The Last Transit

20th: Forgetting everything about time zones, I thought I would be able to sleep, so around 23, I took out my contact lenses and closed my eyes to sleep, however it was then announced that the descend would begin shortly, and I remembered everything about timezones, put in a new pair of contact lenses, and landed in Dublin.

21st: I had a wait from 5 in the morning (Dublin time) to 16.50 before my plane would leave for Malaga, so I simply sat around in a comfy leather chair, and read in my book Kite Runner, and sat still daydreaming when I got tired of reading, but the wait was indeed excruciatingly slow, but time didn't stop, the plane came, I boarded and read the in-air shopping magazine for 3 hours, until I landed in Malaga, and this is where it got fun.
I waited at the luggageline until it stopped going round, and then I knew my luggage had been lost, but I trudged on, complained everywhere, until I was told that I could find my luggage in Terminal 2. So I went outside, had a heart hello with my mother and stepfather, went over to get my rucksack, and I was officially home, now I just need to go back to Denmark, before I feel I can call my journey complete.

Postscript:

Apparently I forgot to turn subscription on for my time in America, so here are those posts:

From The D, To The C!
New York Solo
New York Duo
Windswept In Chicago
Boston

Boston

17th:

I landed around 11.30, my bag came out very fast, and in no time I was on the metro on my way to my hostel. The hostel is fairly central, and very nice, with a great selection of cheap places to eat around. However I had plenty of time left, it was still early-ish (14 or so), by the time I left. So I decided to go to Cambridge to see Harvard and MIT. The universities aren't exactly pretty, Harvard is better looking than MIT, but still awfully bland, a sort of failed federal architectural style. There wasn't the air of education around the places either, however I do know that I am dealing with two of the best universities in the world, I am just relaying my experience.

I was back at the hostel around 17.15, and killed the time until it was 19 o'clock, and a group of people assembled in the lobby, I had signed up for a free comedy show (Celtics played the LA Lakers in the finals of the NBA, so the comedy club must have known that they had to do something drastic), and went along with 9 other people to "The Comedy Connection" for an evening of laughter (or so I thought); the first 3 comedians weren't funny, the jokes were poor; but the final 3 comedians, were brilliant, and I laughed till I cried, and so did most people present.

After the show all of us headed back to the hostel, and I fell in conversation with Amelia from Austin (Texas), and we ended up watching Fawlty Towers together, until late in the night. She had to get up early, as she had to go to an introductory course, she would soon start studying here in Boston, and it was late anyway, so I just went to bed and slept.

18th:

I got up very late, but as always, eventually got around. I spent the entire day walking along the Freedom Trail, entering all the museums (free one's anyway), and lingering at many of the beautiful sights. I didn't do a lot of different things, but I learned a lot about Boston history; Boston Common, State House, Park St Church, Granary Burying Ground, King's Chapel, Old South Meeting House (Boston Tea Party), Boston Massacre, Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere House, Old North Church, Hill Burying Ground are just among the things I saw on my trip around the city. Near the North Square I had a most amazing sandwich, not just the best sandwich, but an amazing Cuban sandwich at that.

In the evening I stayed in at the hostel, watched a movie and didn't do much; for dinner I had a sandwich from the nextdoor place, very tasty indeed.

19th:

I started by eating breakfast at the hostel (this was the only day I had been up early enough to eat breakfast), and then walked to Fenway Park, home of the red sox, and waited 40 minutes for the next tour to start. The tour was really good, and I suddenly got a crash course in baseball, and now know slightly more. The tour took quite a long time, so afterwards I signed up for a sneak preview of Wanted, and walked around Copley (a part of Boston) and tried to get to the observation deck of the Prudential Tower (tallest building in Boston), but couldn't as it had been rented for a private arrangement.

When i came back to the hostel, it was time to go to the cinema, so at the cinema I bought some popcorn, and watched a movie, which is one of my favourite movies ever, that movie really rocked my world, it had everything. A lot of people will undoubtedly draw comparisons to The Matrix, but disregard that, this movie is completely separate, and if anything, the only comparison is the blue collared guy hating his life; and The Matrix didn't exactly pioneer that idea.

Not much else happened, I went back to the hostel and ate some dinner, did nothing for a couple of hours and went to bed.

20th:

Last day, oh what to do? At 11 o'clock I checked up, stored my rucksack in a locker; and went out to see the view from the skydeck, the Prudential Tower isn't the tallest building in Boston anymore, but has the highest observation deck, and having the tallest building in the view is amazing, it is like a giant mirror. The ticket to the top of the Prudential Tower was 10 dollars, whereas both Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center charge 20 dollars, a nice change. The tour also included a free audiotour (but unfortunately it was quite boring), but the view was fantastic, better than the Chicago view and more stunning than the New York view.

After the tower I went to the Boston Apple Store, the largest Apple store in the world, and it really is enormous, 3 times the size of the flagstore on 5th avenue, 3 big levels. Both the most of the rest of the day, not much was accomplished; the Lonely Planet didn't have many suggestions, other than those I didn't have time for, so I sat around at the hostel, read in my book, and did random stuff to pass the time.

Eventually it was time, and when I was about to leave an English girl was headed to the airport as well, so we went there together, I never learned her name, but she was from Brighton Beach. Check-in was easy, and even though I bought my tickets separately, they checked me in all the way. After not much of a wait, I boarded the plane and left the States.

Windswept In Chicago

12th:
After all those hectic days with AS i New York, I needed nothing as much as I needed rest, and getting my pulse down. So the whole day, I did nothing but go out to buy groceries for lunch and dinner, and a bit later I went out and bought a Rough Guide to Chicago. Lonely Planet is bringing out a new Chicago book soon, but in the meantime all bookstores have run out of supply, so I had to go with a different brand, the maps aren't as good, the descriptions vague and bland, but it has some nice highlights, such as 22 things to do in Chicago.

13th:

Time to do something, but first I had to move hostel, the first hostel I stayed in was wonderful, but they didn't have any free beds for the 13th when I booked, so for this one night I had to go somewhere else. I got my rucksack stores at the hostel, and took a train some 30 minutes north. Once there I checked in, and went back out to see the city. I down south of Chicago to see the Museum of Science and Industry. There are no metro lines nearby (Chicago both has a Metro and a Metra system, just to keep it confusing), so I took a train to 51st street and walked about 2 miles (3 km) east, first through a neighbourhood with boarded windows, dead parks (dead vegetation) and split by a motorway. I got to a big park, walked through it, and stepped out in a completely different world.

On the other side was the University of Chicago, along with a big campus made out of old classical buildings for the rest of the walk, where I sat down and had a sandwich in a Greek restaurant, and then went on to the museum. The museum is quite nice, but has a few incredibly outdated exhibits (such as the one on Internet, and those involving technology), but the exhibit featuring the actual U-505, a Nazi submarine captured in 1944, was amazing. There is a tour inside the submarine, but when I arrived, the last tickets had already been sold out, to my immense grief. I had though instead paid 5 dollars to try a navy flight simulator, the box you sat inside, moved according to how you flew, so I completely disregarded the mission I was supposed to carry out, and just did barrelrolls, loops and messed about, but hanging upside down, being tossed from side to side etc. is incredible fun.

After the museum, the metro station was of course far away, so instead of going back to the one I came from, I decided to go to one further away, so that I could see parts of Chicago I hadn't seen before, instead of going through what I had already seen. Unfortunately for me it started to rain; so I sat down in a busstop and waited it out. Eventually it stopped and I proceeded to the metro station, where a peculiar sight met me. A huge white guy, trained to the point where his arms might just burst from the size of his muscles, sat down on a chair and pulled out his pink iPod mini...

Back at the hostel, I bought some food to make for dinner, and stayed there the rest of the evening, mostly talking to an Irish guy.

14th:
It was a clear blue day, so I hoped the view from the Sears tower would be superb. So I bought a discount ticket from the hostel reception (4 USD off) and went there, with my prepaid ticket, I got to zoom past all the queue's, waiting lines for the information movie and skip the queue to the elevator, and since it was a Saturday, the place was packed with people, so I probably saved over an hour. Once I got up, I was met by a crowd of Amish like people, everyone dressed in those 16th-17th century American farmer clothes, looking down on us (because the rest of them weren't as pure as them in their faith, or in my case, had no faith at all); only one thing bothers me. If they are so pure and righteous because they live by the old ways as they believe good intended, what are they doing in an architectural marvel, that not only used to be the worlds highest building, but still is the western hemisphere's highest building and the worlds tallest man-made structure (due to the antenna's), looking over a beautiful city from the 103rd floor... Doesn't that go against their beliefs?

The view was gorgeous none the less, unlike Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center, the viewpoint is encased in glass, there is no open air view, as the winds are ferocious certain times of the year at street level in Chicago (known as The Windy City), so imagine at 1500 feet up (some 450 meters). As I had hoped it was also a very clear day, so supposedly we could see up to 50 miles away (80 km), that is what they told us at least. Down on the ground floor again, I walked along the waterway of the Loop (the centre of Chicago), until I came to Michigan avenue, one of the worlds biggest retail streets known as the "Magnificent Mile", where I fell to the pleasure of entertainment and watched Kung Fu Panda, a funny and amusing movie, although I do think Jack Black was rather miss-cast.

After the movie I walked to the Navy Pier, and what a disgusting place that is; I'm sure it used to be charming, but it is just a long line of junk food and screaming kids, I didn't walk far before I turned around and walked back to the hostel along the shore. Once I got back to the hostel it was already fairly late, so I decided to check my emails and then cook dinner, but while I was checking my emails I fell in conversation with the person next to me, an American named Bob. And before I knew it, it was 2 in the morning, I hadn't eaten yet and I was just too tired to anything but go to bed. But I had great fun talking to Bob, and I believe it was both ways.

15th:

Cultural time, after waking up just in time to catch breakfast (as per usual), I headed towards the Chicago Institute of Art, supposedly one of the finest of its kinds. Entrance was modestly priced for the states (12 here, as opposed to 20 or more most places), and the museum good. There was a truly amazing photographic exhibition alongside other things, and the permanent collection. Unfortunately much of the museum was closed off due to renovations, including the American art from 1900 to 1950, which I had really been looking forward to see. For some reason I was very exhausted, I had had plenty of sleep (7 hours) and a hearty breakfast, so I really didn't understand. However I soldiered on, and very much enjoyed the section with sculptures and different objects from the ancient Greece, Italy and Egypt.

The amount of museum closed was enormous, it wasn't half, but somewhere around 30%, including the parts that I wanted to see most, but such is life.
When I left the museum, I was feeling rather peckish (bananas, cornflakes and toasted bread won't last forever), so I went to a place called the bakery corner, bought a scramble-egg, bacon, ham and cheese sandwich (sounds like it was designed for me), which I brought back to the hostel and happily devoured while I watched The Golden Compass. At the beginning of my trip, I had listened through the 3 books in the series on my iPod. The biggest problem with audiobooks is that you have to pay full attention, you can't have it running in the background; lucky for me, there were plenty of busrides for me, so I have a clear memory of the books. Now the movie takes a great book, cuts away 60-70% of it, changes the order in which occurrences take place, dumbs down the story, flattens the characters and cuts of the last couple of chapters, giving it an indecisive end. That it still manages to be a good and entertaining movie, just tells something about the quality of the book...

While I had been waiting for my sandwich to be made, a woman with her boyfriend and I assume brother, had left the place. She had been rolling a baby stroller, but what I discovered was that there was no baby in it, she was rolling around her dog, and I almost cringed in pain, at seeing just how pathetic people get. That dog is more suited for walking, than she will ever be; in fact dogs that never walk fall ill far more easily than humans who never move. People generally have to wear shoes to walk around outdoors, whereas dogs are extremely comfortable with their paws, it just shows a sign that dogs are far more suited for the outdoor world; it's like those women who carry around their dogs in their handbags, why?

I cooked dinner and met some really cool Irish guys (all Irish guys seem to be), followed by yet another cinema visit, where I watched The Incredible Hulk, quite a good movie, with great acting, and I just can't help to think about how happy Liv Tyler must be that she doesn't look like her father. When the movie was done I went back to my hostel and went to sleep.

16th:

At 10.30 a lot of people assembled (10 or so) at the information desk, where an intern from the hostel, Amanda, picked us up and took us for a tour around Wicker Park, a really beautiful part of Chicago where High Fidelity was recorded, so after seeing all the beautiful buildings, learning about the history etc. we saw some of the places from High Fidelity and went for lunch, where I had salmon Benedict, what an amazing idea for lunch!

When I got back from Wicker Park (when the other went back, I stayed around with 2 Irish guys), I took a short break and then went to the Shedd Aquarium, since the previous day, that museum along with two others had been free, and I felt very fortunate that I didn't have to pay for that gargantuan disappointment. However afterwards I went to the Addler Planetarium, which was a museum about the moonlanding, very good and interesting (and another free place). But most importantly, it offered the greatest view over Chicago's skyline. When I was done with all this, it was quite late, so I went back to the hostel for an early night, I had to get up early next morning for my flight to Boston.

17th:

ALERT! ALERT!
I woke up 45 minutes late, rushed out of the hotel and had to buy a kitkat chunky so that I would have change for the metro. I made it to the airport, and barely made the check-in in time, but made it. I went through the normal procedure of entering an airport (including removing your shoes) and boarded the plane, off to the Irish capital (Boston).

New York Duo

5th of June:

After much trouble, going the wrong places and annoying people who might know where I should go (JFK is a navigational nightmare), I found the right arrival location, and after 5 small minutes the passengers started arriving. It took quite a while, but eventually Anne Sophie (my sister) walked out and a happy scene broke out. That put behind us, we sat down and each ate half of our Cuban sandwich and set off back to the hostel.

The ride is quite far, JFK is in the outer region of Queens and Harlem is quite far norh on Manhattan, it took nearly two hours to get back, where we checked in (I hadn't checked in earlier, as I didn't have enough money on me), dumped our stuff and caught the first train back into town. The first time you see Times Square is always the best, even though you have seen it plenty of times in movies and pictures, it is remarkable, even when having grown up in a western country with all the goods of capitalism, it is stunning... Piccadilly Circus can't prepare you for it.

Before going back to sleep, we visited some of the biggest stores there. The M&M worldstore where 22 different colours can be bought alongside any imaginable souvenir. The Virgin mega-megastore and numerous other places. Dinner was easily sorted; I ate a pizza slice, and my sister (henceforth known as AS) wasn't hungry. Not only is a Cuban sandwich very heavy, her flight was the first direct flight from Malaga to New York, so it was a celebratory flight with lots and lots of food (and champagne).

6th of June:

AS insisted on an early morning, "I don't want to waste time" she says... And then she walks at a pace that reminds me of a 112 year old crippled person hooked up to a life support system trying to run a marathon... THAT slow. But we took a metro back to Times Square, and I did something I hadn't succumbed to so far on my trip, something so low it had never even entered my mind... We bought tickets to a doubledecker city tour, ought a combo package, and took a downtown tour, with a hilarious guide, who was very articulate on took us on an amazing tour through the districts. Everything from Nolita and Little Italy (where Bobby Milk or by his better known name Robert De Niro grew up) to The Fashion District (where AS was bouncing in her seat) and the UN building. Along the way we also saw a scene from a movie being shot, where Sandra Bullock was out acting (or the closest she can come) alongside some other actor, known to Americans, but not outside.

After the tour we (AS) went shopping and I trudged along, into shops with all kinds of clothing (and some without), until I saw a cinema, where the two of us dropped in to see Zohan, a thoroughly enjoyable movie, although really overgeared and unrealistic, although that is the point.

We then took the Train to the South Ferry hoping to see the Statue of Liberty, but the last one sails at 16, and that time had long since passed, so we started walking back up north towards Manhattan and stopped at a bakery, where I had a genuine cinnamon roll (kanel snegl), which was very high quality, and wouldn't be a bad find in Denmark. We then continued on and I got to show Wall Street and ground zero to AS.

It had by this time gotten really late, and we decided to go a place recommended to me on Cuba, a place called "Frank's" on second avenue between 5th and 6th street, however the queue was horribly long (friday night). So instead we walked to the place I had eaten dinner the night I went to the Bell X1 concert, where I had a fabulous pizza cabonara (tomato sauce, cheese, bacon and egg) and AS enjoyed a simple salad (she wasn't hungry apparently).

On the way there we came past a video game store, selling just about everything from the first video game console ever, to the latest stuff. A giant collection of NES, SNES, PSX, PS2 and Dreamcast games (of old consoles), Commodores, different gameboys with games, Atari's etc.
It was a wonderful place, I would really wish there was something like that in Denmark.

7th of June:

First thing we wanted to do was go see MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), so we first dropped by fifth avenue (it's very close) and looked in some of the different stores, including a giant really cool looking Apple store, with as many people working there, as there were customers. It was followed by a visit to an Abercrombie & Fitch store, where at the front entrance there was a topless (male) model you could have pictures taken with, and every where inside the shop were other fully clothed models that kept saying "welcome".

AS went to see MoMA (I saw the reception) while I walked around the surrounding area looking at upscale New York, as well as same not so nice parts, had a quick stroll into Central Park, and then in no time the 2 hours were up (we had agreed to meet up again after 2 hours). AS is an art buff, but even she was a bit disappointed with MoMA, apparently she had hoped to see more Roy Lichtenstein.

Following up, we headed to the South Ferry again to try and go to the Statue of Liberty, only to discover that the combo bus-tour/boat ticket we had bought didn't cover this boat, but another one that we wouldn't be able to reach in time. So we decided to go and do the uptown tour to Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Harlem and generally anything north of 49th street. Getting off the subway walking the last part, we saw a police officer with a small bird on his shoulder, and I was about to ask if I could take a picture of it, when he himself suddenly discovered it and tried to get rid of it, using his hat to knock it off. All he succeded in was getting the bird into the hat, causing come confusion until finally it flew away.

We boarded the uptown bus tour, andit was just as good as the downtown tour; the guide was very kind and informative, and somehow had a passion for what he was doing. We saw the worlds largest cathedral, got sprayed from a firepost (someone had taken the cap off, and sprayed the bus), the building where John Lennon got shot and Yoko Ono lives today and the many hills of Manhattan.

Done with the tour, the same old question arose "now what?". So we grabbed a metro to Brooklyn Heights, grabbed a bit of lunch and an ice cream, saw the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, walked around in DUMBO, saw the tube to London, walked to the nearby parks and sat down watching some picture taking of a happy newly married couple. On the way back we saw the Jehovah's Witnesses Watchtower and walked back across the Brooklyn Bridge, which in this late day light was far more beautiful then when I had walked across it. Needless to say, I took a lot of pictures once again.

Back at our hostel, neither of us felt hungry for dinner, so both of us went to bed without.

8th of June:

This morning we went straight to South Ferry first thing, bought our tickets and joining the fast moving queue, and in not time we were sailing out towards the Statue of Liberty... It is quite small, far smaller than you imagined, although more or less everybody is disappointed with the size of The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen. It is beautiful none the less, and truly is a sight to behold, not just because of the skill in making it, but also what it stands for, and what is has stood for for so long, for all the immigrants coming to America. However we decided not to land on the island or Ellis Island, there isn't much to see and we didn't feel like it, so we just took a circuit and came back to Manhattan.

Ate breakfast/lunch and took the train up to Central park, trailing around there for quite a while before coming upon the Puerto Rico national day celebration, the second biggest parade in New York (surpassed by the Gay Pride parade). Never in my entire life have I seen so many people dressed up as "hood gangsters" or in tshirts proclaiming love towards Puerto Rico, and blocking up all of Fifth Avenue for an entire day (one of the biggest streets in New York) is by far overdoing it, nice for the Puerto Ricans, but a hassle for everyone else.

Having rounded round that, we took a train to the Museum of Natural History (the one from A Night At The Museum with Ben Stiller), and started out by watching a movie called "Cosmic Collisions" in IMAX format voiced by Robert Redford, it was informative but mostly just darn beautiful, showing huge collisions between Earth and a smaller planet (creating the moon), the Milky Way and the Androma galaxy crashing together and so on, and so forth.

Outside the cinema, AS and I walked around the museum till it closed at 17.45 (two hours later), and saw a life size model of a blue whale (needless to say it is FREAKING huge), endangered animals that have been stuffed and confiscated (such as a stuffed animal), a collection of giant worms, spiders and other huge disgusting animals and a lifesize model of a jellybox fish (worlds most poisonous being) amongst tons and tons of animals. I then huried up to the fourth floor to the dinosaur skeletons, their collection is enormous (I know the real ones aren't on display) and so were the dinosaurs, animals that big always intrigue me (likewise for the blue whale). Coming from a country where the most dangerous animal is a chicken (salmonella), seeing animals larger then a fox (or deer in protected areas) is very unusual, so jumping from cute fuzzy creatures to a giant carnivore like a T-rex or an even bigger Broncosaurus is mindnumbing. The museum also has a very good conservation department, outlining the effects of environmental destruction and what gone be done to help the planet, it houses a big exhibition on how the planet was created, from the beginning of the sun, to the formation of earth's rocks, the mountains, seas and current state of government; what interested me the most was the part of an extremely old ice core drilled up on Greenland.

When we left the Museum of Natural History we left for a slow trip to Piola the mastery pizzeria, where this time AS was up for a full pizza. I had the same Pizza Carbonara and AS had a pizza with rucola salad, mozzarella and tomatoes. Having eaten our most wondrous dinner (AS most of the time gaping at the TV behind me, an idea common in South America, the buzz draws you) we went for one of those "must" experiences in NY, a trip to the top of the Empire State Building. And although it is most common to do in daylight, we went up there in the dark, and had a gorgeous view. Suddenly there was thunder and lightning, without a tripod it is near impossible to capture, but what it meant was rain, and that we had to go inside until the bad weather had passed, and so we did. It was quite a while before we were let out again, but still the views were stunning, New York is always lit and it looks gorgeously so.

By the time we got out it was quite late (had to wait inside for 30 minutes, and sitting down wasn't allowed), but our plan had always been to go back to our hostel in Harlem and get a good nights sleep.
The pizzeria is Italian owned and most of the people who work there (waiters, chefs, all of them) are in fact Italian, so the European Championship in Football was a big deal, and they handed out scorecards so people  could keep track and everything. Being a pizzeria AS thought, that it was the European Championship in Pizza, and was keen to know how it worked. Looking around the room she saw football shirts for nearly all countries in the cup (Sweden missing) and must have assumed that they were for the chefs...
On the way back on the train, 3 people were sleeping (strangers to each other) leaning up against each other, two of them woke up, and the woman in the middle found a strangers head on her shoulder, and tried for quite some time to wake him up, as she was uncomfortable with it. In the end another man present grabbed his arm, and shook him awake.

9th of June:

At first we went to the Rockefeller Center and went to "The Top Of The Rock", as their observation deck is called, and the daylight view is stunning, but in a different way from the night view. But having the Empire State Building in the dayview, was very nice, and I was glad that we had done it in this way.

Afterwards we went to the New York Academy of Medicine, said to held a part of the first batch of penecilin made, George Washington's dentures and a pair of leper clappers (used by lepers to alarm a village of their arrival), but upon arriving we were told that why the place did indeed posses those, they are not on display, and can only be seen by appointment, if doing relevant research.

So we went down to Fifth Avenue and the SE (South East) corner of Central Park, where while AS did some Abercrombie & Fitch shopping (don't know if she entered other shops), I sat in Apple's flagship store and watched Steve Jobs unveiling the iPhone 3G live. I also entered a huge toystore next to it, where they had a wealth of collectors items and other cool items related to Harry Potter, Narnia, Lord of the Rings and other similarly themed movies (fantasy movies generally).

When AS came back we went to 14th street, where the great regal cinema is, we each bought a ticket, I a ticket to Iron Man at 7:10 and AS a ticket for What Happens in Vegas at 7:40. All of this was more than 2 hours away, so we sat down for some lunch, and afterwards I read in my book and wrote postcards while AS went shopping in Forever 21 (at the table next to me was a man who farted VERY loudly quite frequently, for a long long time). About 30 minutes before my movie was set to begin AS returned, we walked to a pharmacy for some movie sweets (outrageous price inside the cinema) and on the way back (she would go do some more shopping) I came past a teddy bear 'Domo Kun", which I bought without a moments hesitation. I met another person doing the same, who was seeing the same movie as me at the same time, so we talked all the way to the cinema, and during the commercials. The movie itself is a masterpiece of a superhero movie, it is wonderful, I really like all these movies I am watching.

When I went outside I only roamed for about 5 minutes before AS's movie was done and she came out, she had also really enjoyed her movie. None of us were hungry, so we want back to the hostel without dinner and slept.

10th of June:

AS was determined to do some shopping, we took a train to Macy's department store, but believe it or not, they didn't have what she wanted, so we walked to Times Square where AS did some shopping and I bought a pair of Levi's jeans (505). We also went into the giant Virgin store there and browsed a bit about. We ended up walking a very long way to a Ralph Lauren store, where AS wanted to buy a polo shirt for our mother.

We then wanted to go to the Bodies exhibition, took a train there, ate lunch and decided not to see the Exhibition, it might have been a lot, but fairly priced is not one of them. So instead we walked to Brooklyn, ate a wonderful ice cream, looked into the London tube and found a park, where we spent 2 hours doing nothing much, just lying down on the grass relaxing. About 10 meters from us, was a guy doing some sort of crazy Yoga (or something), moving into what I thought would be impossible postures.

For dinner we took the metro to Second Avenue and walked up to between 5th and 6th street, where we found Frank's, a place that had been recommended to me in Cuba by an American, and I dare say, that was one astonishingly good ravioli, there wasn't a lot of it (rather the opposite), but it tasted oh so yummy.
It was rather late when we were done, and none of us had packed, this was the last full day in NYC, so we headed home.

11th of June:

What happens when you are for once, not in a hurry to get out the door and seize the day? We stayed for quite some time at the hostel, but eventually checked out and left our bags there, and then headed for the glorious Central Park. We walked around for a very long time (even with a map, getting lost is a given), but eventually came upon our goal in the park, Strawberry Fields Memorial to John Lennon. It is a part of the park, but at the very memorial itself is a mosaic in the ground, a round circle with the word "IMAGINE" in the middle. Like the previous day in the park, we stayed for a while, relaxing on the grass, and watching Japanese people photograph every square-inch of the area.

One thing I had regretted not doing, was trying a Grimaldi's pizza, supposedly the best pizza in New York, both by word of mouth, and by the number of awards they have won. We took a train, and this time, there was no queue (last time we had tired, it had been horribly long) and we got seated straight away. The pizza was excellent, although not the best pizza I have ever had (oh sweet Puerto Natales), the place was fantastic though, "I'm gonna make you a pizza you can't refuse" poster, the Italian red/white tablecloths, the coal fired pizza oven, everything was just so authentic.

Afterwards we took a train to Union Square, where AS bought me a pair of Converse as a thank you for paying for her ticket to NY, and then we went back to the hostel, relaxed for half an hour or so, grabbed our bags and headed to the airport. First AS checked in in terminal 1, and then followed me to terminal 6, an entire terminal exclusive to JetBlue, quite stylish. But whereas AS's check-in had been extremely fast, mine took ages. It came through though of course, and we said goodbye to each other, although we would see each other again in 10 days.