Day 31 - Washington D.C. to New York City

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Bags to coach for the final time - 7.45!
It was a little surreal I guess, after 26 days on the tour it was all going to be over =(
We stopped at the United States Naval Academy. We did a tour of the grounds. It was kind of interesting… But our tour guide was pretty boring… So it wasn’t that great. It’s extremely hard to get into this school, and it’s so strict once you’re in, with barely any outside contact etc.
We then hopped back in the bus and headed into Philly!! We had a surprise stop at the steps from the Rocky movie… Which I’ve never seen and don’t have any real plans too… But it was exciting all the same!
We then headed more into town, listening to Bruce sing, “Streets of Philadelphia”. We were there long enough to find somewhere to have a bit of lunch, and rush over to take a look at the Liberty Bell, take some photos, and then head back to the coach.
Next stop, New York City!
We were dropped at the Milford Plaza Hotel, the Hotel recommended by Contiki and where most were staying. We said a couple of goodbyes, but we all planned to meet later at the Hard Rock Café for a last Contiki organized dinner.
Caddie was staying at the same hostel as us, so we decided to grab a cab together from 42nd to 94th Street, to the Candy Hostel.
Not so bad, as far as a hostel goes. Our room was a shoebox, and the shared bathrooms we’re fantastic, but we were close enough to everything and the hostel had a pretty cool atmosphere.
We got ready fairly quickly and the 3 of us headed back to the Milford to meet with the others and head out for the Last Supper.
The Hard Rock is in Times Square, so our first real look of it was at night with everything all bright and it was pretty exciting! The Hard Rock itself was pretty big, and packed. Took a while to get tables for the massive group, but we just sat by the bar and had a few drinks while we waited.
After dinner we said our last goodbyes to a few people, including our tour manager Christina (she cried lots!), and a few of us decided we wanted to party on a bit. So we got in cabs and headed to an area called the Meat Packing District, and found a cool looking rooftop bar. It was fairly busy, and the view was really good, but the drinks were super expensive which kind of ruined the appeal of staying out, so we headed back to the hostel relatively early. Big day of sightseeing the next day!!!

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