The flight to NY took 5 and a half hour and I fell asleep before we got into the air, traveling is very exhausting if you stay for 2 nights only in every place, you always have to check out early, check in late and then I am not even mentioning all the transportation in between where you really can't get a proper sleep. So, now I was moving 3 hours forward in time again. So I slept 3 hours and from the evening in San Francisco I was back in the morning already in NY. I took the train to the hostel and with much effort I stayed awake (although in Zombie status). There was one homeless guy sorting out his garbage bag 2 meters from me in the middle of the train, he was probably trying to find his breakfast. Unfortunately this is not a joke, but reality... I arrived in my hostel, broken, but it was 8 o clock and I could only check-in after 3 pm again... So, this zombie walked through lower Manhattan the first day. I started walking from Brooklyn to Manhattan over the Brooklyn bridge. I got a ticket for the 9/11 memorial and thus went to ground zero. This is the place where the Twin Towers were before. Now instead of 2 towers there were 2 pools located, with names of the victims carved into the surroundings of the pool. I walked on to Wall Street, this is where the big money rolls. However I was there on a sunday, so it was pretty empty, this was exactly the place I really wanted to see in action. I had been traveling for such a long time that I never knew which day it was. So, now the street was not filled with traders, but with a couple of tourists. I wanted to make a photo of the charging bull (a financial sign for financial optimism and prosperity), but there was a queue of around 30 persons to make a photo and everyone took almost minute for an individual shot. So I made a quick photo with a random Indian woman, who took like 2 minutes to try every different pose, with 30 people waiting behind her... You can understand that I left that place immediately, otherwise it would not have been good for my temper. At least I know myself...

I walked along the harbour and was being sold a harbour cruise ticket. With a boat I drove along Manhattan, Ellis island, the statue of liberty, the Brooklyn bridge and the Manhattan bridge. So I had seen a lot in a day where I could sleep anywhere, I almost fell asleep in the subway (the sandwich store, not the train), but I made it untill 4 and I was finally able to check-in. So I went straight to my bed, woke up at 10 pm, ate something and continued my sleep to 1 pm again the next day. And I was still tired... I didn't want to spend all day in bed though, so I made a plan for the day.

I started at the empire state building, I walked on to the rockefeller plaza. I went to the rooftop of the rockefeller plaza, the nickname is Top of the Rock. The view from there was beautiful. You can also go into the empire state building, but I chose for the Top of the Rock, since you were able to see the impressive Central Park and of course the empire state building from there. Afterwards I continued to times square, this is the place to be for all the girls between us. You will be overwhelmed by shops and musicals over there. I thought about going to the Lion King musical, but 160 dollars for a musical is way too crazy for me. I went back to the hostel and didn't do anything at all that evening. I was waking up every hour at night for 3 days already, probably this was the first time I caught a proper jetlag. In the afternoon I suddenly got a facebook message from Jonathan, my friend whom I met in Sydney. He got back earlier from his business trip in London to meet me. I did a hike to the blue mountain with Jonathan and we definitely had a good time together in Sydney. So we met at 2.30.. In a bar haha. He works on Wall Street and that is not hard to notice, he wore his suit every day and every 2 minutes one of his two cell phones went off. Obviously you are always busy when you work on wall street. In the bar we got 4 dollar drinks with a free pizza for every drink you order. Now, that's value for money when you are a big eater like me! We went to wall street after to see Wall street in action. We continued in a bar at wall street and another bar uptown NY. He taught me what a local NY drink was. Apparently it was a long island ice tea. It definitely does the trick. It contains rum, gin, tequila and vodka. Jonathan had to work the next day so we separated our ways at around 10.

The next day I went to the park hung over, it's a beautiful park and the perfect place to escape the fast-paced city. Afterwards I continued to the Columbia University. I wanted to see an American university and Columbia looked really appealing to me since both Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffet (probably the 2 best stock investors in history) studied on this university. It was really impressive, the university was beautiful and must have cost a lot of money. They can afford it though with the high tuition fees over there. In the middle of the park some guy's very long hair was being shaved and a lot of people surrounded the show. He probably lost a bet or is in a fraternity. I had plans with Jonathan again in the evening, but he couldn't make it due circumstances unfortunately. So I got a evening of rest.

The last day in NY I had breakfast with Jonathan, went shopping and ended in a bar with Jonathan again to say goodbye. Looking forward to meet you again in Europe in August bro!