phillies

G'day all!

So we are now down to three. The two Aussies (Kristen and I) and the Pom (Emma, hahaha). Today we had bagels in central park for breakfast and managed to catch our bus to Philadelphia. We arrived next to Chinatown, in a slightly sketchy looking area, but had so many really friendly people come up to us and ask us if we needed directions getting anywhere or if we were lost.

We more-or-less were, considering we had booked a hostel which it turns out was an hour bus trip from the city. So we cancelled that and lost our $$ for that night, but we managed to find a very very helpful lady at the visitor centre who got us a special deal, double queen suite at a really gorgeous hotel near the water. It's in Old Town, which is like the really historic area, absolutely beautiful buildings and lovely little restaurants lining paved streets and little alleys and old brick buildings. Reminds me kind of Melbourne or even some Tasmanian places, so i feel A LOT more relaxed here.

We also get free breakfast, free snacks and cheese and wine in the afternoons, and the receptionists are so helpful to us.

So we basically spend two nights at this place, which is excellent and i am looking forward to, and then Emma and myself head on down to North Carolina to stay with Katie at her college. It's an 8 hour train ride but it's okay cos i will see a lot of the countryside and everything else. Get to finally catch up on sleep maybe?

And i forgot to update you on New York:
We left camp on monday at 2pm but only got to NY at 8pm due to trains, etc. Our accomodation basically fell through because we were relying on a friend's hostel (but of course it wasn't going to work anyway, we realise retrospectively) but we headed straight out to a chinese restaurant and toasted with Pina Coladas and Long Island Iced Teas.

Fortunately we eventually found a place at the Royal Park Hostel/Hotel which was actually really comfortable, so we all squished in there (there were maybe 8 of us?).

Times square is... well, pretty surreal. It was ultra touristy but that was kinda cool cos you know what? When it comes down to it, we are tourists. We visited the M&M and Hershey's shops too. Emma and Kristen watched a show on Broadway, whilst Sinead and I headed to Chinatown.

Chinatown was MASSIVE. It was a little sketchy again, but i had an awesome almond pastry from a taiwanese bakery which was cool. We also went into Little Italy, which is right next door to Chinatown. Hawkers kind of made Chinatown restless and we were hailed by many restauranteurs in little italy but it was such a gorgeous setting.

Anyway, more to come, more to see, more to do. Lots of love