first day we went to Times Square and looked around, took a walk in Central Park (which is covered in snow so its really beautiful) and also went to the top of the Rockefeller tower and got a really good view of all of New York. In the evening we went to a standup comedy show which was so much fun. They have a nice little scheme where they give you really cheap tickets but then say you have to buy a minimum of two drinks, and the drink prices are through the roof! But we didn't mind 'cos it was such a good show.

The next day we woke up and had a typical American bagel and coffee for breakfast before heading down to lower Manatten and catching a boat to Liberty Island and checking out our Lady Liberty close up. The statue itself is not actually very big, but the symbolism is very powerful. In the afternoon we bought some tickets to see Chicago on Broadway in the evening. Unfortunately the only tickets left were standing $22 or front row, $120. Naturally we took the cheap option and ended up standing in the back of the theatre for the show! It wasn't nearly as bad as expected though, we had a nice marble wall to lean on and when you are distracted by bright lights and loud singing you forget that you are standing up.

On Sunday we had another American breakie then took another walk in Central Park and ended up at the American Museum of Natural History. The museum is massive and has exhibits about everything fromt the big bang, evolution of humans, precious gems, animals, earthquakes, volcanoes, dinasaurs....everything was so interesting! There was far too much to get through in one day! In the afternoon we joined the long que for the half price ticket booth and ended up with some tickets to see The Altar Boyz, this time in the front row! The show was lots of fun, it was sortof a payout of boybands. We topped off the night with an all-American frappucino at Starbucks...me being underage and all...

This morning we have been walking in Central Park again and ended up at the Apple centre on 5th Avenue...lots of free computers with internet! So here we are. This afternoon we are going to check out China Town, Little Italy, Soho, the UN and finish up with another comedy show. Tomorrow we are flying to San Francisco and are undecided how long we'll stay for, if we have any money left we might try to get to the Grand Canyon before flying home on the 28th of Feb!