Last full day in New York today so decided to shop like only we know how!! Found the Abercrombie and Fitch store which is half the price of England. Went to Macy's and Bloomingdales, the Disney Store etc. Managed to stay away from Prada and Chanel considering our backpacker budgets! Caught the Subway (on the 6 a la Jlo!) Downtown to SOHO. That was an experience! Found it though. It's all pretty compact down there so had a wander through Greenwich Village to befo...

The last day of our bus tour so took the Uptown loop to Harlem. Saw the Dakota building where John Lennon got shot. Saw the Museum of Natural History for the fans of 'Night at the Museum'. Jumped off at Central Park to go to the zoo!!! Yep there's a zoo in New York! Saw the sea lions, penguins and Polar Bears amongst others! Then we went for a little walk through Central Park and people watched!! Seems surreal to have such a beautiful retreat in the middle of the...

Woke up early to go up the Empire State Building! Fantastic 360 views of the Big Apple from the top. After that decided to take a hike over the Brooklyn Bridge to the famous Grimaldis pizza place. Needless to say, we got lost!!! Took us over an hour to find it but was well worth it! Pizzas bigger than both our heads put together! We then hopped on the bus for a tour of Brooklyn. Really nice place, quite the opposite of the reputation it has. Liz & Jo xx.

Our first proper day in New York so thought we'd do the touristy thing!! We'd booked a hop-on-hop-off bus tour so took the first leg of that Downtown. Stopped off at Ground Zero which was very sombre particularly considering the time of the year. Went to St. Pauls Cathedral where the firefighters and volunteers took refuge on 9/11. Then we headed towards the pier to catch the ferry around Liberty Island. The ferry left on the hour and we managed to miss it twice,...

After a tearful farewell we landed in NYC bang in the middle of the Brazilian Festival! Our airport shuttle driver was a bit crazy and because of the traffic problems couldn't take us directly to out hostel. So we had to walk through thousands of (tipsy) Brazilians with our 22.4kg bags to the hostel!! The hostel was in a great location but that was about it!! Luckily we didn't plan on spending much time there. That night after we'd thrown our bags in we hit the s...