New York, New York!

Ok, just a quick one to say we've started our American adventure. Had a great flight on BA and arrived at JFK after about 7 hours from London. Worst airport ever. Waited ages to get through the passport check and were fairly annoyed by the time we got out. All was not lost though...we were in New York!

Once we got on the train to Manhattan a guy got on with a cart and did some magic tricks. All really good and he even pulled a rabbit out of a hat! Not to mention the dove!! We were so impressed that we gave him a dollar. I asked him the rabbits name and he said it didn't have one but that we could name it. So we called him Peter:) Here's a pic of Peter and the magician.

Our first day we just walked around to soak it all in. We walked all the way down Broadway from 103rd to about 14th. It was a pretty long walk but we got to see heaps. We couldn't resist making a stop at M&M world which was just full of merchandise and M&Ms in every possible colour.

That night we went to a gig on the lower East side. We saw Angus and Julia stone who are two Aussies that have been over here supporting an American artist. They were great and the venue was really small so i got to stand about a metre from the stage which is a good thing when you're five foot tall.

When we got back to the hostel and the rest of the gang had arrived. Alaskan airlines didn't put Neil's bag on the flight and the rest of them were delayed hours in Toronto so it was a bit of a fail all round. Anyway we went to bed and got up early for a big day of sight seeing.

So in the morning we went off to check out the statue of liberty and Ellis island. Here's a pic of Neil with Miss Liberty. And as you can see the weather was fantastic.

After that we decided to take advantage of the clear day and head up the Rockefeller Centre. Here's a pic of the view over to the Empire State Building.

The next day we went to check out Ground Zero and then wasted time lining up to get tickets for a show but when we got there we couldn't justify the $120 USD. That's a lot with the crap exchange rate! After that we then spent most of the day wandering through Central Park. Here's a pic of one of the friendly locals.

Anyway, Nate wanted me to include a picture of his Philly Cheesesteak, so here it is. It was very tasty. If you've never heard of it before then wikipedia can explain it to you:)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheesesteak

Also had to inlcude a picture of the Snuggie. We saw an advert for this and couldn't believe it existed. It's a blanket with sleeves! I love America already. Here is a pic of Christian with a Snuggie at ToysRus. He is seriously going to buy one. haha. It says on the box that you can wear it to sporting events and on aeroplanes! I'm sure I'll be posting a pic of Chrizb wearing one soon enough.