First few days in NY have been amazing. Have seen a few of the main sights including the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street and Mc Donalds! Staying via Couchsurfing with an interesting guy Joe Che in a rougher part of Brooklyn. A real eye opener! I've been carrying a Taser around in my pocket and at night we've been a bit nervy walking home from the tube. Joe took us to a fancy dress party a few blocks up and we then headed out to an exclusive warehouse party until 5am. The warehouse was decked out in all sorts of art and gigantic models of flowers and animals in bright colours. Never been anywhere even close to it. Bizarre, but very cool.

Yesterday, we came across a large demonstration not far from Ground Zero, then bumped into a load of firemen who were partying after a huge international fund-raiser for the families of 9/11. Met this huge, very entertaining guy in a way over the top bright red classic Cadilac, adorned in huge stars and stripes flags. He was a fireman at 9/11 and showed us all the snaps he had. Quite a guy!