Empire State of Paul

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A city so nice I blogged it twice

Right! Sick of me? you will be after this.

I have had a jam packed couple of days here in NYC. No intro's; so let's get to it. So firstly, yesterday I went on the SATC tour at the behest of my eldest sister. It started from the Midtown end of Central Park and as I was one of the few people schlepping it solo, I was partnered with a girl that was also doing the tour alone. She happened to be from Frankfurt (15 mins outside of Idstein specifically!!!) where I had just came from. She was alone as her boyfriend was working in the city for the day and she wanted to look at a few things before they toured the city together for the weekend.

We chatted quite a bit and hey presto - as well as the SATC tour, we now both had a tour partner for the rest of the day! so the tour was great fun - lots of girls on it though and I was asked 'why are you doing this tour? you're a boy!' by another passenger which was irksome and deserved a huge 'like Derrrrr' ...but a roll of my eyes always does the trick!

Picture me doing that...Now come back.

The hostess on the bus was Amy who is a comedian (doing bus tours) and she was actually pretty funny. We visited a sex shop, all the neighbourhoods where all the characters lived, had some cupcakes, visited Buddakan from the first movie and ended the tour after a Cosmo at O'Nieals which was Aidan's bar 'Scout' in the TV show. Actually it all sounds pretty girly now writing this but it was good fun, everyone was pretty friendly and not that inhibited after Amy made us all hold hands and shout "F*ck!" in unison.

When the tour concluded my new German friend and I stumbled upon Times Square again where I got some clearer pics and then accosted by a scalper because I didn't want to see a comedy show that he was spruiking, we then headed Downtown to do the Statue of Liberty/ Ellis Island tour. We were too late in the afternoon to go on that tour so we decided to catch a return Staten Island Ferry instead which was free!

From there we went to the Stock Exchange and then Ground Zero where there is a lot of construction going on at the moment. It's weird to actually be there when I watched 9/11 unfold on TV back at my parents place in Canberra way back when. But I digress.

We then parted ways and I did a spot of yew know....shopping...at Century 21. Lots of discounted name brand clothes for cheap! pity I didn't like a lot of the clothes.

I then went back to my Hotel after a bit of walking around and I thankfully crashed at a decent hour of 10pm.

So today after a somewhat early rise - I went for a wander around South Ferry/ Downtown again and decided to do the Brooklyn Bridge walk. Lots of people! Lots of walking! but I can mark that off my list of things to do whilst I'm here.

I then went and did the NOH8 campaign photo shoot that was held at the W hotel. It's for a great cause (look it up if you are interested) and I should get a copy of my airbrushed photo in the next 3-4 weeks from the photographer Adam Bouska. So stay tuned! I actually went to the bathroom before I was called for my photo and got a sneaky self pic just to give you an idea.

I THEN (stop groaning) and took some celebrity pics at Madame Tussaud's, went to Grand Central Station to have a look around and on my way back, strolled up Madison Avenue and stopped at a few stores along the way. I haven't spotted any Celebs whilst I've been here all though a did pass a guy on 5th Ave who looked remarkably like Chris Evans...mighta been him.

But anyways PHEW!!! big day OVAH. Well....sort of. I decided to go out on my last night in NYC which I forced myself to do (can't go all that way not go out for one night right?) I ended up at a bar called Rocket which was pretty cool and I talked to a few people in not so daggy 'I'm aussie and a by myself loner' type of way. It was pretty good night and ran into some more Melbournian's (they're everywhere!). I was almost sick though after my first drink as I had a vodka and sprite that was 3 quarters vodka, 1 pinch of sprite. I had been warned about that but wasn't expecting it to be that bad! I decided to stick to beer from that point on. Maybe a few to many but whatevs.

I hope you are enjoying my blogs and I hope that all is well with all my little pretties reading this and I will blog you on the other side of the weekend.

P.S. the photos attached are just a taste of how many I have taken. I already have over 200+ for NY alone!

i.e. total tourist.

xx P

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Comments

[Leiah]

I am so jealous at the places you ahve been lately, how are you able to do this? I am from durban south africa and at the moment stuck in this dusty filled place called abu dhabi which I have seen you've been too, imagine being stuck here for two years sucks ass! So jealous of your travels and photos add me on travel will keep a watch oout on your travels and soon update my own as I have been rather slack lately...

[Pauly Paul]

Hi Leiah, Thanks for your msg. I had been planning my trip for almost a year and it was more to do with going somewhere different - I hadn't been to America before but it was a great trip. I will keep an eye out for your blogs ;)