Well, here it is, the final entry of my LOOOOOONG ass trip! I’ll try not to get too emotional; we’ll get through this together!

The last day of the trip was supposed to be nothing more than getting us to and dropping us off in New Jersey where we would make our own way to New York, however after Dave and I watched Rambo IV the inevitable ‘Rocky Balboa’ conversation came up and our tour guide just happen to mention that Philadelphia was on the way from Washington DC to New York. Well it didn’t take much effort at all to convince the guide to make the little detour, especially as her parents lived on the outskirts and she jumped at the chance to hand over some laundry!

So before too long I’m posing with the actual ‘Rocky Balboa’ statue and recreating the ‘running up the stairs’ scene from the original movie outside the Philadelphia Museum! I don’t wanna believe I’m out of shape so I’m going to say those stairs are steeper than they look…

Once we’d finished getting our Rocky on we found ourselves on a bus from New Jersey to the Big Apple itself, New York City baby! Manhatten Island, one of the most densely packed, skyscraper filled cities in the world that has been destroyed in more movies than any other dwelling in existence, and home to some of the most famous American tourist attractions of all time, and I have 3 days to see as much of it as possible!

After landing at New York City Bus station the group said their goodbyes as this was where we all went our separate ways, everyone had made plans as to what they were going to do and a few people were meeting friends. So the next 3 days were very much like the day I spent in Washington DC, I made a plan to see as much as possible and just went crazy. I’d picked out a hostel near Times Square and getting there when it was dark meant I got to see it at its best, all lit up like you see it on tv and it just reminded me so much of Tokyo, weird that.

As luck would have it the hostel I stayed in had an awesome map with just about every tourist attraction I could imagine labelled on it, so after a good nights sleep I woke up with the plan to start with the daddy of Manhattans attraction, the French lady herself, the statue of Liberty. I must say its smaller than I thought it would be, but still very very cool, you get to walk around Liberty Island and even go inside the statue itself, but only up to the viewing platform as you cant go up to the head anymore, apparently so idiot threw himself out the crown and they closed it off! Twats ruined it for everybody! After that was a quick stop over on Ellis Island, ever seen ‘Hitch’, then you’ll know what I’m talking about, I even left a message inside the visitors’ book. Did you know they actually have a door called ‘America’s Gate’!

Landing back on Manhattan Island I realised I was quite close to Ground Zero, I know its quite a depressing site and there isn’t very much to see but I had to have a look, they’re turning it into a memorial square with the locations of the original buildings being pools surrounded by trees and stuff, looks pretty good.

I managed to see the New York Replica of L’Arc De Triomphe, they must love it cos that’s the second replica I’ve seen in the US. I also saw Madison Square Gardens as I was on my way to The Empire State Building and no visit to King Kongs plaything would be complete without a trip to the top. The view was amazing! You could see everything for miles around in every direction, the entire city metropolis and even over into New Jersey, I think it’s the highest I’ve ever been in a building.

Next day I started off with a quickie to Grand Central Station before saying hello to the Chrysler Building, the UN Buildings and a street full of flags which was conveniently over the street from Trump Tower, but I only noticed them because I was actually on my way to see the famous subway grate that made Marylin Monroe’s skirt lift so high and was on the same street as the aptly named Lipstck Building. From there it was a short walk to Rockerfeller Centre and at this time of year they have the ice rink all set up, as tempted as I was to go for a quick skate I had to move on.

On my way to Central Park, which is an enormous park right smack in the middle of the city and way bigger than you would ever think, I managed to see the Pulitzer Fountain and even the all time favourite Carnegie Hall. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Well you make a wrong turn on 34th street…

The entrance to Central Park lies on the corner of Columbus Circle, where they have a huge globe and a statue of the man himself, inside the park is so many things I only got to see a fraction of it all but they had a street lined with statues of famous people like Columbus (I know, we JUST walked past one) and Shakespeare and then bizarre as it sounds they have a statue of a dog, dedicated to sled dogs… no I couldn’t figure out why either??! They also have a monument to Hans Christian Anderson (dude who wrote Ugly Duckling) and an ‘Alice In Wonderland’ memorial, but the most weird thing in Central Park is the very random castle they have right in the middle, I mean its not huge or anything but it is there and I can not for life of me figure out why! They also have an Ancient Egyptian Obelisk called ‘Cleopatras Needle’ that I can only assume was put there to add some culture to the area.

Now I’ve always wondered what the deal is with Guggenheim Museums, apart from having a ridiculous name there must be something special about them so I thought I’d check it out, it was after all only another half an hour out of my way and my blisters weren’t quite bleeding yet! But as sods law is never inactive for too long it just so happened to be under restoration, dammit!

But I was not to be foiled just yet, I had one more morning before I had to catch my flight and I had every intention of being a tourist up until the last possible moment, and no trip to New York would be complete without a visit to ‘The Met’, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I’m not really into Museums or even a big art lover but this was a chance to see some of the worlds greatest pieces of art. They had an Ancient Greece exhibit, and Ancient Egypt exhibit and a bunch of rooms full of priceless paintings, being the heathen that I am I only recognised a few Monet’s!

Well ladies and gentleman, that’s brings me to the end of my adventures, I’ll leave you with the image that I spent my last $5 on the taxi to the airport so it goes to show that I was cutting it pretty tight these last few days, if I’d bought one more burger I would have been stranded in New York and become just another one of those smelly hairy people wandering around the city asking for spare change!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it, I know you haven’t cos lets face it, I’ve done all this shit and just spent the rest of my time bragging about it, its no wonder I’m constantly getting punched!

The big question I leave you with is this…what the hell do I do next!!?? 

Philadelphia - www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=187303&l=b2b36&id=699720654

New York 1 - www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=187309&l=1c909&id=699720654

New York 2 - www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=187322&l=85031&id=699720654

New York 3 - www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=187333&l=7446a&id=699720654