Nathan and I took our $7 megabus from Washington, DC to Philadelphia where we were meeting up with Josie and Heidi. We used Air B&B again (because it worked out cheaper than hostels) and stayed with Lisa, an Astrophysicist who studied at Yale (some very clever people use Air B&B!!). Her apartment was in an old mansion which had been converted into this block of flats. It was really nice and even had a friendly cat who was 18years old and acted more like a dog (therefore I liked it).

Our first day in Philly consisted of the historical offerings in the city. This included the Pennsylvania State Hall (now renamed Independence Hall) which was where the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 took place. This document announced that the thirteen American colonies, whom at the time were at war with Great Britain, were to become newly independent states seperate from the British empire and would form the United States of America. To be able to tour the Independence Hall, you have to get an time-allocated ticket. Ours wasn’t until half 4 and so we had a few hours to kill beforehand. We queued up for the Liberty Bell, a bell that used to be placed in the steeple of the Independence Hall and cracked upon its first ring in Philadelphia. It is an iconic symbol of American independence and currently resides opposite its old location in The Liberty Bell Centre. On arrival in the centre our bags were searched and we discovered the odd facts about the bell including how it used to tour around cities in America until it started to deteriorate and people chiseled pieces off of it. We then dodged the hundreds of school kids and headed to Benjamin Franklin’s grave where he was laid to rest in 1790. Next stop was Franklin Park, complete with carousel and mini golf, where another hoard of school children appeared and ruined the peace. It was then nearing half four so we headed back to Independence Hall and waited in the beautiful gardens outside. Our tour guide then greeted us and we were ushered into a room where he introduced us to the importance of the Declaration of Independence. After a tour of the court room and where the Declaration was signed, we headed back to Franklin park to ride the carousel and play the Philly mini golf course. I lost. Badly. Nathan obviously won and Josie came a fairly close second but I was miles away from any such victory. After a long day of tourist and cultural activities, we headed to South street near our accommodation and ate dinner at Johnny Rockets diner where the waiters and waitresses danced to Rockin’ Robin and you could spend a quarter to play a song on the jukebox. Classic America.

The next day saw us going to Reading Terminal Market. A massive warehouse-style building filled with hundreds of food stalls, baked goods, fresh fish and chocolate covered onions. Yeah, apparently it’s famous for it! We spent a good few hours wandering around trying to decide what to eat out of the insane choice of food. I settled for a sour cream and onion pretzel from an Amish pretzel stall (I didn’t realise they were Amish at the time, just assumed it was their work uniform) and a bagel with bacon and horseradish Philadelphia cream cheese. We also managed to binge on a lot of free chocolate samples and I even tried a maple bacon donut (the bacon bits were sprinkled on top; oddly delicious). We then checked out the other landmarks around Philly including the town hall which featured enormous boardgame artwork outside such as chess pieces, monopoly figures and checkers. Next was the ‘Love’ sign and fountain where a kind stranger offered to take our picture (he then turned out to be begging for money and made you feel guilty by taking an amazing photo), Logan park followed (which reminded me of Trafalgar square) and finally the China town friendship gate which is meant to bring good fortune when you walk underneath it (you’ve just got to make sure you don’t get hit by a car as it’s on a main road). In the evening we headed out to eat. Now, we’ve been travelling for over 7 months and so we’re still pretty tight when it comes to food pricing. We passed by a handful of restaurants that appeared to be expensive but if we weren’t backpacking on a budget, these eateries would be really cheap in comparison to meals out in Britain. So instead we traipsed around dismissing anything over $10 or too greasy and ended up walking pretty much the entirety of Philadelphia (which apparently after 8pm turns into a ghost town) and didn’t find somewhere to eat until after 10. An evening meal turned into an almost midnight snack. Whoops.

After a pleasant lie-in, we trekked to downtown Philly to catch our $10 bus to New York. We arrived at what looked like an abandoned homeless shelter with grubby toilets not fit for rats and wondered why we didn’t just pay the little bit extra and ride with Megabus. We needn’t have worried though because the bus was fine; comfortable seats and full of travellers heading to the Big Apple for Mother’s Day (yeah it’s at a different time of year here). Two and a half hours later and we arrived to a view of the skyline and the Statue of Liberty. We were in New York!!!!!! We got dropped off in Chinatown (our bus company was an Asian one after all) and found a McDonald’s to abuse their WiFi for directions to our next accommodation. The subway system here offers a week’s pass for $30 which works out a lot cheaper than buying individual trips (they’re $2.50 each way). Initially it was difficult to work out, did we need the local train or the express train or the A or C line… and when you’ve got a 20kg backpack on, the only thing you want to do is wish a teleportation device had been invented to speed up this process. After a couple of hours riding the metro, we arrived at our next Air B&B dwelling and were told via text by Matt (our host who couldn’t be there for check-in) to wait outside until someone called Conrad arrived. Three minutes later a man appeared at the door, held it open for us to come in and then disappeared. He wasn’t Conrad. He was just some Spanish guy who lives in the apartment block. Still, we were one step closer to getting into the flat! But then real Conrad arrived and let us in to our Manhattan apartment for the next 6days. Matt and Annie have put three bunk beds in two of the rooms in their flat making it feel like a hostel within an apartment. It was a good choice!

After some relaxation at our new abode, we headed out to Times Square. Only a few stops on the subway and we were in the heart of the ‘city that never sleeps’ surrounded by bright lights, billboards advertising TV shows and masses of tourists. It was difficult to walk anywhere, there was the constant noise of taxis beeping their horns and even a naked cowboy playing a guitar. We grabbed an authentic New York pizza slice and wandered around this crazy part of the city through gift shops, M&M world and the Hershey’s store. Delicious.

We awoke painfully early the next day to embark on our trip to Liberty and Ellis Islands. We’d bought our tickets online whilst in Philly and so were guaranteed tickets up to the Statue of Liberty pedestal level (tip: if you know when you’re planning on being in New York and it’s a few months in advance, book your Statue of Liberty tickets as soon as possible because you’ll more than likely be able to go all the way up to the crown and the best part is that it only costs $21 including the return boat journey!). There is also an audio tour included in the price of the ticket. Upon completion in 1886, the Statue of Liberty was the tallest structure in New York City. The statue honors the ideals of freedom and liberty and was a symbolic gift to the United States from France. Mr Eiffel tower himself designed the structure and it sits at an impressive 305ft in height. Just one of her fingernails is the size of your forearm! It is incredibly deceptive how tall she is! After learning of the history of the statue and the island (it represents freedom and yet woman weren’t even allowed on the island for its opening ceremony!), we got on the ferry to Ellis Island and explored what was once the passageway into the USA for thousands of people who immigrated into the country, often from as far as Europe.

We then headed to something a little more upsetting. After the terrible terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center back in September 2001, ground zero has recently opened to the public as the 9/11 Memorial. We gave our donation and a sombre feeling took over. We couldn’t help but feel like we shouldn’t be doing this. We would never have been queuing up and getting out bags searched in airport-style scanners had this not have happened thirteen years ago. I felt a mix of emotions as we approached the 9/11 Memorial site. It was incredibly moving. The old sites of the North and South buildings were now square pits of cascading waterfalls with the names of the 3000 victims surrounding the edge. There was a touching tribute of laying a rose on victims’ names on their birthdate. It was a powerful memorial and in an ideal world, one that shouldn’t be a remembrance site but still be the twin towers. The two newest towers around the old site of ground zero have already been built (One WTC and WTC Seven) and the National 9/11 Memorial museum displaying photographs and artifacts from the tragedy is opening on the 21st May. Although we agreed that the memorial was executed in the most beautiful, poignant and respectful way, we still felt extreme sadness when leaving the site and decided to do something a bit more upbeat for the rest of the afternoon; a stroll through Central Park. It was a really hot, sunny day and this made the most famous park in NYC ridiculously busy. It was also Mother’s Day and the park was awash with families basking in the sunshine and celebrating at various festival-style stalls dotted around the humongous park. We decided to lay down on a hill near an American flag pole, a girl dancing into a video camera and a guy being dragged by a leash clasped around his neck. All very normal, sane stuff. Yep. After exploring more of the park and lake areas (including the one featured in the Stuart Little movie), we found ourselves near the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Heidi and Josie wanted a picture on the famous steps outside of this grand building (they were used a lot in the TV show Gossip Girl) and after a mini photoshoot on them, we headed back into Central Park to look over the stunning Resevoir Lake which engulfs a huge portion of the park. We grabbed some burritos and headed back to the flat to meet our host Matt. He is an incredibly friendly guy and extremely easy to get along with. We spent a good portion of the night getting to know him (he used to live in the Amish Mennonite community and was even asked to appear on the ‘Breaking Amish’ television show with his friends; Heidi immediately wished he was on there as she used to watch the show) and shared our travelling experiences so far.

The following day saw us head to 5th Avenue. The long strip of designer, high street and souvenir shops beckoned us and we ended up spending a lot of time and money there. After making sure our wallets were sufficiently empty, we headed to grab some food at Pax; a fresh salad and pasta diner where you choose what type of pasta you want, a sauce, three vegetables, a meat and then watch it cooked fresh in front of you. It was now dark and the beautifully lit Empire State building towered over us. We parted with the $29 fee to get up to the 87th floor observatory deck and began our ascent up the infamous tower. The view was absolutely incredible and made Manhattan look like a lit-up toy city. You could see for miles; North towards Times Square and Central Park, East towards Brooklyn, South towards the Statue of Liberty, which now looked miniscule in comparison to the skyscrapers, and West towards Jersey. It was well worth the money but at the same time it seemed crazy how such a man-made, concrete jungle can look so pretty.

We headed to the National History Museum the following morning to find out whether the animals really do come to life (damn you Night at the Museum!)… no okay we didn’t solely go for this purpose and revelled in the cultural and educational offerings of the massive museum. There werr Asian mammals, Aztec and the history of Mexican culture, African mammals and even DINOSAURS. I love dinosaurs. I just can’t get my head around the fact that something so big once roamed the Earth and we were treated to a real Tyrannosaurus Rex. What I do find crazy though is how we have this image of what dinosaurs looked like even though scientists have no idea what colour they were or what noise they made. We stopped off en route back to the apartment to pick up some alcohol ready for our night at the theatre. When we lived in Sydney we booked tickets for Of Mice and Men knowing that we’d be in New York for it. The night had finally arrived and we were all dressed up (the best we’ve looked in 8 months!) and ready to experience our first Broadway production. It starred Chris O’Dowd as Lennie, James Franco as George and Leighton Meester as Curly’s wife. The rest of the cast were also amazing and having never read or seen the play before, I absolutely loved it! We even got Chris O’Dowd’s autograph after the play!!

The next day meant another famous landmark in the city, Grand Central Station. We were all humming a certain Rihanna song, although it probably was the best one to pick (“Mama, I shot a man down.. in Central Station…”) and wandered around the beautiful transport station used in many films. Then we headed to somewhere else iconic. Something used a lot in a little known television programme called Friends. We caught the red line down to Christopher St station and walked around aimlessly, passing quaint streets and avoiding the  hundreds of pink leaves creating a snow-like flurry. After a few blocks we made it. On the corner of Bedford and Grove Street lies the famous exterior of the Friends apartment building used hundreds of times in the credits and scene setting shots. We took a lot of photos and one passer-by, who was American, stopped and asked us what we were doing. I simply answered in two words, ‘Friends building’ to which she seemed content. Nathan, Heidi and I then got alcohol (‘Sweet Bitch’ wine) and readied ourselves for a night out in New York City. Two hours later and after three different subway lines, we arrived in the east village area. It was a Wednesday night and it was proving difficult to find anywhere busy and lively. We tried an Irish pub (came all the way to NY…) and had a bottle of bud. We then found a bar/club a little further down the street which looked busier and had two guys outside commenting how our accents make us sound clever no matter what we say (a girl also got us to say ‘hamburger’ in the supermarket because she liked how we said it). After a few more drinks and scaring off an American girl by singing ‘No Scrubs’ a bit too loudly, we called it a night and began our long journey back to the flat.

A dry mouth and the feeling like I’d been ill for a week greeted me the following morning. We were still up before Josie somehow and feeling slightly fresh. We headed to Times Square for some lunch at Dallas BBQ (where they gave you a complimentary red velvet cupcake with the bill) and then headed to Brooklyn for the afternoon (well, late afternoon by this point). After experiencing a slightly run down area of Brooklyn, we decided to jump back on the subway and find somewhere a little bit safer. We got off at Bedford Avenue, a quirky, indie area reminiscent of Camden in London. We ended up at the park at the bottom of the road and watched a local softball game. En route back to the subway we spotted a thrift shop. We hadn’t been in one yet and this was our last full day travelling all together so we needed to go in. Cluttered. That’s probably the best word to describe this store, it had a lot of vintage clothing, cameras and artwork. We each bought something from there (I got shorts for $10!) and left Brooklyn in upbeat moods. We were then faced with the mammoth task of packing all of these new purchases from the past week into our already overflowing backpacks. I’ve finally thrown away some of my old, used-to-be-white-but-are-now-yellow t-shirts and walking boots to make space for everything else (it’s still a tight squeeze).

The day we’d all dreaded then arrived. The final day together travelling. It’s been an insane 237days with Heidi, Josie and Nathan and I can’t believe how quickly it has come around already! Feels like only a few weeks ago we waved bye to my parents at Heathrow. Their flight was at 9pm and I’m not flying to Miami until 8am the following morning. We decided to have a last supper together and Matt recommended this local Mexican restaurant. He took us on a walk around the block through a very English looking ‘village’ apartment complex. The touch of rain also added to the authenticity of the place! After our final meal together, we said our goodbyes to Matt, who has been a fantastic host, and headed to the airport. Two hours later and we arrived into John F. Kennedy airport where I’d be spending the next 14hours. I joined them on their final check-in and after one last smelly fart and a group picture, it was time to bid farewell to three of my best friends. It’s been an amazing 8 months (I’m gonna get more soppy and reminisce on my last ever blog in a couple of weeks) and I couldn’t have done it without them! I’m currently writing this whilst camping out in the domestic terminal waiting for my flight to Miami where I’ll be spending the next week. Luckily I’m meeting up with Sam and Tres, who we met in San Diego, and so I won’t be completely on my own for the first three days.