Soo the first update! Lack of organisation has meant we've already been in the USA for 7 days before writing anything down so I hope we can remember everything!

Landed at JFK, New York and once we realised it was going to cost near to $70 dollars to get a taxi to our hotel we decided we'd attempt to use public transport. Air train to Jamaica station then on the purple 7 line to red roof inn, Long Island city. As this was on a road called hunters point ave, we thought we'd get off at that station, little did we realise we then had a 30min walk to our hotel with backpacks full to the brim. Once we got to the hotel the friendly Spanish manager informed us of the nearer station, only 10mins away... first night away and we had two double beds, couldn't believe out luck, one each! Grabbed take out pizza and found where the station was for the next morning. Had to get up early to meet Harry's friend (Bhalla), who we would be staying with for the next few nights, at his dorms before he went to play tennis. Using the NYC subway we got to union st station in plenty of time to walk to the NYU dorms (3rd ave&14th st). Bags dumped and Bhalla showed us the way to soho (shopping district) no shops open as its so early so our first stop was Starbucks! First day was crazy busy, we headed downtown and went past the 9/11 memorial run/walk so the entire area was really busy with people. Today we took a 1 hour ferry around manhattan, the main reason for this ferry was to see the Statue of Liberty and go under the Brooklyn bridge. Couldn't go onto liberty island due to the construction work going on to help recover from hurricane sandy. Next stop was lunch, first experience of a Philly cheesesteak, sure it wouldn't be our last! We visited the ground zero site and were stunned at the memorial which has been created. Next stop Empire State Building, amazing views from the top. We stayed in New York for five hectic days. Went to queens three times, first to see the US Open tennis courts, second to watch Bhalla play on the courts and finally on Wednesday night we watched our first baseball game, New York mets vs LA Dodgers. We tried pretzels and cracker jacks. Other things we saw in New York include going to Brooklyn to have a slice of pizza, Central Park, Rockefeller centre, union square park, high line railroad gardens, grand central station, city hall, walked on Brooklyn bridge, NYC library, NYC post office, Wall St, south st port side, Times Square, has the beat street food in NYC from the halal guys (53rd st and 6th ave) met Harry's friend barnesy, had canteen food with bhalla (chick-fil-a), BEST burgers in NYC from shake shack in the park, visited many hollister and abercrombie stores, watched funny atreet entertainment, Madison square gardens and went to a dollar beer night Tuesday at a bar called the 13th step. By the time we'd finished we were pros at working the subway!!

We left New York Thursday morning by Megabus to Philly! Arrived in Philly, first challenge to find a place to stay! Harry found a place called apple hostels (bank st) luckily they had space in a mixed couples dorm. Amazing hostel, funny gay guy (Tim) told us three things to do in Philly: see rocky steps, see liberty bell and eat a cheesesteak. So along with an amazingly detailed map he circled for us we got going! Walked to rocky steps, stopped at redding market (an indoor food market) for harry to get a battered hot dog! On the way we also saw city hall, the LOVE statue and franklin's museum. Architecture around Philly was amazing and it was such a friendly place! Harry had a photo by rocky and we walked up the steps to get the best view of Philly, I've never seen rocky soo didn't really get the whole thing! We flicked a coin onto Benjamin franklin's grave because its meant to give you luck and we needed some! We got the bus to look around one of the oldest prisons in Pennsylvania with our new friend Bart (from the Netherlands). We met Bart the night before on the hostel bar crawl, free drinks in the hostel 9-10 then bar crawl with Tim leading us! Bart and harry played table tennis in one bar, while i hung out with Joel (from Canada). Went to china st to take a photo of the gates (pretty similar to the ones in liverpool!) Final stop on the Philly tour was the best cheesesteak in Philly at Jims, WAS AMAZING!!!

Time to leave Philly and head towards Washington DC or as the locals call it 'DC'. Megabus for us again, already booked the duo hostel for one night. Nice hostel, spent most of the time planning where to stay the next night and while doing so, met two English guys (Andy and Chris), who also had nowhere to stay the following night, we all decided to stay in the same hostel then the next day we'd drive to richmond and stay the night in a hotel... lets see how that works out! Got lots to do tomorrow in DC so hopefully we'll get it all done!