America Photos, Part 7

Our last night in NYC was spent having Chinese for dinner (we were so excited, because it wasn't hamburgers or pizza or fries! Imagine!) and to celebrate, we ordered mocktails. None of us were 21 (although I was only 2 months shy!) so we had to stick to mocktails rather than cocktails.

When we got back to the hotel, we decided we needed to take some photos of our fabulous hotel room.



Then we wondered what it would be like to go to the top of the building (we were on the fifteenth floor, and there was like more than forty floors). We thought the view would be amazing - okay, we did it cos we were a little hyped on sugar and wanted to go see the penthouse.

So we rode in the elevator...




all the way up to Floor 46, where everything was gold and velvet and plush.





There was a really small window, so not much of a view like we had hoped. But it was fun all the same.


Next, we decided we wanted to go out on Broadway one more time. We also thought this would be a good test to see if NYC really is the city that never sleeps.

We went out at about 11pm, and sure enough, there were people everywhere, shopping, eating, sightseeing.

The next day was our last day, not only in the Big Apple, but in the US. We were due to fly out at 7pm, which meant we had to be at the airport at 4pm, which meant we had to leave our hotel at 3pm, which meant we didn't have very much time at all.

We planned to go on the Sex & the City tour, which left at 11am and finished at 2pm, giving us barely enough time to check out of our hotel and scramble to the airport.

Being our fourth day in the city, we thought we had a pretty good hold of the subway system, so imagine us running down Fifth Avenue as we were late for the tour because we missed the train! Anyway, we made it after all, and we clambered on board the tour bus.



Despite what we had heard, the tour was awesome! We went right around Manhattan, stopping to look at places that featured in the series or the movie. Right before a stop, the tour guide would show a video montage of shots from the series that had featured the location we were visiting, so you really could recognise the scene!


We drove by a lot of the places, but some of them we were allowed to go inside, like the pizza place Carrie & Miranda ate at,

the bar Steve & Aidan owned,

the restaurant where Carrie & Big had their pre-wedding dinner,



and...



look what it is.... the original Magnolia Bakery!

The Magnolia Bakery was on Bleecker Street, in Greenwich Village, which is pretty trendy, so we enjoyed walking around.

After the tour, it was straight back to our hotel (okay, after we did some serious shopping at the merchandise store) and then in a taxi to JFK airport.

Along the way, however, we managed to offend the concierge by toting our own suitcases downstairs (how were we supposed to know?)

This was our luggage. Yeah. 3 girls and New York City. That's all I'm gonna say.

To top it all off, we ended up with the craziest taxi driver ever. I'm talking couldn't-even-drive-in-a-straight-line craziness.

Once we got to the airport, we all felt a little nauseous.

But the fun didn't end there. Oh no. You didn't think 3 girls travelling alone would be without mishap, did you?

We had two flights, one from JFK to LAX, and then another from LA to Sydney. Well the ticket for our flight to LA said American Airlines, so we told our taxi driver to drop us off at the AA terminal. After a lot of confusion as to why our boarding passes wouldn't print at the self-service check-in, it took an airline representative to figure out that although we were on an AA ticket, the aeroplane itself was operated by Qantas... and the Qantas terminal was like 10 minutes walk away, up a hill. I hope you can picture this: 3 girls, hauling two suitcases each, plus all our carry-on baggage, up a hill that never ends, trying to find the wretched Qantas terminal.

Would you believe me if I told you that when we got to the right terminal, we were so early that it was literally empty? Yeah. If we hadn't laughed, we probably would've cried.

And the only thing open to eat at was McDonalds. You gotta love that American food.

Finally, finally, we got on the plane.

This was the first of much waiting. First we were delayed leaving because there was a huge queue of planes waiting to take off from the same spot. From our window, I could see a queue of five or six planes, all in a line, waiting for the okay to take off. We waited so long that they put a movie on for us!

Then, when we arrived in LA at the end of the night, we found out that our flight that was to take us to Sydney was late, because our plane from New York had been so late - which, apparently always happens. So we had more waiting in the uncomfortable plastic chairs in the LAX terminal. Fun. Travelling is so not glamourous.

Anyway, eventually our plane arrived and we were on our way home. The three of us pretty much fell asleep right away, since it was the middle of the night and we had been awake for so long.

Then we arrived in Sydney, and got to start the day all over again... literally, we got to do Friday all over again since we crossed the international date line!