Monday - I arrived at "Penn Station" in 'New York City' at 2.30pm after a 3h train ride from 'Washington DC'. It was easy to find the "Chelsea International Hostel" as I just walked down "7th St" straight from the station until I got to "7th and 20th". The hostel is in a good location but for $28 is quite basic, it is near the police station so is quite safe. Then after unpacking I set off to wander around "Times Square". I brought some souvenirs and my Yankee ticket (for thursday) and then went to the "ESPN Zone" and had dinner and watched a live baseball game. I met some nice old blokes who were big Yankee fans and so we chatted about baseball and I have learnt much more information on the game, great fun! Tuesday - Had a relaxing morning today as I had problems sleeping, we are right next to the 14th Precinct police station and they have sirens going off every 5mins! I then headed to "Macys", the biggest department store in the whole world, and had a bit of a browse and also got some lunch. Next i walked up to the "Empire State Building" ($14 entrance) and joined the very long queue to get to the viewing platform on the 84th floor. 1h30 later I was in the lift to the obsevatory. But it was all worth it when I stepped out onto the deck, what a fantastic view! I saw; "Central Park", the "Hudson River", "Downtown Manhattan", "New Jersey", and also the "Chrysler Building". I just stood for ages just taking it all in. By the time I got back to ground level it was 5pm so I decided to walk all the way back towards the hostel and spend the evening doing the website and then catching up with people in the courtyard at the hostel. Wednesday - I got up and decided to head to "Downtown Manhattan" today. First I walked down "Canal St" past all the stalls of knock off items (mostly handbags), it was a very busy tourist area. Then I walked to the "World Trade Center" site. It hit me as I got to the walkway how destructive the blasts were. All the streets that i was walking down had been covered in dust and debris. The site itself was massive, just two gaping holes where the towers used to stand. All that was left was a gurder from one of the towers and it had been left to resemble a cross. what was also good to see was that they have started work on the site, it is going to be where the "Freedom Tower" will stand (2016) and also have a great memorial plaque. While I was there "Mayor Bloomberg" was doing an interview at the site, something about raising awareness..not quite sure as I could not hear that well. From there I walked to "Battery Park" which was very busy with so many people out exercising in their lunchbreak. I walked past "Bowling Green Park" to the historic "Castle Clinton" - once a fort to protect from invasion. As it was such a nice day I decided to do the "Liberty Island and Ellis Island boat tour". On the boat you got a great view of the "Manhattan" skyline, so many dominating skyscrapers. The "Statue of Liberty" was getting steadily closer, and when it came into view it really was as big as I had imagined. I got off the boat and walked around the island and statue itself. It was really interesting to see the detail on the statue up close, the eyes are shut - well they seemed to be from where I stood anyway! I then got the next boat out to "Ellis Island", the significance of this place was that it housed all the immigrants that sailed to the USA and wanted to live here. It had interesting displays on the immigration numbers, where people came from, what the conditions were like on the island where they were held and also about the process of becming an American citizen. I then took the boat back to the mainland. Next up was my first subway trip...it was easy enough, I caught the green line 4 train from "Downtown" to "Grand Central Station". Although i must say it is more complicated than any other subway/underground that I have ever seen. Not only do you have different colour lines you have numbered lines, lettered lines, express lines and also some stations only have certain trains at certain times stopping at them. CONFUSING!! Anyway..I then walked a couple of blocks to the "Rockafeller Center" which took up quite a few blocks. It had a nice plaza eating area and a statue of "Atlas" at the entrance to one of the main buildings. I then walked back to the hostel via "Times Sq" where they were filming live for the "Jimmy Kimmel Live" show - it featured a game involving Simon Says. Very 'NYC'!! Thursday - I am off to watch the "New York Yankees". It had to be done even though I am not a fan of the team (due to my Red Sox allegence), you have to respect the players some of whom are very very talented (for non baseball followers; they are the Real Madrid of baseball - they have most of the top players!). I headed down to the subway and took the 4 green line to the "Bronx". I got off at "161st St" and walked to the very imposing and impressive stadium. After strict security checks I was inside the stadium. I eventually found tier 7, row X, seat 19 - I was in the uppermost deck of "Yankee Stadium" and what a great view I had. The diamond was in clear view and I could see the whole field clearly. The stadium had a great atmosphere with lots of singing and chanting going on throughout the whole 3h. The Yankees won 6-2 and I also got to see some fine hitting and a home run. After the game ended I decided to hang by the fence to see the players, they all came out and gave a wave to the fans and some signed baseballs for the kids. I then took the orange D, then C lines back towards "Manhattan". I got off at the "Guggenheim museum" and then walked to "Central Park". The park is huge, as I discovered when walking through it!! I stopped off at the great lawn and watched some men playing baseball in the pre-marked diamonds - it was all very entertaining. Finally I walked up towards "Belvedire Castle" which had great views over the turtle pond, lakes and "Central Park" in general. On the way back to the hostel I met a guy who worked for the "UN" and we chatted away all the way from "Central Park" to "Times Sq". He asked if I wanted to join him and his collegues in the "Oscar Wilde" pub, a gay bar, but due to lack of money I decided to skip it. Nice bloke though! I made it back to the hostel and then chatted with Donna my dorm-mate. Friday - Up to my last day in "NYC". I decided to head to the basketball "cage" near "Washington Sq" first. It was well good!! The guys that were playing had great games and so the matches were high quality. I got chatting to "Ace" and "Snoopy" (yes really!) and got invited into the court. I chatted away with the guys and got the nickname "English", they even asked me to shoot hoops with them but I declined as I did not want to show them up (yeah right!). So 2h30 passed and I eventually had to leave, a couple of the guys wanted me to "hook up" later in a bar with their "crew" but I managed to duck out of that one ok. From there I walked through "Greenwich Village" towards "Wall St". The entrance to the street was well hidden due to all the police cars that were parked down there. But I managed to get through and see the impressive white marble "Wall Street Stock Exchange" building and also the federal building. There were also lots of busy looking men in suits and some even had on the sash that they wore inside the stock exchange. Next I did an about turn and headed towards the walkway for the "Brooklyn Bridge". It did not take long to walk over to "Brooklyn", about 30mins, but the views back of "Manhattan" were pretty good. On one side of the bridge you could see the city and on the other was the "Manhattan Bridge" which was painted blue and white - very swish. I wandered around "Brooklyn" for a while, there are some really nice buildings there, and I saw lots of plush apartments. Finally I took the bridge back to "Manhattan" and then got the subway, green line 6, back to "Grand Central Station". I spent the evening catching up on the website and then packing up as I leave tomorrow. Saturday - I go to my final destination on the trip, 'Boston'.