New York New York

OH MY GOODNESS!!!! NEW YORK CITY TOTALLY ROCKS!! I saw this ad in one of those books they leave in the hotels that said the people who say like "New York City is a great place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there" are TOTALLY lying because EVERYONE WANTS TO LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY! I kid you not it was just amazing ...

Well then I arrived in NYC late because I managed to miss my stupid flight out of Washington DC (no direct flights from London to NYC for some reason) and I had an hour and a half wait in Washington which you would think was enough time to get through customs and security but nope! They are totally strict with the whole security thing there so I managed to miss my flight by about 2 minutes. Oh man I was fuming especially since Ellen and Marie were coming to pick me up at JFK but I didn't have their damn phone numbers to let them know I had missed it. Anyways had about a 5 hour wait for the next flight and eventually got there and everything was awesome. For those who don't memorize my blogs (how rude btw *grin*). Marie and Ellen are the friends I met on my Greek Isle trip and Ellen kindly let me stay with her for a few days. It was fabulous.

So got to Ellen's place which is a one bedroom apartment in the Bronx, she said the Bronx itself isn't a really good area but the suburb she lived in the Bronx was if that makes sense. Anyways her apartment was great, it was an old 1930's looking place, high ceilings and for those who have been to my place her apartment was bigger even with only one bedroom. I was quite suprised at how roomy it was cos I thought everyone in NYC lived in shoeboxes unless they were rich. To balance it out tho' went to Marie's place (Marie lives in Manhattan a couple of blocks away from times square) and it was a 3 bedroom place that was smaller than my place hehe so I suppose it balances out.

Anyways Ellen and I did Fifth Avenue ... oh I sound so posh saying that don't I *grin*. We went to FAO Schwarz so I could buy presents for all the kids (wayy too many kids in my life everyone needs to stop breeding damn it mwahahaha) It was fabulous I could have totally brought the whole place out except my credit card wouldn't have let me so very lucky I didn't go to the states first or else I would have been in BIG trouble. After that we strolled along to Tiffany's hehe totally wow! Poor Ellen was a bit disgusted with all the places I wanted to go on a Saturday but it wasn't too crowded (although we gave Macy's a miss for that day just in case). Went and saw Times Square which was way cool. The biggest Toys R Us in the world is in there and just to put it into perspective they actually have a Ferris Wheel inside the shop. Yup way cool. Oh also went to M&M World which was hilarious I might have maybe have accidentally purchased a M&M Monopoly board but it wasn't my fault cos the little devil told me to do it mwahaha so cool. Anyways wandered around a lot today, have to use the Subway to get around and it was way cool and easy to use so excellent.

Went to a Broadway show of Les Miserables which is like my totally favourite musical so I was very excited but found the acting a little bit disappointing really as I considered it overdone but anyways I still had a great time and hey I saw a show on Broadway so yay. Afterwards we went to Times Square to the Planet Hollywood for dinner and Marie came and caught up with us there as well which was good fun.

Wow I feel like I am rambling but i totally loved NYC and I feel like I could describe every minute of my week there but I am going to be telling everyone about it when I get home anyways so I shouldn't make everyone read a whole lot of dribble but basically ...

I spent a few days with Ellen and caught up with Marie as well which was fantastic. We did a bit of shopping and visiting some of the famous sights including 5th ave, Times square, Brooklyn Bridge, Harlem, I got my hair braided in Harlem - it looks way cool (naturally), did some clothes shopping the target over here is absolutely huge btw so got to throw out some of my disgusting travelling clothes thank goodness.

After spending a few days with the girls I went to join my Contiki group which was basically a check out NYC tour so they took us to the Statue of Liberty, World Trade Centre and the Church right next to it which was where a lot of the volunteers congregated and relief teams were set up etc after 9/11. It was really moving and the hole in the ground was way bigger than i thought which was really quite sad in itself. We went to this bar in Hells Kitchen that night and this amazing Pizza Place for authentic NY pizza - i tell you i am never eating pizza hut again after this pizza it was awesome. We had to get up early in the morning to go to the taping of some early morning show yup i was on tv (still waiting for the hollywood agents to track me down but i am moving around a bit so it could take them a while). Went up the Empire State Building out to the observation deck so we could have a look around and i thought it might be scary because i have never been up so high but it was fine and i managed after a couple of deep breaths. Saw Central Park as well or a tiny fraction of it really but once again just so impressed.

Ok i am going to stop rambling but I have attached a bunch of photos and will bore you all to death about how amazing NYC was when I get home (consider this fair warning ok). Oh and i have 2 more blogs to do today as well since I am so far behind but NYC is totally unreal and everyone needs to organise their trip over there immediately if not sooner kay.

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