Friday 18th - Wednesday 23rd September 2015

I managed to pack my bag, So I caught the shuttle bus to the airport after saying my goodbyes to my parents! I'll be seeing then in exactly one year from now so thats not too long to wait!

The flight to New York was relevantly painless and I managed to find Alicia which is a positive start! We decided to brave the subway to get to our hostel. The subway was an adventure in itself! We managed to work out how to get a ticket however going through the turnstiles was another matter! Alicia got her bag stuck in the turnstile and I couldn't stop laughing. It took me a moment to free her after my uncontrolable laughter! I decided to lay my bag flat and push it under the turnstile! We later learnt there was a gate we could have used!

The subway was confusing and we got lost and couldn't work out the transfers for the different train lines! We asked a friendly looking New Yorker who directed us in the right direction.

We finally arrived at our stop and we had to carry our bags up a 1000 stairs and we were finally in the fresh air and not stuck in the sweaty, humid subway! We had a further three blocks to walk to get to our hostel. We had to walk through a dodgy housing area, but we made it safe an sound!

Checked in ok, to find my bed had not been cleaned so I had to go sort that out at 10:30 pm! We grabbed a quick bite to eat before passing out!

On Saturday we headed out early towards the statue of liberty. The subway wasn't too bad today, we managed to work out how to get there without too much hassle!

We stopped off at the 9/11 memorial, its pretty sad what happened back in 2001 but the memorial they have created was pretty amazing.

The memorial commemorating the September 11 attacks of 2001 (which killed 2,507 civilians, 72 law enforcement officers, 343 firefighters, and 55 military personnel) and the World Trade Center bombing of 1993 (which killed six civilians). The memorial is located at the World Trade Center Site, the former location of the Twin Towers, which were destroyed during the September 11 attacks.

It is operated by a non-profit corporation, headed by Joe Daniels, whose mission is to raise funds for, program, own and operate the memorial and museum at the World Trade Center site.

A memorial was planned in the immediate aftermath of the attacks and destruction of the World Trade Center for the victims including those involved in rescue operations. The winner of the designing of the trade center competition was Israeli architect Michael Arad of Handel Architects, a New York- and San Francisco-based firm. Arad worked with landscape-architecture firm Peter Walker and Partners on the design, a forest of trees with two square pools in the center where the Twin Towers stood. In August 2006, the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey began heavy construction on the memorial and museum.

On September 11, 2011, a dedication ceremony commemorating the tenth anniversary of the attacks was held at the memorial. It opened to the public the following day; the museum was dedicated on May 15, 2014 and opened on May 21. Three months after its opening, the memorial had been visited by over a million people.

It was a extremely well put together memorial and the museum was well put together as well. They had a fire truck which had the back end all messed up, however after talking to a tour guide it was actually the front end! The museum was underground and had several artifacts from the twin towers.

A callery pear tree recovered from the rubble at the World Trade Center site in October 2001 was later called the "Survivor Tree". When the 8-foot (2.4 m)-tall tree was recovered, it was badly burned and had one living branch. The tree had been planted during the 1970s near buildings four and five, in the vicinity of Church Street. Memorial president Joe Daniels described it as "a key element of the memorial plaza's landscape." It was moved to be cared for before being replanted at the memorial in 2010 where it is still growing today.

After we had spent time at the memorial, we headed off on one of my famous walking tours! Alicia was in for a treat!!

We headed to Wall Street, which is a 0.7-mile-long (1.1 km) street running eight blocks, roughly northwest to southeast, from Broadway to South Street on the East River in the lower Manhattan.

We continued down to the East River and walked along it Northwards towards Brooklyn Bridge. It links Manhattan Island to Brooklyn we have plans to cycle it later on the week.

We came across China town and found some lunch which was delicious! We ordered a hell of a lot of food and we both were stuffed!!

We then accidently came across Little Italy, where there was a huge festival going on. It was insane and super busy! You could actually win a goldfish in a bag!! I never seen that before!

I found Mercer street, so I had to get myself a photo of course!!

We carried on walking towards the Empire State building, we stopped at the unusually built Flatiron building. The Flatiron Building, originally the Fuller Building, is a triangular 22-story steel-framed land marked building located at 175 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, and is considered to be a groundbreaking skyscraper. Upon completion in 1902, it was one of the tallest buildings in the city at 20 floors high.

I got distracted by a woman selling some art work, so of course I had to have a look! I ended up buying a piece of the Brooklyn Bridge with Manhattan in the background. Its pretty neat, and its pink/purple! Even better!!

We finally made it to the Empire State building and headed inside the 102-story sky scraper. Located in Midtown Manhattan. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet (381 m), and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 feet (443 m) high. Its name is derived from the nickname for New York, the Empire State. It stood as the world's tallest building for nearly 40 years, from its completion in early 1931 until the topping out of the original World Trade Center's North Tower in late 1970. Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Empire State Building was again the tallest building in New York, until One World Trade Center reached a greater height in April 2012. The Empire State Building is currently the fifth-tallest completed sky scraper in the US and the 25th-tallest in the world. The Empire State Building is generally thought of as an American cultural icon, its what I think to when I think about New York. It is designed in the distinctive Art Deco style and has been named as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. The building and its street floor interior are designated landmarks of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and confirmed by the New York City Board of Estimate.

The building is owned by the Empire State Realty Trust, of which Anthony Malkin serves as Chairman, CEO and President. In 2010, the Empire State Building underwent a $550 million renovation, with $120 million spent to transform the building into a more energy efficient and eco-friendly structure.

It was just about getting dark, which is what I really wanted as I have never seen New York by night so I was excited! It was pretty busy when we got to the very top, 102nd floor it was a very small space as well! We had a peep around before we headed back to the 86th floor observation deck. It was a beautiful clear night and we had great view of the whole of the city.

The construction was part of an intense competition in New York for the title of "world's tallest building". Two other projects fighting for the title, 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building, were still under construction when work began on the Empire State Building. Each held the title for less than a year, as the Empire State Building surpassed them upon its completion, on April 11, 1931, 12 days ahead of schedule, just 410 days after construction commenced. The building was officially opened on May 1, 1931 in dramatic fashion, when United States President Herbert Hoover turned on the building's lights with the push of a button from Washington, D.C. Ironically, the first use of tower lights atop the Empire State Building, the following year, was for the purpose of signaling the victory of Franklin D. Roosevelt over Hoover in the presidential election of November 1932.

They now use different coloured lights to celebrate different holiday events of the years, St Patrick's day, Christmas, Independence day and other events.

We were both pretty knackered and jumped on the subway, getting ourselves confused before we finally made it back to the hostel!!

Sunday we woke up early again and headed towards the ferry to go see Miss Liberty, as Alicia and I have started calling her! It was overcast and a little chilly on the ferry! Our first stop was Liberty Island so we jumped off and started our walk around the small island. It was pretty quiet so we were glad we waited rather than went yesterday as the queue was ridiculous!!

The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World; French: La Liberté éclairant le monde) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture. The copper statue, designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, a French sculptor, was built by Gustave Eiffel and dedicated on October 28, 1886. It was a gift to the United States from the people of France.

The statue is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata (a tablet evoking the law) upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. A broken chain lies at her feet. The statue is an icon of freedom and of the United States, and was a welcoming sight to immigrants arriving from abroad.

The statute was shipped to the US as 350 individual pieces, she is among the tallest statues in the world and is taller than a 25-story building. The 25 windows in the crown symbolize the 25 gemstones found on the earth, the seven rays of her spiked crown symbolize the seven seas and continents.

We had some fun taking some pictures before heading to the gift shop and I brought a Christmas decoration of the Miss Liberty to join my Empire State building with a Santa on the top! My Christmas tree will look great...whenever I get one!

We headed back to Manhattan and took the water taxi to west Manhattan and caught the bus to Times Square. Geez...it was busy as hell!! We headed to Madame Tussauds, it was free on our pass and I've never been before! God I had so much fun, posing in the 'classic' immature poses!

We decided to have an early day as we were both knackered and our feet were hurting a lot!!

Monday we headed to the Bronx, it is a little run down from what we had seen in Manhattan and we both felt a little uneasy being in the area. Alicia wanted to go and see the Yankee stadium so we joined a tour of the stadium which was pretty cool. I'm not into baseball at all or do I know the rules of how to play but the facts and history of the team was actually interested and found myself listening intently to our guide. They are one of the most successful sports clubs in the world. They have won 18 division titles, 40 AL pennants and 27 'World Series' championships. I personally don't understand how it can be world series when it is only American clubs and one Canadian but this is America right, they are 'The World!'

The big names that have played here include Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe Dimaggio and many others. I actually recognized all those names! It was pretty cool to be in a world known stadium! Even if I don't follow the sport! But when in Rome?!

We headed back into Manhattan and Alicia wanted to go check out the Rockefeller building, we stopped first at Grand Central Station which is pretty much an iconic building and has been in several movies and I just wanted to see it in person myself! There was plenty of tourist, workers and even a couple having their wedding pictures!!

We arrived at the Rockefeller center and the first thing I noticed was a film crew, filming for the Jimmy Fallon show, so of course we waked several times past the camera. Hopefully we made it on TV! We found a huge lego store so being kids we went in and stated messing around!

Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres (89,000 m2) between 48th and 51st streets. Commissioned by the Rockefeller family, it was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

It was the largest private building project ever undertaken in modern times. Construction of the 14 buildings in the Art Deco style (without the original opera house proposal) began on May 17, 1930, and the buildings were completed and opened in 1939. Principal builder and "managing agent" for the massive project was John R. Todd. Principal architect was Raymond Hood, working with and leading three architectural firms on a team that included a young Wallace Harrison, later to become the family's principal architect and adviser to Nelson Rockefeller. The construction of the project employed over 40,000 people.

We headed up to the viewing platform as someone had told me it was one of the best views in New York, they weren't lying! South you could see the Empire State building, One World Trade Center and the harbour. North you could see central park! It was huge! I knew it was pretty big but didn't expect this! It was pretty awesome to see!

We decided it was a good day to finish off our day with a bike ride round central park, it's an urban park in middle-upper Manhattan. Central Park is the most visited urban park in the US as well as one of the most filmed locations in the world. We saw the bridge which was filmed in Home Alone 2 and plenty of other movies, we saw the main walking strip with benches and tree lined walkway that has been in Gossip Girl and big daddy and plenty of other movies!

We also went to see the Fairmont hotel that Kevin stayed in Home Alone 2. It was a dream come true seeing all these movie locations! When I watch the film at Christmas this year I'll be screaming where I've been!!

Tuesday we decided to go for another bike ride, working off all those calories, and went for a cycle over the Brooklyn bridge.

It was a mission and a half to get to the bridge, but we managed to find the starting point! We had to share the path with pedestrians, they had to keep to the left but being tourists they didn't pay any attention!!

The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge and is one of the oldest bridges of either type in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. It has a main span of 1,595.5 feet (486.3 m), and was the first steel-wire suspension bridge constructed. It was originally referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge and as the East River Bridge, but it was later dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge, a name coming from an earlier January 25, 1867, letter to the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and formally so named by the city government in 1915. Since its opening, it has become an icon of New York City, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1972.

It was a pretty good cycle across the bridge and the view was pretty sweet too, we made it to the end of the bridge and turned left towards the next bridge further north, Manhattan Bridge.

The Manhattan Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the East River, connecting Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. The main span is 1,470 ft (448 m) long, with the suspension cables being 3,224 ft (983 m) long. The bridge's total length is 6,855 ft (2,089 m). The bridge opened to traffic on December 31, 1909. It was designed by Leon Moisseiff, and is noted for its innovative design. As the first suspension bridge to employ Josef Melan's deflection theory for the stiffening of its deck, it is considered to be the forerunner of modern suspension bridges and this design served as the model for many of the long-span suspension bridges built in the first half of the twentieth century.

It was a much quieter cycle, apart from the subway that passed us several times and was horrifically noisy!

After our hour cycle we headed back to the bike rental shop and decided to go back to Times Square and grab some cake! I happened to have spotted Carlo's bakery who has his own TV show, Cake Boss! Which I love, so naturally had to go! I was greedy and got two cakes, one I saved for a midnight snack! It was so good and wanted to explode!!

I had an amazing time in New York, and got to see some of the places I have seen as a kid when my parents took me. I couldn't think of anyone better to go with than my sister Alicia! We had an early night as we had to check out tomorrow and catch our train to Boston!!