Day 2 - Wassup Big ZEEE

So, what a day today has been. We must have walked 20 miles and covered pretty much all of Manhattan. Waking this morning feeling refreshed from a night in a big queen bed we pulled the curtains to see a beautiful blue sky. Perfect for a day of exploring. We headed downstairs for some brekfast in the hotel. The room must have have been no bigger than the average living room and only had ten tables so was a little cramped for the whole hotel. We managed to get some eggs and yogurt which was pretty tasty before we went and waited for our ride into Manhattan. A huge SUV wwith blacked out windows pulled up and we saddled up for our journey into the city. Was so exciting on the way there, like wacky races watching the cars flee from lane to lane. We were dropped off at the famous times square. It was absolutely outstanding. The size of the buildings and amount of huge billboards and electronic advertisements was crazy! It was "visually noisy" as George said. We walked down the street opened mouthed and couldnt stop laughing at the sheer size of this place. I had only walked about 300 metres when a african-american guy jumped in front of me, shook my hand and shouted " Wassup Big Zeee!!  Was just epic!

We made our way to the Rockerfella Centre building taking in the sights and atmosphere around this amazing place. Once there we payed for a ticket to head to the observation point at the top. We were sent to a elavator and began heading up, 70 floors in 42 seconds it was like a space shuttle nevermind a lift. Once at the top we walked out and were met with one of the most amazing views i have ever seen. 360 degrees around us was the never ending horizon of New York city. One side you could see all of Central Park, the other the hudson river and statue of liberty, the other empire state building. It was bloody amazing. We stayed up there for a good while taking photos.

We took the lift back down to the street and decided to head towards central park. We stopped on the way at a food vender and got some burgers, pretty much all we have eaten so far. As usual they were very tasty. We then headed into central park and noticed a zoo so got tickets. It wasnt the biggest but still awesome range of animals. We watched seals, red  pandas, snow leopard and luckily saw a polar bear emerge from his little cave. All in all a well spent $12. After we walked through the park in the sun and breaked for an ice cream. After a short sit down people watching ( mainly the hot chicks) we walked back into times square and bought a cheap sat nav for tomorrow when we pick up our car. Hopefully it'll work! 

We headed over to Grand central station in rush hour madness and managed to sort out some subway tickets to take us downtown to Bowling Green, where we walked to take the ferry to the statue of liberty, however once we arrived there the smiles on our faces we soon wiped away. We had missed the last ferry by 5 minutes so had to look at the old gal from a far. It was still amazing to see but could have been even better it we got over to the island, but we gave it a shot. We headed back to subway station still loving the atmosphere around the city, guys playing drum sets, small bands playing on street corners and enjoying conversations with random strangers. We took a tube ride back to queens. After popping back to the hotel we decided to have a walk for some food back to Van Dams diner where we ate last night. We were treated by the same fantastic food and epic portions. You guessed it, the veggies got veggie burgers and fries and i went for a ranch burger, otherwise know as a heartattack in a bun. It was so good! We had a chat with the owner again and told her our plans then said bye and headed back to the hotel. So tomorrow we have got to get back to the airport to pick the car up which should be interesting, then the adventure will surely begin.