NYC to Boston

08/06/16

After an early morning start we flew smoothly from Iceland into New York JFK, sadly greeted by torrential rain. We got our cab to the hostel, which was located on Amsterdam Avenue, not far from Times Square. We were slightly apprehensive due to the fact the security officer in the JFK airport told us that we were staying in the 'hood' of the city, and that we should not wear nice clothes or jewellery and keep our phones in our bags. However when we arrived it seemed a pretty safe neighbourhood and the hostel was pretty good. On the evening we headed into Times Square for a bite to eat, TGI Fridays.. so adventurous, then had a wander around the shops. The metro system is SO confusing. With us being from the North, we are already dumb when it comes to underground public transport, but this system was much more confusing than the London tube. After much confusion and help from friendly locals we made it there and back safely.

Time Square

09/06/16

Next day was day 2 of NYC and we were up early for a full day of site seeing. As we were only in NYC for 2 nights we made sure we were gonna cram as much as we could into this day. First we went to Fifth Avenue, which is the main shopping street of the city, about 2 miles long full of shops. We went into about 5 MAC and Sephora stores, and died at all the make up and how cheap it was compared to the UK. Located further down this street was the Empire State building, which from the bottom wasn't too impressive but as we were on a tight budget we didn't decide to go up it unfortunately. We then headed on the metro (again with thanks to a friendly local who saw us in need) to South Ferry, where the Statue of Liberty is located. We saw the hun from across the Hudson River.  Next we walked to the 9/11 memorial, which had an eerie feel to it. We felt it was right to pay our respects to all the people who lost their lives in the tragedy. We went to Central Park, which is a huge park in the city which has loads of nice walks, fields for sport and a zoo. We stumbled upon a baseball tournament so chilled on the grass watching and comparing it to our fave school p.e lesson - rounders. Next up we headed on the metro back to Times Square for one last wander around. We were out and about for 12 hours but it was so so good and I can't wait to go back in the future and explore further.

Central park

10/06/16

Another early morning meeting the tour company, Contiki, at a nearby hotel for the start of our tour around North America/Canada. Off we went to Boston in Massachusetts stopping in Rhode Island for lunch and also visited Yale University. We were excited to be in an actual hotel room with our own double beds, which was SO nice after staying in hostels! First night in Boston, we went out for dinner at this restaurant called Dicks Last Resort, where basically the staff are paid to be 'dicks'.. so they are purposely rude and throw napkins and stuff at you, shout in your face... make you feel on edge the whole time you're eating basically! But it was super fun, however I don't think I'll be going back there for a quiet one for some time! On day 2 of Boston, we did a bit of shopping (2 hours in Victoria Secret) and ate a lot of food (food portions aren't okay for the beach bod). Whilst in Boston we visited Harvard University. Boston is home to approx 60 Universities. We had a tour of the campus with one of the students and learnt more about the University's history. I bought a jumper from their campus shop so I can pretend I studied there ;)

Harvard campus

Next up we are heading into Canada for a week and then back into the US for the rest of our tour

<3