We arrived in NY quite late and got befriended by a girl who was doing camp america and all alone and scared. We took her under our wing and said she could stay with us for the night. We caught a shuttle bus into town which took about and hour and half. There was a mad Jamaican guy driving who kept swearing at just about anyone while listening to 'praise the lord' radio which apparently he was soulfully connected too. It was the worst ride of my life. We got to our hostel and was greeted with rudeness as we were expecting from the rude Yorkers! Our hostel was really bad, the dorm rooms were small and uncomfortable and about 100 people shared one bathroom. After the nice hotels we had been staying in it was a nightmare, plus it was more expensive than anywhere we had stayed before. The next morning, in the pouring rain, we spent the whole day looking for accomodation and getting very stressed with all the rude people that wouldn't help us and the lack of budget accom which wasn't a cardboard box on the street! We went to the library (which apparently was a tourist attraction anyway) and dripping wet used the internet to book somewhere. By this time we were seriously considering coming home early. The weather was awful as were the people and the accomodation and we had to stay here 4 two weeks. After hours of searching we managed to find a little hotel/hostel and checked into there. It was extremely basic and small but we had a private room with a tv and it was clean. The next day, in the rain again, we continued our search for somewhere to stay in NY as everything was so expensive and with our lack of funds we couldn't afford to stay for 2 weeks. We adventually decided that we would stay where we were for the next few days and do all the sights etc then travel up to Niagra Falls Canada side and stay in a lovely hotel with gym etc for a week for half the price of a grotty hotel. The following day the sun came out and everything seemed so much more rosy. We travelled round the streets and amongst the hustle and bustle and realised that NY was a lot like London really but with a lot of character. Our eyes lit up straight away when we saw Macy's and had a free make over (of course we ended up buying stuff though). The next day we had a NY pass which meant you could get free entry to all the attractions for 1 day. Most people only get to do a few things in 1 day but me and Vic were convinced to get our monies worth so got up really early and spent the day running around from attraction to attraction. We did the stat of lib which was ace to see but decided not to get off the ferry there but to go straight on to our next attraction after the photos were taken. Stupidly though we ended up getting off the ferry thinking it was Manhattan again and realised we had gotton off on a completely new island! After catching the ferry again we headed to Madison Square Garden where we had a fab tour around the world famous arena. It was home of the Knicks and Liberty Baseball teams as well as the famous Rangers ice Hockey players. We even got to look in their changing rooms. It aws great. After this we headed for Madame Tussauds, but stopped at Macy's for a makeover on the way, of course we ended up buying something else! We are so stupid! Madame Tussauds was possibly the funniest experience I have ever had and I think the funniest experience for the people who worked there. I don't know if they saw us coming but everyone was determined to play tricks on us. I didn't realise how life like the models were and people kept playing tricks on us for example we asked a man to take a photo and when he didnt respond laughed at our stupidity because he was obviously a wax work but then we looked up and he had gone. The chamber of horrors was the funniest and scariest thing ever though when what we thought were wax models suddenly started chasing us through this dark chamber and others kept jumping out on us. Me and Vicky screamed and screamed and you may have thought we were just being silly but trust me you would have been scared too! Maybe you had to be there! I have never laughed so much in my life! Will be cont..... V did all the sights- stat of lib, empire state building, wax works (hilarious) tour around NBC studios, tour of the world famous arena madison square garden, And the biggest attraction of all- Macy's. We had a makeover evryday and ended up spending a fortune. Had to get out of NY as the shops were too tempting so headed to Canada and Niagra Falls