Hey so we made it to the big apple! our first day to go with the trend rained all day - we got completely soaked walking around central park and along 5th avenue so after a few hours we retreated back home where it was at least dry! the hostel we stayed in was by far the dingiest but it had everything we needed! the first pic is of Times Square at night - god that place was buzzing all the time but especially at night - i got excited everytime we went there - morning, noon and night! the one below is of us at times square in the day - were by the old New York Times offices (first building in the area thus the name Times Square interesting huh?!)

on our second day whilst walking around times square we saw the ticket stand for on the day broadwalk shows and we got tickets for Phantom of the Opera, only 30 pounds each, right by the front, right in the middle and the show was absolutely fantastic! i was jumping around like a looney from just getting the tickets so you can imagine what i was like actually going to the show! and it lived up to all expectations, it was fantastic, brilliant, amazing, excellent - if you havent seen it you really must!! even gav got excited and smiled a lot! he really liked it too, we both had a fabulous night! a show on broadway woowho!

on the same day we went to grand central station, oh my god we had never seen anything like it! i swear it hasnt changed since it was built in 1913! all marble, gold everywhere, chandeliers, so grand! theres a pic of gav waiting under the clock for someone - not sure who but it had to be done!

the other pic is when we went up the empire state building - we had 2 days of manic sight seeing as we bought these pass things that got us in everywhere free, and empire state building was first on the list! it was an absolutely amazing view over manhattan, north, south, east and west! the photos look like the sky was murky but it was such a clear day blue sky going on forever! we saw out where the twin towers once stood but at that point it seemed hard to believe there was room for them, so many tall buildings packed into a small space! because we were there around september 11th, 2 beams of light shone from where each of the towers stood which was a nice effect. so as well as going up the empire state building we went to the intripid museum which was an old war ship where we saw concord amongst other things - it was actually a lot better than i was expecting! our last stop of the day was a 2 hours cruise of manhattan island where we saw the statue of liberty at night which was awesome, and we also saw New Jersey, the financial district, along wall street, we went under the brooklyn and manhattan bridges, it was all spectactual to see at night and we didnt get sea sick at all - were getting pretty good at being on water! ok, lets try for some more pictures!