Well, here goes my first attempt at writing a blog! At the time of writing I am sitting in gate 15 at JFK international airport terminal 3 as I wait for my flight to San Francisco!

Now getting on with my stay in New York, I will firstly take you back to Valentine's Day when I flew from London Heathrow to New York, to start my 6 month trip round the world! I had a midday flight which ended up being delayed by approximately 45 minutes, which wasn't too much of an issue! I arrived at the airport in plenty of time with my parents and sister, where we checked in ourselves, then had breakfast, which to this day remains the last proper meal I have eaten! Then it was time for the emotional part L I said my goodbyes, lots of hugs and tears and then I was off through security to board my flight, which was a Virgin Atlantic flight on a double Decker plane! Once on board I was sat amongst a group of about 70 girls all from a dance school that were on a dance trip to New York; I had a window seat for the flight, and the girl I was sitting next to started throwing up half way through the flight....nice!

Following my lovely breakfast that I had with my parents in the morning, I also got a decent meal on the plane, which was a beef meal with potatoes and vegetables, which were followed by a small tub of pasta, a small bread roll and butter, a chocolate mousse and a drink of apple juice! This was later followed by a choc ice, and a cup of tea J the in flight entertainment was also quality, I watched the invention of lying, and also flicked through a few other programs, and kept updated with the football scores as it was FA cup weekend!

I arrived at the airport at 3.05pm local time, firstly I had to go through passport control where I got my visa to America, which takes up like a page and a half of my passport, then I went to baggage claim, where I was waiting for my backpack for at least 40 minutes, I thought it was never going to come! Following this I went to find some transportation to where I was staying, this happened to be with a friend of a friend who lives in Port Chester about a 40 minute train journey to the city of New York, after asking a few people including a New York policemen, I was directed to ground transportation centre where I was hooked up with this company who took me to Chris's house, this wasn't without drama however, I got into the car and there was one more person inside as this was a shared airport transfer then we went to two more terminals, which I presumed was to pick up some more passengers but the driver came back from the terminal without anyone else both times, from here we dropped off the other passenger, then I was the last person left in the car, and the driver asked me the address I was staying at and he told me that his company do not operate where I was staying, so I told him that the lady at ground transportation directed me towards his company as she told me this was the best option for getting me to Chris's house, so anyway he was adamant he wouldn't take me to Chris's house even though he lived virtually on the border from where they operated and where they didn't! So I phoned up Chris using the driver's phone ;) and then Chris spoke to the driver and directed him to his house and eventually Chris won the driver over and he did drop me off at Chris's house, but he didn't really want too and told me he weren't meant too! Anyway that cost me $55!

So here I am arriving at Chris's house at 7pm so midnight in the UK, and am starving, and he serves up pizza, I'm like bingo! I had a chat with Chris, who is English and from Colchester as well, and then I went up to my room which was in the converted loft, where I was staying on a blow up bed, I put the sheets on it, sent a few emails to mum and dad and went off to sleep really quickly because I was so tired.

The next morning I woke up at about 9, and got showered (which felt good after the flight) and had cheerio's for breakfast, then Chris dropped me off at Port Chester station, where I purchased my train ticket, which was a Saturday to Friday pass as this was the one that suited me best, but it still set me back $72! So my first experience of American trains was that..........blimey it's on time! The train took approximately 40 minutes to get to grand central terminal, which is where I got off and was shocked at how big it was, it's like a tourist attraction in itself, with all the tourists getting their pictures taken in the main concourse, including me! My first day here was also presidents day here in the states so the trains were running a reduced service and nearly all the banks where shut, which was quite annoying as I wanted somewhere to check that all my cards where working alright out here, but eventually I did find one that was open, as believe me there is not a shortage of banks in New York!

Being my first day and all that I set out with the intentions of just finding my feet and getting to know the whereabouts of things in the city and generally just having a nose about! So once I got onto the street I turned right out of the station and walked along 42nd street, as I thought if I stay on this road I cannot get lost, and at first I was just in awe at everything around me, the skyscrapers, the amount of people, the pedestrian crossings everything! Also before I left my sister asked me to get a photo of a yellow cab, so this was one of the first photos I took, then I realised once I had taken a few more photos that I was struggling to take a photo without getting a yellow cab in the shot, lol! So as I was walking along 42nd street, I was just getting to grips with it all and looking at all the goings on, and then just stumbled upon Times Square, which was unbelievable, all the bright lights, the big screens, the adverts, you name it, Times Square has it! There was even a giant heart made out of ice, as it was Valentine's Day the day before! So I wondered around Times Square in amazement, before venturing out a little further, I went past Madame tussords, and lots of McDonalds hehe, before ending up at Madison square garden's, all completely by accident as well, had a look round there, before just randomly coming across the empire state building, so after originally saying that I was only going to potter about round New York on my first day, I was now just about to go up arguably the most popular tourist destination in New York!

What took me by surprise more than anything was the fact that I couldn't see a queue, so I wandered inside, still couldn't see a queue so thought I may as well go up today as it doesn't seem busy, it wasn't until I got upstairs and started queuing that I realised that there was a huge queue, which I was in for an hour and a half before being whisked up to the 86th floor on the elevator to the most indescribable view over the whole of New York and the surrounding areas! It was a clear day also which meant visibility was good and I could see for miles, in my sight was the statue of liberty, central park, the Chrysler building, the Rockefeller centre....absolutely everything New York has to offer, I could see from my position, it was truly unforgettable! The only thing I was worried about was dropping my camera from that high up, so I was weary of this when I was taking pictures!

Following this I returned to grand central terminal to get my train home, so I asked the guy at the counter when the next train was to Port Chester, he gave me the answer and I had a little time to wait, so I went and brought a salted pretzel which was massive and a bottle of water, the salt on the pretzel made me feel so sick, as it had huge chunks of salt on it.

When I returned to Chris's house that night he brought home a Chinese takeaway, so that sorted out my dinner for that night, then he suggested that we go to the cinema, and he said he'd pay if I did the washing up...so I did just that, we got to the cinema and we watched up in the air, with 2 other people....madness! it was cos it was presidents day and it was 10pm nobody was there, Chris also brought some popcorn, which was salted which I aint keen on anyway, then the guy behind the counter said to him 'do you want butter' which made me laugh. Butter on popcorn ewww, anyway I tried some and I weren't that keen....i think ill be sticking to the sweet popcorn that we get in the UK, I absolutely love the American accent!

Onto Tuesday, when I woke up to an absolute blizzard and about 3 inches of snow on the ground, but yet still decided to go to central park....why? good question, I haven't got a clue, but I did and it took me about an hour to navigate my way from grand central to the park, in the thick snow and slush on the paths, I entered the park at the south end and decided I would walk round all of it, so I went past the central park zoo, saw kids sledging in the snow and dog walkers, but I was actually quite surprised how few people there were in the park, but this made for a amazing view of the huge park in a blanket of snow, after seeing the many views of the park, I got to the reservoir, which is soooooooo big, and ultimately got me lost, from this point I lost all sense of direction and kept walking the same places, until I decided enough was enough and I exited the path onto the street, and made my way to the station that way, by this stage I was completely soaked from head to foot and it was windy which made it even worse, my hands were numb, and all intricate movements were impossible, this prompted me to buy a nice hot dog and small hot chocolate...even tho I would say that it is large by English standards!

After my epic 4/5 hour journey round central park, I called in at Abercrombie & Fitch, which I had to queue to get in for, I was just browsing tho, they had some nice stuff but I'm on a budget plus there's absolutely no room in my backpack for anything. Once I got back to Port Chester station, I called in at the local supermarket to buy 2 pot noodle things which were to be dinner for the next 2 nights, and a box of Rice Krispie's for my breakfast in the morning, total cost $2.99, not bad I thought.

The next day, Wednesday, I decided to go to the statue of liberty, again it was freezing cold, yet I had an hour and a half walk ahead of me to make my way from the station to battery park, where you get the ferry to the statue, to get to Battery park, it was obviously a long but nice walk as it took in union square, park avenue, Broadway...which is so long, as well as a few other interesting sights, once I reached battery park I brought my ferry ticket, and got in the queue which stretched for as far as I could see, so I brought a coke and cheese pretzel, to fill me up, the pretzel was far nicer than the salted one that I had a few days prior, and was probably the nicest thing I brought to eat in my stay in New York, once I had worked my way down the queue we then had to pass through airport style security before boarding the 15 minute ferry to liberty island, where we got off to see what we had all been waiting for and believe me it was worth waiting for, the statue itself was a lot bigger than I anticipated it being, and again this was another thing that left me pinching myself, as the whole trip still seems surreal, as I still can't believe I have seen the sights I have it just hasn't sunk in. I then boarded the ferry 45 minutes after arriving to visit the other island, Ellis island, which is home to the Ellis island immigration museum, this was also a very worthwhile visit, and was very interesting, as it helped me to learn a bit about what had gone on at this island all them years ago!

From Ellis island, it was back on the ferry and about a 10 minute ride back to New York, from the ferry, there was an amazing view over the New York skyline. Once back in New York, I had another hour and a half walk back to grand central, then the 40 minute train back to Port Chester before I stopped off at the supermarket once again, to buy some more pot noodles for the rest of the week as well as some cheese crackers and Oreos which were to be my lunch for the remainder of my stay and a bag of crisps to snack on. Then I had the short 20 minute walk back to Chris's house, once I arrived back here I was completely knackered, I had a nasty blister on the heel of my left foot, which I had sustained from all that walking, and I ached all over.

The next day, Thursday, I decided to go to ground zero, this involved the same long walk again as its in a similar location to where you get the ferry from, so instead of just walking through union square, this time I decided to have a good look round, before eventually arriving at the world trade centre site, which I have to admit I was a little bit shocked/disappointed by to be honest as it was just a building site...a big building site but just a building site, yes there was a little plaque on the wall nearby and a ridiculously overpriced museum, but I expected something a lot bigger to commemorate what happened, and I stunned by how little there was to remember all those people that lost their lives that day, in a few years time I expect this will not be the case, but for some reason I expected there to be a big commemorative display, as this is New York after all, but this wasn't the case and it was a big building site with cranes everywhere, diggers the lot.

From there I decided to go to the Staten island ferry, which was also a huge letdown, it took me to Staten island and back again basically, there was nothing to see, but then again it was free so I can't complain too much, after this I went to bowling green, which is a park with a big bull (I think) located outside the front of it which is surrounded by tourists, taking photos next to it, all day long! Following this I had a look around the financial district and went along Wall Street, before heading back to the station on my hour and a half long walk along Broadway and Park Avenue, by this stage I was really understanding the whole road structure and layout of New York as I had walked along it so much!

When I returned to Chris's that night, again I was very tired, but I was chatting to him and the other housemates that stay with him, and I found out that he had been sitting opposite Kirsten Dunst when he went out for dinner the evening before with a friend....and supposedly she had been making eye contact throughout the night, and he had been desperate to get her number, but he chickened out and missed his opportunity, so we were winding him up about this as he was adamant she was onto him, but he missed his opportunity which he was depressed about, but made us laugh. The reason he was even in the same room as her, I think is because, he is/was one of the best squash players in England and has won loads of trophies internationally, and now coaches in New York, so I get the impression he goes to lots of top notch dos!

After much deliberation, I decided to visit the American museum of natural history on the Friday of my stay in New York, there are so many museums to choose from but after some advice and research I visited this museum as it seemed good...and was =D the museum is located on the outskirts of central park, around 78th street to 81st I think from memory so it was a good 45 minute walk at a brisk speed from grand central. I arrived around lunchtime, and for once this was an attraction that there wasn't a long queue for, even tho it was still a busy attraction, once inside, the first part of the museum I visited was the space section where we learnt about the big bang and the evolution of earth. It sound a bit boring but it actually very interesting and we got to watch this 3D clip in this arena of what they think happened. From here I went to learn about the more geographical elements of how earth came about, which again sounds tedious, but was good also. After this there were lots of museums on the culture of every country and continent around the world and a museum of dinosaurs and a museum about human kind and about the different parts of our bodies and how they function like the brain, these museums were all good in themselves, but the main attraction and the main reason I went has to be for the vast number of galleries which display what seemed like every animal on the planet, all the galleries display stuffed animals, and they set them up in a variety of cool poses, and with a really realistic backdrop so that it looks real, the animals displayed ranged from ocean creatures, to desert creatures, to American creatures and so on, basically animals from every continent were preserved and stuffed with info written on the wall next to them.

The next day, Saturday, was my last day in New York, and I had seen all the main attractions, and was on a budget so I was limited to what I could do that day, as if I had an infinite budget there would be something for me to do every day of the year, but when you're at the start of a round the world trip you can't chuck money at everything so I decided to have a relaxed day around the city, just to take in the sights once last time and have a look at a few new things, which included going into the New York public library, having a look round and the like, then when I came out there was some street dancers that had just hitched up on the roadside and breaking out some moves along to some cool beats, once I'd had enough of that I went round to this park at the back of the library, which I think was called Bryant park, but I can't really remember, from here I took one final stroll along times square, which was a lot busier than it was the previous time I visited here as it was the weekend! There were loads of Disney characters all dressed up in costumes such as Minnie & Mickey mouse and SpongeBob etc, then I walked past the Rockefeller centre and went back to the station, at the start of the day I went to 1st avenue for my first time however and went to see the United Nations Headquarters, and walked past the Chrysler building on the way back, but this was all I did on my final day, as I wanted to get back early to Skype the family, pack my bag and get a good night's sleep! So I got back to Chris's at about 4.30pm, after going in the supermarket to buy my final pot noodle and a bag of crisps for dinner, and some milk for my cereal in the morning!

I still had to book my transport back to the airport however; I thought this would be easy as although I had a kerfuffle with the driver getting to Chris's house as I explained earlier, he did give me his business card and asked me phone when I was returning to the airport, so I rung this number, asked for a lift, they asked for my location, I told them, but again they said they don't operate in that area, so I told them that I was dropped off at this location by their driver, but he told me there was no chance they were coming into Connecticut which is where Chris lives and just a couple of minutes drive from Westchester, where they operate, so he told me that he could get me a private which was like double the price...so I was like no chance....or I could walk 10/15 minutes down the road so they could pick me up from Port Chester, where they operate, but this would have been at 6am and with a extremely heavy backpack and a hand luggage bag, there was no chance of this either, so I just googled some more companies and got a lift with a different company even tho they were a slightly more expensive they picked me up from Chris's house. So I had my alarm set for 5am, and was praying that I would hear it and wake up, plus my dad phoned to make sure I was up, then I had a shower, squeezed the last few bits into my backpack, rushed through my breakfast and was on my way to JFK airport once again, where we arrived at 7am, it took us 45 minutes to get there (it took the other company 2 hours to get me to Chris's from the airport), once there I used their self check in facility and had to pay $20 for bringing a bag on board...insane, then I was through security and waiting at the gate for my plane to San Francisco.

Currently I am midway through my flight to San Francisco, and have just finished this blog for New York, I may have rambled on about nothing but I'm quite tired and writing this has helped to pass the time of sitting in the departure gate when I started writing this to now!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading through this blog for New York, and make sure you look through the photos on this site as they probably help to explain what I've been going on about.

My trip couldn't have got off to a better start, I'm having a brilliant time, and the highlight of my first week was either the empire state building or the statue of liberty...I am torn.

Hope you are all well back home, I really do miss everyone, and I will keep you updated for the rest of my trip, see you all when I get home, here's to a good time in San Francisco and the rest of the trip.

Miss you.

Love

Toby

xxxx