WEEK 13 - NEW YORK - tuesday 20 july 2010

woohoo! today we headed to America! exciting! we left at 6am and tubed to the airport, the people at Virgin Pacific are SO nice, ill definately fly with them again, you get them if you book world trips with air nz :)
we arrived at the airport, flew through the nearly empty customs, since they have so many staff on, the longest wait we had was a 5 minute wait for our bags, and then we were off! we caught a bus to grand central station and then walked to the ymca where we are staying, enjoyed lovely showers in the spotless bathrooms, and got settled into our room. its a bit hot in here and the air con is noisy, but we have nice beds, big room, desks, a fridge and air con, we are a 15min walk away from grand central AND there is a gym to use for free, and its only NZ$140 per night for both of us! look up Vanderbilt YMCA in new york if you want good cheap accommodation thats clean and nice.
We headed out and met this neat guy from Couch Surfers called Howard, and he took us to his favourite diner and we had these massive buffalo burgers which were really yum.

then Howard invited us back to his place to meet his flatmate and dogs, and enjoy some liquer, so that we did, and had a lovely evening chatting and geting to know each other. they have an amazing loft style apartment in new york, right near times square, its all open plan, but cosy at the same time.

im so glad we joined couch surfers and are getting to meet the locals, its a much better way to view the city you are in!
more photos to come of new york this week, i was too tired to take any decent ones, sorry!