Hello again noble readers and welcome to the second instalment that I meant to write yesterday, but didn't get the chance to due to a number of fairly boring circumstances. If you are all sitting comfortably then I will begin the tale of my first full day in the big apple. I woke up quite late considering I fell asleep at about 6pm and spent the first hour of waking enjoying a good book and a decidedly soggy Macdonalds bacon ranch salad, but true to my word I did not waste it. After this unsatisfying start to the day I went for a short walk along the entire length of 5th avenue stopping only to exeed my yearly intake of salt by purchasing a pretzel from a street vendor in Central Park where I also took the opportunity to enjoy the wonder of nature. I walked back in a roundabout manner and, in the process of looking for Times Square stumbled upon some kind of Brazilian street festival in Rockafeller Centre where I took advantage of the cheap stalls to buy the mandatory I love NY t-shirt which is now serving the purpose of being my Pj top. Ironically, once I had actually found Times Square and eaten an unreasonably large slice of pizza I had a worrying experience with a Brazilian man. He followed me for about 3 blocks holding a conversation that consisted mainly of the questions 'where are you staying?' and 'do you want to get something to eat?'. But fear not parents and fair readers I am not that naive and my brazilian friend has no idea where I'm staying and he headed into a pizza parlour alone. That exciting episode over, I returned to the hostel only to be back in Times Square within half an hour thanks to the wonder of the subway. I had my first proper meal since I left home in the form of 'mac and cheese' from the biggest Hard Rock Cafe in the world (possibly). This meal, although we (we being me, mitch and dee who are in the same dorm) were rushed in and out fast enough, meant that my 2 hour subway ticket had run out and I had to walk the 20 or so blocks back to the hostel. Still I think I effectively worked off the calories! An australian man arrived in the night as well, but promptly went out again, coming back at 2am to use the facilities with the door open, what a pleasant treat in the early hours. It also transpired that he stole one of my shoes in the middle of the night to use as a doorstop so that anyone could have walked into our room. Not sure which of these things I'm more annoyed about really, although I have thoroughly locked my bag this morning in case he feels the need to make use of any more of my clothes! Knowing this I feel much less guilty about the fact that I accidentally stepped on him when I got out of my bunk this morning. I think that is all there is for now and I've definitely gone over my intended hour on the internet as I had to write thid twice, having accidentally deleted it the first time! Bye for now, look out tomorrow for the final instalment from New York. Katie