USA

This morning was had a great breakfast in the cafe next to our hostel and then we headed off on a walking tour across the Brooklyn Bridge. The Bridge itself is about 1 mile (or 2.4 km for everyone in Australia) but it was well worth the effort. It is a beautiful bridge. After arriving on the other side we went to lunch at a place called Juniors which is well known for its cheesecake. We tried a cheesecake which wasnt really that nice but still we at it all!

After lunch we headed to times square to see what was happening with New Years and once there we decided that with all the people flowing in we had better pick a spot and stay there. That was fine except that most places were blocked off so we walked for blocks before we found one that was open and we were not allowed to go in because we had backpacks. In times square they put up huge barriers which are like pens and they lock you in! So we kept going up the street until we turned the corner and got onto broadway which was not so heavily patrolled and we strolled right down the street (by this time we had hidden the backpacks under our clothing) and managed to make it into the same pen that the girls we had left behind had made it too. Freaky conicidence considering there was 1 millon people there and we found the girls within the first five minutes!

We then settled in for the long 7 hour wait for new years. As time went on we slowly got packed closer and closer and at new years it went completely balistic! It was an awsome experience but we probably wont be repeating it again next year. 1 million people is alot and getting back to the hotel was difficult we were didnt even attempt a taxi or the subway, we walked the entire 25 plus blocks back to the hotel. So overall, we walked over 5 kms that day! We finished off the evening with some of the girls and a quick snack before going upstairs for bed!

This morning we checked out of our hostel and made our way to the HOTEL we were staying in for the duration of our contiki tour. We met our tour managers in a group meeting and learnt that the tour was actually 2 groups which meant there was approximately 80 people on contiki tour in the hotel!

After finishing the meeting we headed out to the buses and towards the Statue of Liberty and stood in line for 2 hours to get onto the boat. We walked around the Island and saw the statue (obviously since it is so huge), and we had our group photo taken at the statue of liberty as well. We then got back on the boat and headed back to Manhattan to start our tour of the city. We went to the Ground Zero site which is under construction and then we had lunch. We started our tour and drove through areas such as: Greenwich Village, Bleecker Street, NYU University, Broadway, Soho, Canal Street, Chinatown, the Tribeca Area, Wall Street, St. Pauls Capel, Tiffany´s and the Trump Towers, St. Patricks Cathederal, Rockefeller Centre, Empire State Building, Central Park, Upper West Side, Harlem, 5th Avenue, Museum Mile, and Upper East Side. Phew, what a tour!

After our tour we checked into the Hotel and then went to dinner at Caliente Cab Co. where we had mexican style food. After dinner we went to the Empire State building to stand in line for another 2 hours before making it to the top. It was so cold we barely took pictures before our hands froze over but the view was beautiful!

After the empire state we piled into a limo (yes we travel in style) and headed to this night club called Coyote Ugly which is actually very similar to the movie. Although getting there in a limo is nice and all we swear the limo was owned by the mafia as we were sure we were being kidnapped and were taken to the back streets of we have no idea where before we finally made it to the cab. Scary!

The bar was nice but it was now midnight and everyone was heading off to another club and we both decided that enough was enough and went back to the hotel to enjoy our creature comforts we missed so much!

After seeing everything we wanted in Philly the day before we decided to head to New York early so we could get checked into our hostel and organised for our contiki tour tomorrow. We caught a bus from Philly to New York at 10am arriving in NYC around 1pm. We then headed straight to the subway to tackle it in an attempt to make it to our hostel, and we suceeded! We arrived at the hostel around 3pm and as we were absolutely starving we went to a local restraunt for some food. We spent the remainder of the day organising ourselves for our contiki tour tomorrow and got to bed early for a good nights sleep!

As our hostel has a curfew in which you have to be out at a certain time we fought our way through the showers and headed off for our day in Philedelphia. We stopped along the way to have some breakfast and come up with a plan of what we wanted to see and how to do it all.

We decided on seeing the Liberty Bell first and it was a very historical icon well worth the long line to see. The bell itself is massive! We then ventured across the street to Independance Hall and were able to catch a tour of the House of Congress. We were not able to get tickets into Independance Hall itself as the tickets had all gone so quickly but it was still a good experience to look in the facility. We saw copies of the declaration of independance where it was signed and this copy was not so faded so you were able to read it if you wanted to.

We then headed up to Greyhound to book tickets for our bus to New York and then tried to run some errands all with no luck before we decided to call it a day and head back to the hostel. We went out for a light dinner and met a family visiting Washington DC and were walked around the block and back to our hostel by their son who was more than sick of spending time with his family. It was really quite sweet of him and a funny story of how we met some randoms in a restraunt!

After a horrible nights sleep we finally dragged ourselves off to see Capital Hill but arrived with a massive line. We persisted and managed to get tickets but the time was too late as we were catching our bus to Philly around the same time so we headed off to the Monuments of Washington DC. We started with the Franklin Monument and then walked to the Roosevelt and then onto the Korean War Memorial before making our way to the Lincoln Memorial. After that we walked along the reflecting pool to the WWII Memorial making a massive hike around the city. In Washington DC the Captial Building is directly in line with the Lincoln Memorial albeit quite a distance apart but in order to see all the memorials we effectively did a massive semi-circle of the city. Trust us it was a big day. We finished off our time in Washington DC with some lunch before heading to the Hostel to pick up our bags to go to the Greyhound Station.

We arrived in Philly after dark and started walking towards our hostel as we believed it was quite close - or so the map on the hostel website told us - but we ended up catching a taxi after walking for a while. We arrived and checked in and then went for some dinner before crashing into bed for some well earned sleep.