My bus to NYC was late morning so I was slightly rushed when I set off to walk to the station. I got a swift peek at the Liberty Bell, swarming with Japanese tourists so barging my way through with a giant backpack went down like a ton of bricks, almost literally as if I'd have fallen over I'd have taken them all out with me!

Potentially my shortest bus journey landed me in New York City, a whirlwind of sounds, colour, lights and people compared with pretty much everywhere else I'd visited in the States - bar perhaps Hollywood.

You hear lots of stories about New Yorkers being rude - well that just isn't true, at least not in my experience. No it's not the New Yorkers, it's the useless tourists milling around, barging past to get to where they want to go and generally being a nuisance. Now I know I'm a tourist too but I march along these streets like a pro, and if I do get lost I hide in a corner or behind a streetlamp to read my map and get my bearings. Because lets be honest here, how annoying is it when someone stops dead in front of you and you almost knock them over (I am guilty of this sometimes too I'll admit), then you get the evils even though you're innocent? Grrrr! Anyway that has been my big bugbear about this amazing city, the amount of people is just ridiculous, apart from where my first hostel was, in Brighton Beach.

Brighton Beach is up near Coney Island, on the edge of Brooklyn and is a largely Russian neighbourhood, about an hour from Manhattan. As it takes so long to get back to I was returning to the hostel around midnight the three nights I stayed, and I was going from the hustle and bustle of Times Square (still packed and most of the shops still open) to a deserted neighbourhood which was creepy as hell! I guess I've seen less touristy parts of New York anyway - it reminded me of where Ugly Betty lives if you've ever seen that show. Anyway, as I said before, New Yorkers aren't rude but there are some odd odd people in the city (to be expected I guess) and most of them ride the subway. I tend to avert my eyes and stare at the ground which works most of the time apart from one instance where a random old dude sat down and started muttering about something - unsure whether he was talking to me or himself (honestly it could have been either) so I hurriedly rammed my headphones in my ears and hoped he'd leave. He left to get on the subway anyway and didn't even seem to notice me there so that was a relief! Sitting on the subway is a very interesting pasttime, watching how people interact with each other has become a new hobby. It makes me laugh really the extents people will go to to avoid touching each other.

The subway system in New York I found much easier to navigate than London - although by that point I'd used so many public transport systems varying from excellent to atrocious that I think my map reading skills had improved from when I started. I felt like a baptism of fire so headed straight to Times Square - that bustling centre featured in countless films and tv shows. It is a strange place - there are so many people that it can be a bit overwhelming, and even in the bright sunshine the electronic advertising boards shine vividly atop the buildings. It's easy to get a stiff neck in NYC - as the majority of its buildings are skyscrapers I found myself looking upwards more often than not, a sure fire way to make you feel insignificant. Times Square is home of two of the best things in NYC (and I'm only being partially serious). The giant ferris wheel inside the world's best Toys R Us, and my first experience of Sephora, which I went in most days and painted my nails different colours using the testers. Can't see that catching on in the UK - not enough profit!

As my trip was so long ago I forget the order in which I visited places, so I'll just give a quick rundown of my experiences.

Staten Island ferry: I took the Staten Island ferry so I could see the New York skyline at night - and I wasn't disappointed! Only a 25 minutes trip over, and free to boot, I managed to snag myself a slice of extremely tasty pizza before getting the return ferry and seeing New York in all its glory. It really is a different city at night, the lights reflecting off the water and the skyscrapers reaching up into the clouds (it was a cloudy evening so I'd like to think it was more atmospheric rather than limiting visibility), it was a bit surreal seeing it in the flesh, so to speak.

Top of the Rock and Rockerfeller Plaza: Rather than go up the Empire State building I'd read that it was better to go up Rockerfeller as then you could actually see the famous skyscraper itself. This I duly did, and wasn't disappointed by the views, a panorama of New York City from Central Park down to Battery Park on the tip of Manhattan. I could have stayed up there for ages, but it was a bit windy, after all it was October, so after wandering around and drinking in the view I took myself back inside. Rockerfeller Plaza itself is beautiful, sadly I didn't see Liz Lemon around but I did get given some free cranberry juice and dried cranberries by some people doing an Ocean Spray marketing thing. For me, New York was all about the free stuff!

Broadway - Nice Work If You Can Get It: As I was in the home of Broadway it would have been rude not to attend a show. I picked Nice Work If You Can Get It, starring Matthew Broderick. I recognised a lot more of the songs than I thought, despite not having heard of it before - Nice work if you can get it, Let's call the whole thing off, someone to watch over me...it was really enjoyable and finally attending a Broadway show was a tick off the bucket list for me. I will say though that the theatre I attended had the least leg room of any theatre I've ever attended - I can't see how many Americans would be able to comfortably sit through a 2 hour show!

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island: The Statue of Liberty was donated to the US by France in 1886 and resides on Liberty Island in New York Harbour. To many it is the symbol of New York City - the statue symbolising freedom, liberty and independence - a cornerstone of the American Dream, and its placement in New York Harbour means that it was the first thing new immigrants would see upon sailing to New York from overseas. Having seen it from a distance on the Staten Island ferry I was unprepared for how large it actually is up close. It's a very impressive monument, although unfortunately they were doing some restoration on the crown so I couldn't go up to see the view from the top. I was lucky in that it was a glorious day when I went, the bright blue sky contrasting with the green verdigris on the copper of the statue - I can't imagine what it looked like when it was copper originally! Anyway from the grandeur of Lady Liberty I got back on the ferry to visit Ellis Island - home to the busiest immigration inspection station in America until 1954. If you've seen 'Hitch' it's where Will Smith has his ill-fated date where he finds out his date's ancestor had arrived in the US - but was actually a serial killer. Oh dear. Anyway, I found Ellis Island itself very interesting, there is a museum of immigration which shows what happened to immigrants as they arrived in America, stories of families brought back together after parents had moved to the US to make money, and equally stories about families pulled apart as members were deemed unfit to stay in the US. After weeks at sea I can't help but think it would be very disheartening to be sent back home to the life you tried to leave behind.

September 11 Memorial: One morning I decided to take myself off to the World Trade Centre memorial, which wasn't yet fully completed but was open for visitors. It's a very sombre place, but beautiful really. The reflective pools surrounded by the names of the victims of the attack has a strange sense of calm, it does have that muted atmosphere that any memorial does I suppose, probably unsurprisingly. I'm probably a bit controversial if I say that, whilst it's a fitting and emotional tribute to the innocent people who died, there are many worse atrocities happening across the world every day which are never reported, or are quickly forgotten. I can't help but think that the money that has gone towards this could have been spent more productively, and maybe actually saved lives, elsewhere.

Times Scare: I caught up with my friend Sam from Fraser Island twice in New York, and it was nice to see a friendly face. One night we went to 'Times Scare', a magic show followed by one of those walk through maze things in which people in costume jump out at you. I'll be honest, I was terrified! It was an entertaining evening though, and something I probably wouldn't have done were I alone.

Natural History Museum and Central Park: On my final full day in New York I decided to visit Central Park and the Natural History Museum. Sadly the weather had decided to take a turn for the worse (to be fair it was October and I'd been lucky so far) and it was a drizzly morning I spent wandering around Central Park. I strolled through the areas used in Home Alone 2, excitedly making mental notes to myself where different parts of it had been filmed! It's probably a good job I was by myself at this point 555. That said by the time I made my way to the Natural History Museum it was somewhat a case of 'been there, done that' as I'd been to the one in Washington only 3 days or so before. That's not to say I didn't enjoy myself but my enthusiasm for museums has slowly dwindled with each one I attend. Plus none of the artefacts came to life after dark.

A few other highlights were Wall Street, home of the only McDonald's I've ever seen with a piano being played whilst you ate, my trek through the city looking for famous buildings (yes I am *that* person) including Carrie's apartment from Sex in the City, the Ghostbusters fire station and the apartment that they used for the outside shots for Friends, The Plaza hotel from Home Alone 2, the Gridiron (I think my favourite building in NYC),and going to Grand Central Station for a look around, to find out there was a Martha Stewart food and crafts event going on which was free to enter and meant I got an evening tasting cheese and wine for nothing. Winning at life.

For my last evening in the city I met up with Sam from Fraser Island again and we went up to Coney Island for a famous Nathan's hotdog! Sadly we were a little late to the park itself as it was only open for another hour, so we went back into the city for a couple of drinks and some bowling in a bowling alley the likes of which I've never seen - the area we were in was Chinatown themed but there was a burlesque section, Coney Island themed and more. As I had to be up at 5 to get the subway to the airport I probably should have had an early night, however, my last night in New York was no disappointment and I ended up waiting for a subway back to the hostel at about half past 2 in the morning. After waiting on the platform for about 15 minutes I realised no subway was coming - a hunt round brought to light a tiny sign which said that line was closed overnight for some work to be done! By this point it was getting pretty late and I ran to find the next platform which went to where I needed to be. By the time I got back to the hostel (it was a good 20 minute subway ride out of the city) it was nearly 4 - and I still had to pack! I showered, changed, packed and was out of the hostel in about 40 minutes, pretty impressive really since I was still a bit drunk and had to do it quietly so as not to wake the other people in my dorm. Starting to panic a little, I marched back to the subway station, replete with my assortment of bags, to get the subway back to JFK and my flight home to surprise Mum. Luckily I was allowed through security, despite the probable aroma of alcohol wafting from my pores, and the last journey (almost) of my trip went without any more hitches.

All in all New York probably summed up my entire trip - noisy, exciting, stressful, educational and entertaining, eye-opening (naked cowboy anyone?), full of new flavours, beautiful, impoverished, wealthy (the stark difference between the two is no more apparent than the US) and cosmopolitan. However what I probably learnt most - considering my mad dash to the airport at the close of my trip - was that the best laid plans often go awry, and, in all honesty, when they do, it's probably when you have the most fun (unless you're missing public transport).

I've been back home for almost 2 years now, and my time away seems millennia ago (literally, it's like I never went). When I returned I was pleased to be back amongst my close family and friends and live life with a routine again but in some ways struggled to adapt to the fact that, at the most basic level, nothing had changed. Yes people had new relationships, they had broken up (something I was to experience only 2 months after getting back), had babies or even got married, but apart from that it was like I'd never been away. In many ways that's the charm of village and small town living - I settled back into my friend groups like I'd never been gone and had that is very comforting and reassuring - but I couldn't help but feel that I'd been left behind in some ways, missed important events (christenings, births, 21st birthdays, weddings) and it took a little while to settle back in. All of this sounds ridiculous when I think that I'd had an amazing experience, met new people, experienced radically different cultures, tried foods I never thought I'd try (possum?), seen several wonders of the world - both natural and man made - and washed and hugged an elephant. But I suppose that even a trip away - half of it spent solo - can't change inherently who you are and those little niggles and fears you have, however irrational, sometimes stay.

I've been left with memories I'll treasure forever, but in my heart of hearts I know it's nothing I'll do again - at least not to such a lengthy extent, and probably with a slightly better budget (I'm DEFINITELY too old for bunk beds by now). When I look back I surprise myself at how confident I became and the ease at which I adapted to navigating my way across two continents, sleeping in shared rooms and speaking with people from different counties and cultures - well, speaking to new people at all really!

Anyway, hope you've enjoyed my adventures around the world as much as I did - I'm determined to look back on my trip fondly and not get too sentimental about it all - after all, I've conveniently forgotten the inconvenience of mozzie spray, humidity and rickety buses already!

Becca x