Hello New York City!!

We had to wake up very early this morning, in order to drive the hour to the airport and catch our 7am flight. I didn't sleep very well at all last night. I am sleeping on the couch in Wesley's lounge room, which is really comfortable, however his roommates cat kept on trying to sleep on top of me!! Anyway, we woke up at 4:30am, and got to the airport just after 6am. We said goodbye to Wes, and thanked him so much for all he did for us! Today we are flying with Southwest Airlines again.

I would definitely recommend them to anyone travelling in the US, especially with a lot of luggage. Almost all the other airlines charge a bomb to checkin in bags, however Southwest allow 2 checked bags each, for FREE!! We have a short stop over in St Louis before flying onto New York's Laguardia airport. We boarded on time, however we did not move. The first officer came over the PA saying there would be a slight delay, as the pilot hadn't turned up to work yet!! I just turned to Thomas, laughed, and said, well thats something new!! Eventually he showed up, and did the pre flight checks. In total we were delayed a little over half an hour. Luckily we still made our connection in St Louis, it was just a little shorter than expected! The flights were nice. We got free snacks and free drinks, as well as free tv, so the time passed pretty quick. I don't know if it is the usual thing or not in the USA, but the seatbelt sign stayed on almost the whole flight. One of the flights was a little bumpy, however not too bad. It was quite annoying, especially when you have to use the bathroom! The view into New York was amazing. We flew so low, straight over the city! It was so nice!


Yes, that is the Statue of Liberty!
When we got to Laguardia airport, we had planned to take the train into the city, however it seemed a little complicated and long, especially with all our large pieces of luggage. We instead caught a cab, right up to our hotel door. It was reasonably priced, only about $15 more expensive than public transport. We are staying at the New York Budget Inn, in Manhatten. It is quite nice. We have our own room with a shard bathroom. The room is very small, which makes storing our luggage a little challenging, however it was cheap, and in a great location! We are meeting one of Thomas' friends, Freya, here in New York. She has been in New York for a day already, so we planed to meet her at the Empire State Building, in time to watch the sunset, and see the city lights. It is only about a 10 minute walk from our hotel to the Empire State Building.

We hadn't eaten much all day, so we quickly went over to a pizza place across the road, which had $1 pieces. It was really good!! We just got the pass to get up to the 80th and 86th floors of the Empire State Building. The 86th floor is by far the best, especially at night. I would not bother to spend the extra money to go any higher, the view will be no better. We managed to just see the sunset on the 80th floor.

However by the time we got to the 86th floor it was dark. There is an open air viewing deck on this floor, so there is not glare through the windows.




It gives an mazing view of the city, and a great perspective of Manhatten island. We then went to a nice little burger place down the road from our hotel for dinner. This is the first burger place in the US that I have been to that serves, what I would call, a gourmet burger. Everywhere else so far has served a McDonalds type burger with a patty, cheese and sauce on a bun. They have been nice, however this one had much more variety. We decided to go and take a train down to lower Manhatten to look at Brooklyn Bridge and take the Stratton Island Ferry. The closest train station to us is the famous Grand Central station. It is so huge and magnificent! It took us quite some time to figure out how to use the subway system. Eventually we got to the Brooklyn Bridge and went down to one of the piers to get a nice view of it. It was so pretty, especially with the lights of Brooklyn behind it, and all the planes flying past.

What made it even nicer was the fact that it was a huge full moon that was sitting just above the bridge. We stayed here for quite some time just admiring it, and taking pictures. It had been a long day, and we decided, instead of doing the ferry tonight, we would get up early tomorrow and do it then. We then took subway back to Grand Central station and walked back to our hotel. It was sad to leave Wes and Colorado this morning, but it is so nice to be in New York City!!