Boarded the train to New York at 10.30 am with a lot less stress than our last journey, having learned our lesson! Laden with snacks and a packed lunch for sustinence, we settled into our seats. A mere 7 minutes later, we hit the U.S. border and got out first taste of American 'hospitality'. "Stay in your seats! Or we will keep this train here for another hour! No-one moves until we say so!" Once we were identified as British citizens, they took our passports and we were called into the border control office for our 'interrogation'. With the many who, where and whys out of the way, a fingerprint scan and a photograph, we got our Visas, which we took with now shaking hands and made our way back to the train which sat there for another couple of hours while a number of other poor souls received the same treatment. Finally on our way, we were told that the flood damage to upstate New York could delay us further, potentially meaning a 14 or so hour journey. The one thing we're still struggling with here is the sheer size of everything - for one part of the trip, we didn't see a town or even a station for over 3 hours, and, with the train crawling along in places, we thought we'd never reach 'The City that Never Sleeps'. 12 and a half hours later, having read, napped and frowned a lot, we reached Penn Station, New York, NY. After a short cab ride, we arrived at our hostel - a lot more basic than we were used to - just a bed and a sink, a cockroach and some flying ants. Once our shoes had laid down some justice against the insect world, we grabbed a couple of 'dogs', which is what they call a frankfurter in a finger roll here and sat on the step outside admiring the local architecture which fulfilled our preconceptions perfectly.