The end of the line ... NYC

4th January 2013
I am reaching the final leg of my North American journey. Incredible and also a little sad. I caught the bus back to NYC and it was really sad realising that it would be the last time on an American interstate (yes, an interstate made me teary). It was partly because I had so many amazing road trips in the US and the realisation that it was actually all over. In the future, I will not ride an overnight bus. It's just not worth it.






Sometimes even I am impressed with my sneaky shots.
New York City. This time, I stayed in Brooklyn since it was close to JFK and I didn't want to stay on Manhattan again, nor did I really want to see anything there since I had already done everything that I wanted with Sunbear on the trip over fall break. I stayed at NY Moore and hands down, one of the the best hostels ever. It was a ginormous room for 8 people (seriously, the same floor space as the 24 person dorm in Philly) with double beds that there were super sturdy and wooden and an amazing bathroom. That was luxury. Of course, there would be a downside. The downside is that it wouldn't be a hostel you would stay at for a first visit to NYC since it wasn't in Manhattan and although it was close to a subway station, to get to it was fairly sketchy since it was an industrial area. That being said, it was - in my opinion- in a more authentic location since a few blocks away was just an average neighbourhood, away from all the tourists.





I spent the remainder of the day in Manhattan as I finally organised a ticket to visit the Word Trade Center Memorial. Funny story, I almost lost my ticket as it blew away in the wind and I had to run after it and reach under the car for it. D'oh. It was crazy how strict security was. Honestly. The memorial was uncomfortable. I guess it is just the realisation that so many people did die. What was even creepier were the people posing; I just thought it was so inappropriate. It is one thing to take a photo (which is fine) and completely another to be smiling as a family at the memorial. I don't know, just weird.

Uber blurry. But what can I do...




I managed to catch the sunset from Battery Park and it was truly breathtaking. An amazing way to end my last night in the US. I walked all the way up to Times Square. 8km walk. It was a nice walk, although an incredibly quiet path but at the end of the day, all about being observant rather than paranoid.

5th January 2013

My last day in the States. It was actually really surreal. I checked out and walked around the Williamsburg area. It was nice I guess. Did I really know where I was walking? Nope. But basically a method that served me well (until Rome...). It was nice being able to check out another area of Brooklyn (which is the borough I prefer over Manhattan) and Williamsburg felt very authentic, if that makes any sense. There were so many cute little delis on each block too.

Catching the train to JFK was surprisingly easy but it was so incredibly bittersweet. The end of my time in the States, the end of exchange; it was a little difficult.

Side note, I finally, finally got around to sticking all my momentos into my Moleskine notebook (originally I had another plan to incorporate my ticket stubs etc) and it was so bittersweet. Also, I am the worst hoarder ever and I had so many random receipts that were literally junk.

Next up: London!