Bronx Zoo Tickets and Zoo map. 

Philadelphia Wrist band, receipt, and ticket for the Franklin Institute. As well as a Titanic boarding pass, handed out to you before entering the exhibit - the boarding pass featured the name of one of the real Titanic passengers, as well as their back story (reason for travel, etc). At the end of the exhibit you found out whether or not 'you' survived the sinking ship. Also, bus and train tickets and a business card for Sabrina's Cafe.

New York City The above is sort of a general NYC collection.  Places we ate: Hooters, Hard Rock Cafe, Buca di Beppo Places we visited & shopped. NBC Experience/Studio Tour, Harry Potter Experience, HBO Store (Game of Thrones bag) The Circle Line tour. Top of the Rock. Irish Famine Memorial.

9/11 Memorial T-shirt, Visitor pass and guide to the 9/11 Memorial site.

Empire State Building Souvenir guide book, Visitors guide, Observation deck ticket, skyride ticket, skyride sticker and photo op ticket. 

Museums: Natural History & Intrepid Tickets, floor plans and guides.

The alarms went off at 8:30 for the final time on the trip. We all lazed around, people got showered, packed some final things. Then it was time to say goodbye to 2606 (and 2602), head down to the Lobby and check out.

We had to be back at the hotel for just before 3pm, to get the shuttle to JFK, but we had a good few hours left before then, so we went for one last meal together, then had a walk around Times Square, and that general area, before going to get a drink and sitting on the Library steps for a bit. 

We got back to the hotel, got our bags (which they'd kept for us after we checked out), and the shuttle arrived to take us away. 

The drive was a lot less exciting on the way back, more tunnels, less bridges.

We made it to JFK.

Stuart had planned on stopping in London, to go to a friend's wedding. He was booked all the way through to Aberdeen, but when Paula checked everyone in the night before, she had purposely not checked him in on the Heathrow to Aberdeen flight. 

At the Self Check-in, it automatically checked him in to all the flights. He attempted to get out of it, but failed. Meaning he had to travel back to Aberdeen with us all (once through security, he started looking into alternate options for flying BACK to London the following day).

The good news is that everyone got their luggage in under weight limit (not something that was guaranteed with Paula & Hannah) and then came the wait for the plane. 

The entire journey home felt a LOT shorter than the journey there. Less hold-ups. 

On the flight back, I watched a heap of shows, but slept for only an hour. We were late getting into Heathrow, and a bunch of passengers had been told that they wouldn't be making their connections (but that they had been booked on later flights) - thankfully, we weren't one of those groups, but our connection time was still tight and we had no idea how long we would be at the border. 

I called my Mum to say we'd landed. She told me that the flight was delayed. Which made the whole thing a lot less rushed - and sure enough, bringing up the BA app, it told us the 8:55 flight had been delayed until 9:17.

We stopped by a WH Smith to get something to eat and then went and sat, waiting for the gate to be announced.

I hadn't eaten anything on the flight over - I didn't want either of the hot meal options, something the flight attendant couldn't seem to understand.

"This is the ONLY hot meal on the flight!" Aye, and it's not good, so no thanks.

Our gate was eventually called and it wasn't too far from where we were sitting, so we went over and took a seat there, then eventually, boarded.

The flight back to Aberdeen felt super short. Just as I was considering trying to get some more sleep, they announced the final approach. 

Once in the airport, we made our way to baggage claim - thankfully, everyone's bag made it. Mine was at the front of the queue, which was a nice surprise.

My mum came and took Paula and I home. Where I went almost straight to bed and slept for 12 hours.

--

New York isn't somewhere I've always wanted to go. There's stuff there that I've wanted to do, but the idea of travelling to the city to do them hasn't really appealed. I'm not a city person. At least, not when it comes to cities like New York. 

That said though, I did enjoy it and I wouldn't be opposed to visiting again, but I doubt I'd make it the focus point of a holiday again. 

There was a lot of talk of living in New York when we were there and I wouldn't ever want to do that. Out of the two cities we visited (New York & Philadelphia) I probably enjoyed Philadelphia more. It just felt... nicer.

This morning Ryan, Allan and me went to Yankee Stadium, while the others did shopping or something.

We headed to Grand Central, got out our metrocard, ready to go.

Nope.

Insufficient funds.

The cards ran out at midnight last night. A quick trip to a ticket machine and we were on our way.

Once there, we got to the street and looked around.

Where do you think it is?

Ryan turned around first - I think it’s there. Allan and I turned to see A MASSIVE STADIUM on the corner.

He was right.

The tour was pretty cool, we saw the museum, monument garden, dugout, and the locker room. I think if I was actually a baseball fan, I would have found it a lot more interesting than I already did. At the end they gave us a Yankees keyring as a souvenir. Which was unexpected.

The three of us made our way back to grand central, then did some shops, starting with the Apple Store in the station.

I then ended up spending $130 on tshirt at the NBC store. After that, I went to the HBO store and headed back to the hotel.

When I got back, the door was slightly open, due to the latch being closed before the door.

A sudden panic set in, did it close like that when we left this morning, was the room going to be empty when I opened the door? Fuuuuckkkkk.

Opened the door. Stuart was lying on the bed. Hannah and Paula were due back soon, he didn’t want to have to get up to let them in. Lazy.

Hannah and Paula came back and we sat for a. Bit, before going and meeting Allan and Ryan at Times Square.

From there, we went to Madame Tussauds.

It was a lot creepier than I thought it would be, but still, pretty fun.

After, I went to Hard Rock again to pick up a tshirt, then back to the hotel before dinner.

Back at the hotel, the clouds darkened and then. LIGHTNING! The whole gang gathered in our room - best view - to watch the lightning. We watched it for far too long then headed to an Italian place for food.

The place was good but everything was double portions meant to share. It worked out well, but was confusing at first.

After dinner, Tain and I walked back to the hotel, while the others did some snack shopping. Stuart was first back, he’d been caught in the start of a shower. A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door. I answered, both Hannah and Paula were stood there, soaked. Looking sorry for themselves.

Today we all woke up pretty early (for us), got dressed and headed out to the Empire State Building. We wanted to get there early-ish to avoid any massive queues, which I'm glad we did, because walking through what would have been the queue area made me think about just how awful it'd be to have to wait in it. Though, if we did wait in the queue, we would have seen all the information/museum boards, which would have been interesting - instead, we walked right by them.

The views from the 86th floor (we didn't go all the way up, cause it would have cost extra) were impressive. We walked around, taking photos and generally taking in the views for a bit, before heading down, exiting through the gift shop, as is customary at all attractions. 

On the way down, we were looking for the SkyRide, something we had free entry to with the passes. We ended up on the ground floor, before being told it was back up the way. We eventually found it and got on. 

It wasn't good. But it was so not good, that it was actually kind of good. Kevin Bacon narrated it, so, y'know, there's that.

After the Empire State, we went to find something to eat. Everyone apart from Hannah, Acloud and I were going to WrestleMania in the afternoon/evening, so we needed to get something quick, together, before they left.  We settled on the Tick-Tock diner, which was (and I'm sure still is) right next to Penn Station (where they'd be getting their train to Wrestlemania from). At the diner, we, pretty much, all had breakfast foods. Pancakes, etc. It was good. Allan and Acloud ended up sitting alone, cause they could only sit six of us together. It all worked out in the end though.

After, we said our goodbyes and the three of us left in New York headed back to our hotel to get organised, drop off stuff we bought at The Empire State building, all that kind of stuff. Once we'd done that, we all went to the NBC store and booked tickets for the Studio Tour - We had thought to do it the next day, but they couldn't fit us in, so we ended up booking for Tuesday.

Then Hannah abandoned us. 

Acloud and I walked up to Central Park and explored it a little more than we had the previous time. I'd marked a couple things on the map that I wanted to check out, so we hit them. Hannah was meeting with her friend from Uni, she text to say she was done and we arranged to meet.

We had talked about getting a night-time bus tour of the city, by the time we got to the ticket office, there was a bus due to leave not long after, so we bought the tickets and got on. 

We went upstairs and sat at the back, an old woman came and gave us headphones, it later turned out that she wasn't just the headphone giver, she was also the tour guide. Her name was Marge - or at least, that's what Hannah decided her name was.

Marge was obsessed with food, not any particular food, just food in general. Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian, Italian, Mexican... She never shut up about food, except to talk about Jay-Z.

As we were driving through Brooklyn, she noted "Hip-hop fans may want to take a look to the right now, that building is the high school that Jay-Z attended. I'm not sure if he graduated, but..."

Acloud missed out on all of Marge's little gems, as he'd taken out his headphones. When Marge wasn't talking, she was breathing. Loudly. Down the mic. Sounding like something from the Ring. 

I miss Marge.

After the tour, we decided we'd just grab a McDonald's. We had thought about getting a pizza delivered to the hotel, but in the end, we were tired and just wanted food. Now. We stopped by Walgreen's, then McDonald's and went back to the room. 

We lay and watched TV for a bit, before kicking Acloud out of our room, back to his and getting into bed. 

I have vague recollections of Paula and Stuart coming into the room, but don't remember them getting into bed or anything.

Today I lay in bed while everyone else got ready around me, they were all going to some car show which I had zero interest in.

Once they left, I got up, took a shower and attempted to skype my mum. She wasn’t on skype though, so ended up texting her a bit.

When I was finally ready, I left the hotel and ventured down Fifth Avenue, until I reached Madison Square Park, where I sat for a bit, taking some photos. I then crossed the street and took some photos of the Flatiron building.

Stuart had talked about a mural of a GTA5 poster on the side of a building, I looked at my map and it was only two blocks over from where I was (and south), so I decided to go that way.

It wasn’t nearly as big as I thought it was, but I took a picture anyway and carried on. Walking through the west village. I stopped at another park, where a guy was playing piano. Also while there, I swear I heard a fire engine go “nee-naw nee-naw”.

I continued walking, eventually ending up in Battery Park City. There, I saw a weird, out-of-place mound, with a path leading up it, covered in heather and stuff. Confused, I walked around, looking for an entry. There were quotes on the wall, but nothing to say what it was.

There was an entry point at the back, I went inside and saw a box of leaflets. ‘Irish Famine Memorial’. I walked up the meandering path and saw, for the first time, the Statue of Liberty.

I walked down the esplanade a bit before taking a seat looking out over the Hudson. From there, I heard snippets of conversations, from runners going past.

One guy announced, to his running friend, that he and his girlfriend had got engaged. His mate seemed genuinely pleased.

Another running pair had one guy telling the other that “A famine is where there’s no food and everyone dies.” - while true, I fear for a world where people who look to be in their thirties don’t already know that.

It was, I thought, getting close to the time I was due to meet everyone, so I went to see if I could find a starbucks to get wifi, to see of they had WhatsApp’d me. While on the look out, I passed the Ground Zero memorial site. The queue was huge, we had planned on doing it, but I really didn’t think it’d happen.

I found wifi, then also got a text from Hannah. They were pretty much done, but would still be another 30mins or so.

I went up some steps for what I thought was just an overpass, but it turned out to be an entrance into One World Financial Center. In there, I found a starbucks, got myself a drink and a egg sandwich and sat down. There, I ended up in a skype phonecall with Debbie.

After a while, I headed back out onto the esplanade, where I walked south. I sat down and got Mother text from Hannah. They were on their way, where was I?

Things got a bit confusing, but I found them all in the end and we walked up to the WTC memorial again. The queue was a lot smaller the it had been, but it was still huge. We decided to just hit up the museum.

At the museum though, they asked if we wanted passes for the memorial - it’s free, but they have passes for crowd control. We said yes and did the museum (hello nosebleed) and then went back across the road for the actual memorial.

It’s a really nice area, I just hope that once everything is built, they open it up properly. Even reading the names of the dead, it was still really hard to link the park with two fountains to everything that happened on 9/11.

From there, we went to Wall Street, then got a subway back to the hotel for a bit, before going to Hooter for food, we had lost Acloud to a sore head„ so it was just the seven of us.

After Hooter, we walked down a few blocks and saw Jurassic Park in IMAX 3D. Worth every one of the twenty dollars.