New York City

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Got the train from Washington to New York which only took about 3 and half hours, it was a very easy journey and train was practically empty! Had about same time to spend in New York which was about 3 and half days although knew there was not enough time to see everything in that time...still we did pretty well and managed to see fair bit! The first evening we explored around Times Square and Broadway, the sheer number of lights and stuff was pretty amazing although personally found it all a bit much after a while...although maybe that was just because i was knackered!

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On our first full day in NYC managed to cram in a lot of sightseeing! Started off with a trip to the Empire State Building although took a little while to get in because of massive ticket and security queues! Defintely worthwhile though as got spectacular view of the city skyline even though wasn't a clear day. From there we headed down to ferry for Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Boat trip over to Ellis Island was amazing as gave brilliant view of the Statue of Liberty and also of the city so lots of photos taken!! Ellis Island was fascinating as immigration museum there gave great insight as such an important part of American History,  apparantly something like 40% of Americans can trace their roots back to people who came through Ellis Island....(see my blog is informative too!)

One of my favourite things In New York was walking across Brooklyn Bridge just as it was getting dark, we hadn't planned anything but were nearby and decided to walk across and back and was brilliant as got some amazing views of Manhatten, it was great watching it get dark and seeing all the lights of the skyscrapers. Again took lots of pictures but didn't do it justice! Another thing we did in New York was shopping! While not really my thing I think we figured you couldn't come to New York and not do at least a bit of shopping! We went to quite a few shops including Macy's! We also took a walk around Greenwich Village which was cool but rained all the time we were there which was a bit of shame but still managed to see a fair bit.

I really loved Central Park! We were staying on the Upper West Side not far from the Park but only went to explore on the last day. It was pretty chilly but clear skies and sunny so a really nice Autumn day. Strolled round for a few hours and saw quite a lot of the park and was nice and relaxing! After that Samantha had to head off home as it was time for me to start my travels on my own but will be catching up with her again in Aus!

Had really cool time, New York was amazing and very glad to have finally been there after seeing it in so many movies & tv programmes!