It was 8am when we awoke,only 5 or so hours after we had gone to bed and I wasn't finding it easy to get back to sleep so in the end I decided to get up. Rich was suffering the same problem so we decided to put on our clothes from the day before and head out for some breakfast to see how we felt then go from there. I was expecting us to crash after an hour or so like the last time I flew trans Atlantic to Toronto in Canada due to the time zone being the same so we was heading out to get breakfast then probably come back and sleep before showering and getting up properly.
We headed out the Uni and got to the metro station DeKalb to make our way to Manhattan and find some breakfast. Metro card sorted we hopped on board the R train and headed to Manhatten, getting off at Whitehall st south ferry station and continuing on foot. At this point it was only around 9am in the morning so it was relatively quiet to be honest. We walked around for a bit and ended up at battery park looking across the water at the Statue of Liberty before walking down to ground zero and that general area with Rich trying to take it all in. After months of waiting it was quite hard for both of us to grasp the fact we was actually here! After ground zero we headed up to Broadway desperate for some food. It was around 10am now so as you can imagine we was both starving half to death by this point. We found a shop which sold breakfast so went in and got a cheese,egg and bacon roll each and washed it down with a drink, my choice being orange and Rich chose grape juice which only had 71g of sugar in so not too bad for a small bottle...
Food and drinks down we carried on walking down Broadway stopping in a few shops along the way. It was getting hotter by the minute and the further we walked the more normal I felt in terms of tiredness so we cracked on and were soon at union square where we veered off onto 5th avenue instead of staying on Broadway. A little further and we stopped for a slice of pizza and a much needed bottle of water before carrying on and then realizing we was no longer on Broadway so we headed across a few blocks and got back onto Broadway. Once on Broadway we continued down eventually reaching Times Square where there is people dressed in all kinds of costumes from TV and films trying to get you to pay for a photo with them. Add in the people trying to hustle their mix tapes and the people trying to sell tours you can imagine it's very hot and crowded there! After a brief stop in the McDonald's restroom, which by the way, is insanely busy and had only one toilet with people queuing out the doors to get food, we headed down to Central Park to have a walk around and then a rest watching some softball/baseball.
We eventually left the park to go in the natural history museum which you used to be able to enter for free but now apparently it's only free at 16:40 for the last hour so we decided against going in and instead walked back up towards the entrance to the park on Columbus circle. After a brief stop in H&M getting some swim shorts and a hat to cover my sensitive skin head we left the shop making our way along the top of the park to the opposite corner to see the famous plaza hotel then taking a walk around inside it. Leaving the hotel we continued up 5th avenue up to about 40th street before swinging a left walking to 1st avenue looking for somewhere to eat. We decided on some Italian food and found a place which was a bit of a fast food restaurant so cheap but all Italian food so fitted the bill perfectly. It took us a while to find this place and we had practically ended up back level with Central Park on about 56th street. After a huge plate of spag Bol each we headed back to Times Square to catch the metro back to the university. By the time we had reached our room we had walked 21 miles! After going out quickly for breakfast we ended up leaving at 8am and returning at 8pm 21 miles later with only a couple of short stops and rests so needless to say we slept well that night!