Big, bigger, New York

I landed at JFK 6.30pm yesterday. Which meant it was already 12.30am to me. It took me 2 hours to get to the hotel, including a pretty scary bus ride, a good wait, and another bus ride. My first impression was the smell, it smells of french fries and exhaust. But in a good way. The second, was the size of things. It's enormous! The buildings, the crowd, the lines.. I checked in to the Millennium Broadway around 9, and met Mary Grace shortly after. So weird, haven't seen her in 6 months, and it feels so natural to hang out again. She's awesome. Feeling too hyped up to go to bed, we went looking for a late night snack, and just took a walk around Times Square. I ended up going to bed somewhere around 11.30, which would be 5.30am in Norway, but that got me synchronized to local time, and that's good, the jetlag's not going to be a problem.

Got up at 8 this morning, to go to Ellis Island and see the Statue of Liberty. On the way we saw Ground Zero. Not that you could see much, but that was emotional. We eventually found our way to Battery Park where they sell the tickets for the ferry. The lines seemed endless, but shortened surprisingly fast. When we got to the booth, it turns out there was a 1 hour wait for the ferry, and no possibility of entering the statue; the crown tour tickets were sold out until September(!). So we decided we'd skip that, and rather go on a 3 hour cruise around the whole of Manhattan tomorrow. After that we headed off for lunch, walked along Hudson river, overestimated our walkability and ended up taking a cab. Then we went to Central Park, and took a 20 minute carriage ride through the park. Not the best way to experience the park, but definitely a welcome relaxation for tired feet. While uptown we stopped by Dylan's Candy Bar, a gigantic candy store that gives Charlie's chocolate factory a fair competition.

Right now we're back at the hotel, getting ready for dinner at Ventro Trattoria, a recommended Italian place in the Meatpacking district. Pictures are coming up later, possibly tomorrow. New York is fantastic, no place like it. And the weather is great, though we're expecting some rain tomorrow evening. Too bad we're in New York, and there's no place to go shop, or any museums or shows to go to. Haha, I love it!