Ste will release his New York Blog shortly! Sit tight! 

OK so here we go!!!!

New York, The Big Apple, or maybe it should be The Big Rotten Apple!! No, no. perhaps im being a bit hard on the place, however, it does smell though!!!

We arrived on an uneventfull 4 hour (were getting used to it now) greyhound from boston after dropping off our hire car. We got to our hostel, all raring to go after we'd researched where we would be heading out that night (it was saturday after all in the city that never sleeps). So we got ourselves ready and headed down broadway in search of some food and good times. Aftewr we'd eaten in a nice little italian place we headed to some nearby bars for a couple of drinks then headed in the direction that our research had told us to go in. So we got to the area, (the lower east side or thereabouts) and went into a couple of bars. feeling a little bloated after our meals we decided to have a couple of shorts, double whisky for me and double vodka redbull for kel........$36!!!! Oh yes, $36 dollars on 2 drinks, needless to say i went onto the $2.50 beers after that round!! (kel stayed on the vodka though). so there we were getting everso slightly drunk and we decided to head to another bar on our list that was supposedly going to be playing the sort of music we like, so off we went, it was just round the corner so nice and easy to find. What was better is that it was cheaper for men to get in than women (bit drunk so no alarm bells ringing) and i noticed all the windows were blacked out (still no alarm bells) then when we walked into a time warp back to provincetown!! Thats right, men everywhere and barmen/hosts wearing nothing but hotpants and dancing on the bar. Alarm bells were now ringing!!! Had a couple of drinks though, respectfully declined a lap dance and took a bunch of photos of (the more than friendly) bar dancer. Then it was a few more bars and home to bed!!

Next day we woke up feeling great! The sun was shining, the city was smelling, what more do you want!! We sprung out of bed and headed off for a bus tour to see the city. We got off at ground zero to see the building site and went into St peters church 
where there were loads of fitting triburtes to all of the emergency services who helped with rthe rescue effort, and in the corner of the church was a nice little shop. We couldnt beleive it, only in america would there be a shop in a church of all places selling merchandise and memorabelia about there worst ever atrocity. It was pretty disgusting really and neither of us were impressed. So we hopped back onto the bus and headed for the cruise around the bay area to see the Statue of Liberty. Well shes tiny!!! Had to get real close to get a good photo!! Got some nice photos of the Manhatten skyline aswellthough. Then it was upto Times Square for something to eat
and drink for the night. 

Next day we woke up expecting it to be bright and sunny like it was the day before. We were wrong!! It was throwing it down, so we decided it would be a good day to go shopping, wrong again. We walked for ages (i was following Mrs. "Ive been here twice before so i know where im going") and we got lost!! Not good in torrential rain! Any way we finally found some shops but we were both suitably pissed off and decided to call it a day for the time being. We went back to our hostel to find that our dorm room vbathroom was flooded and we were to be moved rooms, so off we went accross the corridor. In our new room we met a girl from Ottawa called jen so we all decided to go out for food and drinks! Kel had heard that there was a BubbaGumps restaurant
(from the film forrest gump of course) so it was off there for some shrimp. We had a
really good night out (and saw a cockroach on the street, next to about 50 litter bags
dumped on the side of the street) went to a few bars and had some drinks (no gay 
bars this time!). 

On the following day we went on a movie tou8r of the city. Kel wanted to go on the Sex and the City tour aswell but that move was swiftly blocked by myself (yes i am mean but there was no way i was going round new york listening to "carrie this and Carrie that"!!). The movie tour was really good, highlights included the friends building (loads smaller than you think), eating at rice to riches (a rice pudding shop with loads of cool flavours) and of course, the main event, the Ghostbusters HQ... Amazing. That night nwe found out that the Whiote Stripes were playing at Madison Square Gardens, which is just round the corner from our hostel, but the tickets from the touts were way too expensive so we went up to the top of the empire state building instead. Was really cool to see thye city at night from up there and the queues wernt too bad either, only an hour to get to the top!!!

On our last day in new york we went to the natural history museum, and after about 2 hours of looking at bones we decided that we were all done with that (it was really cool though). So we took a walk through central park and made our way to strawberry fields, the tribute to John Lennon and we took some photos of the actual spot that he was shot (not really sure why to be honest, morbid fascenation i guess!!!). Then it was off to the rockafella centre to go to the top of the rock. no queues at all to get up here and theres a much better view of central park then the ESB. It was a really nice day too so we got some really good photos, and its so peaceful up there away from all the cars honking their horns and the scuttling sound of cockroaches (joke)!!! That night we had a quiet one as we needed to get up really early for our flight to san fran so we went to see Sicko at the cinema in times square, really inciteful film, and all the americans clapped at the end, very strange!!! Then it was over the road for mexican and back to the hostel!!!

Overall we had a good time in New York, was good to see all the touristy things and we crammed a lot in to our 5 days there, not sure i'd go back in a hurry but fun was had by all!!!!

San fran and nat park blogs will be up very soon i promise!!!!!

Love to all!!! Speak soon!!!!!!!!  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx