Central Park & Blueberry Pancakes

After waking up late (we missed breakfast again!) we headed into New York again with the hope of seeing a show and maybe going up the Empire State Building. We ruled out the Empire State firstly as its $22 each and secondly it was still very overcast so we wouldnt see anything anyway! After making our way to the ticket stand at 2.30 (it opens at 3) we joined the already very long queue to get discount tickets for a show that night. Unfortunately there wasnt really anything advertised that we wanted to see so we left the queue and decided to try again tomorrow. After spending some time trying to find some danceshoes I'd seen that I liked the look of we ended up near central park so decided to have a wander through. Apart from being huge we weren't that impressed due to the fact that you cant go anywhere in the park except for on the paths. Unlike Hyde Park in London, which is what I thought this would be like, you are not free to roam around on the grass or amongst the trees but are forced to stick to tarmac, they even have roads going through it so you cant even escape the traffic here!!! After finding another danceshop that failed to cater for anything really except Ballet (so much for being the salsa mecca of the world!) we discovered another bookshop. This one although smaller than the Strand was miles better! It had shelves that must have been 25 rows high, aisles that you could just squeeze down, the books were double stacked on the shelves and only vaguely in any order but best of all there was the ladders that have wheels at the bottom and run along the book cases!! :) We spent another couple of hours in here browsing and once again having to sift through a large pile of books we'd gathered to decide which ones we would buy. We also chatted to the lady in the bookshop for a while about what we were doing and where we were going, she told us about a cafe nearby that served pancakes 24 hrs so we headed off there after making our purchases. The City Diner on 89th was a nice little place and after establishing they served not only pancakes, but blueberry ones which Emma said we must have while in New York, we went in. This was the first place since leaving Alaska that served us water as we sat down at the table, something we'd missed and we decided to order a sample platter to share along with our pancakes as we hadnt eaten really that day. The platter consisted of mozzerella sticks, buffalo wings and potato skins filled with bacon and cheese on a bed of lettuce, served with a really tasty tomato dip and sour cream. Nom nom!! We then shared the blueberry pancakes which came with butter and syrup and were utterly delicious :) Again we began our 2 hour journey back to the motel to get some rest before our last day in New York.