New York, new York!!!!


Well we have arrived, got in to JFK yesterday just before rush hour and after a small amount of hotel address panic we got safely to our hotel. Its amazing how the manhatten skyline rises out of the distance and after a quick tunnel, your there between the sky scrappers. The room is small but perfect for what we need clean, safe and a good running shower for Nikki. After unpacking breifly we set of into town, nikki's first steps in new York city. We walked along to fifth ave, passing abercrombie and fitch and her much loved tiffany. From there we heading to times square down 7th, the sun was just starting to set so the bright lights, poster's and bill boards looked incredible. We even managed to get ourselves on a live bill board :). After a long day wq headed back to hotel, not before having our first hotdog and chilli dog - the mustard is amazing.

After catching up on some well earned sleep, we woke early to start our second day. Of course first event was breakfast USA style. Nikki had a stack of dinner plate sized pancakes and I had crispy bacon and eggs. following on from a hearty breakfast we took to the streets of NYC. Even though we are far from home the rain seemed to follow us so we put the jackets on and continued forward. As Nikki hasn't been t NYC before I let her choose the first location. If u can't guess it was Macy's and Victorias secret. She seemed in her element surrounded by make up and bikinis. Nikki ended up buying a top in VS. Then it was time to see grand central station, the building was stunning and very grand, the iconic clock in the centre and the hustle and bustle of the people created at amazing atmosphere.

It was then time to go and see the amazing empire state building. As it was a little cloudy we were worried about visibility but decided to go anyway..however we managed to walk straight past it on our way to Starbucks and did a big loop round until we realised. And for anyone who hasn't been here before crossing the street is a game of chance sometimes you win sometime you get a random taxi decide to tun into you. After traffic and a little map work we made it, a the way to the 86th floor, despite the rain the view was amazing! Huge buildings dwarf by even bigger ones the legendary NY sky line was so clear, could see out to the statue of liberty. It is a view no one can forget and reminds you of the 9/11 events as you can clearly see the missing space where the towers once stood.

High altitude site seeing complete we head down fith av, we made a quick stop at rockafella plaza however they seemed to be setting up a stage of some sort and due to the UN meetings there was about a hundred police gathering around so we moved on down fith av, Nikki seemed to walk straight into the hollister store maybe drawn in by the half naked man stood outside or maybe to escape the rain.. I will let you decide. However the same thing happened when we went to abercrombie and fitch hmmm restraining from buying $300 soft hoodies Nikki was then drawn to another shop...tiffany!!! After what she classed as a quick glance ( creating a mental shopping list) at some huge diamonds we went to my dream shop.. The apple store even though it's not fully finished it is still the mothership of all mac nerds and I could tell Nikki wasn't please about being there.

After a long day on our feet we headed back to the hotel where nikki could put her feet up before heading out for dinner. A long first day but absolutely amazing and some great firsts for nikki. Can't wait for tomorrow, off to battery park and wall street as well as central park before moving onto our new hostel wednesday night.

From New York with love

Ben and Nikki xxx

ps.. on our last day in new york... We got up very early and went down to Battery Park. Here we went to Wall Street, it was fairly foggy but the busy streets created an amazing atmosphere. We saw the Stock exchange building, trump buildings and the Bank of New york. After this we walked to the 9/11 site. We didnt get in to see the fountains but saw the new buildings that they are creating and it looks amazing! We went to the memorial centre and it was really moving to hear peoples stories and see things that they recovered from the wreckage.

From here we went to Battery Park to see the statue of Liberty.. again it was foggy so not that clear but we still got some good piccy's. We gt a cab ride back to 5th avenue... where we saw Barack Obama.. Yes.. the president came to see us... welllll not quite but he was in his car (there is a big UN meeting going on). After that excitement and moving our way through the crouds of police we moved to our new hostel. Although to get there we had t walk 10 blocks and about 15 streets carrying all our stuff in the heat ( not fun) was ready to pass out by the time we got there. But soon we were settled in our hostel and met the girls and guys we were doing the intrepid trip with. Had an early night as had to get up early to start the trek the next day...woop!