New York City, New York

So i have finally begun my trip around the world and what better place to start than The City That Never Sleeps! I'd heard a lot about the Big Apple and it certainly lived up to my expectations, and more!

I arrived into JFK airport and, incredibly with my track record, navigated my way to the hostel somewhat smoothly! There was a bit of trouble with my travel cash card but it was quickly resolved with a £10 phone call to London!

This was my first experience of hostelling and i loved every second of it! I had worried that as a solo traveler i might feel a bit isolated and lonely but this was not the case! Within hours i had befriended some Aussies and an Argentinian and we sat down to watch an NBA game. The topic of ticket prices came up and we all took a guess at the cheapest ticket price for the game in New York the next evening. As it was a play off we assumed they would be extortionate. On googling the prices we found tickets were only $68! With taxes this came to $80, for a play off game this was amazing, so the next thing we knew we had four tickets for the next nights game, Brooklyn vs Toronto. The game was excellent, everyone got a Brooklyn T-shirt and we became uber tourists and got our faces painted as well. Brooklyn won and the experience was brilliant!

During the next 4 days i saw all the best attractions New York City had to offer. The thing that stood out most is of course how enormous everything is, i was eating bagels and pizza slices the size of my head for $2! The buildings are so tall you get dizzy when you try to look up at them. Even central park is way bigger than i thought, with an enormous lake in the middle of it large enough to take boats in the summer.

Of course i couldn't come to the city that never sleeps and not taste the night life on offer. And i'm glad i did, it is insane. The first night involved the not so pleasant experience of witnessing a girl getting hit off her bike by a taxi! We helped her to the side of the road and incredibly she came away mostly unscathed! I've heard people say the New Yorkers can sometimes be rude/unhelpful but i did not experience this personally at all during my time here, and in this situation this poor girl had so many people helping her; surrounding pubs brought dressings, alcohol washes and pints of water, there was no one looking the other way and avoiding getting involved. It was great to see and we were all relieved that she was, on the most part, fine. We needed a drink by this point and stumbled into a random, unassuming looking bar where we were confronted with scantily clad transvestites doing a full out performance with flips, splits, shimmys and slut drops. I got a taster of the show on video, one of the funnest shows i've ever seen in a bar!

The clubbing scene was similar to big cities in England and didn't blow me away particularly. I much preferred the small, random bars we went to with themes like pirates or old style southern bars complete with saw dust covering the floors. These places had real character and charm and the drinks and food were some of the best i had in New York.

The must-see tourist attractions were good and i'm glad i did them but personally my favourite parts were the slightly less packed places like the High Rise and Chelsea Markets, the Chelsea Markets were packed with different foods and crafts, i could have easily spent my months budget there! They had everything from bakeries to butchers and bowls of ice cream to bowls of herbs and spices. It's definitely a place i would highly recommend to anyone in NYC. There is so much great food on offer in New York, in China Town we thought the best indication of a good place to eat would be the local community, so we searched out the restaurant with the most Chinese people in and ate there, it was delicious!

I had a great time in NYC and met some fantastic people, hopefully some of whom i will see again soon! I didn't stop the entire time i was in the Big Apple and i'm exhausted, but glad that i am. It's now time for me to go see our friends, who might as well be family, the Clarks! So off to New Jersey i go :)