Greetings from New York! Thursday 10 June: Arrived in New York feeling utterly depressed. Nothing really prepares you for the intense culture shock of landing alone in a strange city, where everything appears to be happening around you and not including you. I made my way from the airport to the Hostel which I had prebooked for 2 nights, only to find that they didn't have a reservation for me that night. Fortunately, they had room at the inn, with a lovely view of the gutter! Arriving at my room, I had no idea of what to expect, but I found a rather small (approx 8' x 18') room with two bunk beds in it. There was a Japanese person lying on one of the beds. I made conversation with him for about 5 minutes, until I realised that he didn't speak a word of the Queens language and was just nodding profusely at my ramblings. Embarrassed and a little bewildered, I locked away my rucsack and went for a wandet around the local area. The hostel was in an area called Chelsea, off 8th Ave, which was actually very nice. There were lots of flower shops and cafes around and I felt that it was a very safe area to be in. After a little walk around the area, I went back to change as I was a bit stinky from my flight. That's when I met the second of my 'roomies'!! He was about 35, American and very dishevelled. I said hello to him and he acknowledged me by exclaiming "It's a good day to die, isn't it?" If you could have seen the look of horror on my face! As he was stood in the only exit to the room, I just smiled nervously and checked the window to see how far down it would be if i had to throw myself out of it to escape! Having noticed the colour drain from my face, he went on to explain that it was a common 'Americanism' which didn't necessarily mean that he wanted to butcher me into pieces and make a dress out of my skin. He proceeded to put two pinches of tobacco directly into his mouth and then went on his merry way. As the door closed, I really began to question what the hell I was doing! I was shattered that evening, so I was in bed for 10pm, still contemplating what the hell I have done!! Friday 11 June 2004: I woke up in a much better mood after having decided that I had to make this city work for me rather than expecting everything to fall into my lap. I went for a rather long walk down to the Financial centre, where the Twin Towers once stood. Not quite sure of where I was going, I just headed South down 8th Ave until I started to feel particularly small as all the buildings grew in size around me. Eventually, I came to several very tall buildings with whole sides missing from them and netting strung to the sides of it (presumably to hold in all the debris). Seeing the city in this state is a very humbling experience and helps you understand the sheer devastation that 9/11 caused. Having said that, the redevelopment is actually at a much later stage than I was expecting as they have already built three smaller (but still huge) financial buildings to replace the twin towers. There are a couple more (taller) under construction which will complete the World Trade Centre regeneration. It was an impressive sight and well worth a visit if any of you manage to get over here. Later in the afternoon, I looked into how I was going to get to my next port of call. I trawled the internet for hours to look for flights to Toronto, which was failing miserably, so I took a change of tack and then looked for some last minute deals in the sunshine. That failed too, so I ended up booking a bus to Toronto (leaving today). That meant I had to book two more nights in NYC. Little did I realise that this was going to be a major problem! I was trying to book for a Sat and Sun night in New York, during peak season, just one day before. My brain had obviously not engaged itself as I was wondering why everywhere was so full! I ended up having to book a hotel, which I got a very good deal on - God must have been shining down on me at that point (cheers pal). Not quite sure how I'm going to pay for that one yet, but I'm sure my credit card will look after the balance until I can source the finance! In the evening, I managed to pluck up the courage to go to a couple of bars, which were incredibly expensive, but quite a good atmosphere. I think I have spent too many holidays in Europe, where you come to expect drinks to be cheaper than the UK, but here a bottle of Bud Light will set you back $7 ($6 for the drink and then an obligatory $1 tip). The tipping here really hacks me off. Not only do you have to pay Tax on top of everything you buy (including food) which is not on the list price, you also have to pay the waiters/waitresses salary as they are not salaried and have to live off their tips. If the bar staff get a dollar for every drink they serve, then I'm sure they will leave very rich people!! Saturday 12 June 2004: Checked out of the hostel and got the Metro to my lovely hotel. Checked in and breathed a great sigh of relief when the room was OK and I didn't have to share with any nutters! The hotel was situated in a place called East Midtown, which looked very commercial, but was also very quiet as it was the weekend. This was such a stroke of luck to be in this lovely area. I was a stones throw from Times Square and Central Park. After checking in, I took a wander over to Times Square (it was a beautifully clear day) and booked an open top bus tour of the Northern half of Manhattan. The bus took me up part of Broadway (which is 170 miles by the way - the longest road in the USA), I saw Madonna's NY flat, went to Columbus Square, Hells Kitchen (not nice), all the way up to Harlem, the famous Appollo theatre and then down the East side of Central Park back to Times Square. It was a cracking tour (2 hours) and the tour guide was hillarious! Again, you have to tip, tip, tip because they are not paid a salary. It was well worth it though. The evening was fairly uneventful and I went to bed reasonably early in a bed that was the size of the whole hostel that I had stayed in for the previous two nights! Sunday 13 June 2004: There was a massive procession throughout the centre of Manhattan to celebrate something to do with Puerto Rico. There were millions of Puerto Rican's waving flags, on floats, blowing whistles and so on all over the place. It was utter chaos, but actually a very good atmosphere. I wandered around the parade for about an hour, but then felt like a bit of a cheat because I didn't actually know what they were celebrating. Either way, it was good fun. I slipped off into Central Park where there were loads of non-Puerto Rican's sunbathing so I caught some rays and and ice lolly for an hour before walking around much of the rest of the park taking in the array of viewpoints and wildlife. It really is a little haven in the middle of Manhattan. When I say little, it actually stretches 2.5 miles long and 0.5 wide so it would take some time to walk all the way around it. On the way back to the hotel I wound up in some really dodgy area called Hells Kitchen (odd name but quite appropriate), so briskly walked along a more civilsed route. It always amazes me how diverse this place can be. In the evening I went to Chinatown for a coffee, followed by Little Italy for a meal. It was quite late and I was starving, but my eyes were much too big for my belly as there was loads of food left over at the end. I felt quite embarrassed as the waiter accused me of spoiling my dinner by drinking too much water!! The reason I left so much is because they have obviously never heard of portion control and they gave me a plate (actually platter) of Calimari that could have fed a Third World country for a week - that was the starter! The main course was three different dishes of pasta, by which point I was ready to pop! All of it was lovely though. Monday 14 June 2004: Today. After having my second portion of pancakes for breakfast two days running I headed off to try and get all my photos burnt onto CD. The problem with many of the internet cafes is that they don't allow you to upload your pictures from the camera on to the computers. I'm hoping that burning them to CD will enable me to just post them straight on to the website without having to save them to the hard drive first. Such a palava! I haven't actually taken any photo's of NYC yet, but I'll do that when I return next week. Later on today, I am going to have to do some retail exploring as I realised it could be a lot colder in Toronto and I don't even have a sweater with me, or anything long sleeved for that matter! It's a chore shopping in New York, but I guess it has to be done!! I have to say, it's lovely to have an excuse to go shopping as you don't feel half as guilty! I'll then have to kill a little bit more time before my bus leaves for Toronto, so depending how much time I have, I may catch a quick movie at the cinema - either Harry Potter or The Day After Tomorrow appeal to me at the moment. My bus then leaves at 22:45 tonight and arrives in Toronto at 09:10 tomorrow morning. That should give me enough time to find my hostel (of which I have yet to book) and explore a bit of the city. My next installment should therefore be from Canada. Keep your eye on the website for more. Sx