We arrived in New York and arranged to meet up with Ann (from Treck america trip) but we were delayed on the plane and hence trecked across town on the underground to find our hostel on upper west side. I'll set the scene. Its Friday night, we have a vague idea of the street we are staying on and the subway station to get off at! We ended up trecking through the projects with our backbacks on, although it didn't feel too unsafe seen as we are now offically skint and any robber is welcome to our backpacks because they are heavy and there is nothing worth stealing in there apart from dirty washing!

Finally arrived at the hostel and the reception looked nice and everything seemed fine, we had booked a double room so I mean, how bad can a place be? Well, even faulty towers had a nice reception area! The floorboards were all decaying, there were 100 layers of paint on the walls, the room door didn't lock properly and to make matters worse, there was no hot water and no light in the shared bathroom!! Little Ann was also not impressed by her dorm room.

To take our minds off our scabby hostel, we had an early night and got up early the morning after to do the tourist trail. We started off taking the underground down to Battery Park and queing for an hour to get the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The security here was unbelievable - it was worse than the airport! Had our first true American hotdog in the que as well which made it all ok.

The weather was lovely so we squeezed on the top deck and got great views of the statue and got off and walked around the statue. Ellis Island was impressive as well and was interesting to see where all the migrants had first arrived and what happend to them.

That afternoon we also went to Ground Zero which was very moving and saw the re-development plans and all the tributes. From here Ann went to the airport to change her flight details and we went for a beer and a burger at good old TGI Friday's.

The day after was spend doing further sights, we walked across Brooklyn Bridge once we'd finally found the pedestrian acess and then headed to Time Square and the Rockafella Centre. We had finally had enough of the ghetto hostel and decided to check ourselves into a really nice hotel on Central Park, we are officially not Balling on a budget any more!

Tonight we shouted Ann to a meal at a restaurant in Korea town seen as she was a little homesick. After this, we said fairwell and walked her to the subway station to go to JFK airport, its a shame she was flying from Newark airport in New Jersey! She has arrived home safely that is the main thing.

After our pretty hectic few days sightseeing we decided to spend a day shopping, and we did just that! A full day, with only pit stops for food and Starbucks, lovely!

That night we were brave and went across town for dinner at a really true new york style restaurant and then went to the latest cinema showing we had ever been to (we have led very sheltered lives!) at 10:00pm - we were shattered from our big day! Its hard work all this shopping.

With only two days left, we spent another full day shopping and made sure we had checked off all the major shops, Macy's, Bloomingdales and the shops along 5th Avenue.

The day before we set off home we went back to Battery Park, to the Museum of the Native American which was great, then to Greenwich village, wandered around nipped back to Macy's and the main shopping district before going back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Ended the trip the way we had started off and went to a Lonley Planet recommended eatery - a lovely little Indian restaurant in the Village. Had a few glasses of wine and generally talked about what an awesome time we have had. Went back to the hotel and forced all our purchases into our full - to - bursting rucksacks ready to go home.

In typical Lotte and Curls style, we had to get the most out of the last day and were up pretty early for the Lonley Planet walk around central park. In typical Lotte and Curls style we got a little lost and missed some of it out! The park is massive but we saw lots and found a great New York deli for one final sandwich before heading to the airport for our journey home.