I'm gonna have to combine the story of my trip to NYC, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. in this post. I accidentally and stupidly deleted the photos taken in NYC. dang. anyway, i uploaded everything to my fb. you should be able to have a look at it.

we had a rough time in NYC, honestly. we reached JFK six hours after the scheduled time of arrival due to flight delay. we took a train to go to Columbus Circle where the hostel that we had reservation with was located. According to the subway train map, we were supposed to transfer to another line but a lady told us that the hostel was ONLY a few streets away from where we were. we trusted her and thus, we dragged our luggage and walked about ten blocks to go to that freaking place. it was so freaking cold that night and we had only a few thin layers of garments on us T.T What's more? my backpack weighed about 20lb!! I felt like my shoulder was gonna break anytime. the handle on my friend's luggage was broken by a Tunisian taxi driver back in Orlando and thus, she had to walk while bending down in order to drag the mammoth luggage LOL how unlucky could we get? we finally reached the goddamn place less than an hour later and guess what? we could not find the hostel!!!! it didn't even have a signboard!!! what had we done to deserve this? the phone number that I got from the net was not even valid! we thought we were scammed LOL anyway, my fellow comrade finally decided to call her friend in New Jersey to rescue us. and thus, the bad luck day (though not Friday the 13th) ended with us staying over at a luxurious hotel in Wayne, New Jersey (fyi, it's about 23 miles west of Manhattan). we returned to NYC the day after, only to be informed that we had sleep in separate rooms. okay, fine. but one of my friends had to sleep in a all-boy dorm *swt* my friend finally snapped when we were told that one of us had to sleep on the floor the night after we came back from DC. In the end, we came to an agreement that the fee for the mattress was to be waived. after all these incidents, we were really relieved to leave NYC and had sworn not to come back again (to the hostel, i mean).

we sufferred in NYC due to the fact that we naively thought that it would somehow become warmer in mid April and thus, did not bring any warm clothings with us. we didn't get the chance to take a photo with the famous times square at night, though we passed by that place every day. it was too cold for us. and guess what? when we signed up for the Rockefeller Tour, it was raining cats and dogs. so damn cold!!!!! the wind kept blowing without mercy. damn it! I didn't feel like taking a picture during the tour. to tell you the truth, I only had a hoodie on me at that time. I didnt even have my gloves with me *sniff* T.T I'm actually quite amazed that we could get through the days in NYC LOL before entering the territory, we got ourselves a New Year Pass which enabled us to visit museums and some other attractions for free. it's a good bargain! we would not even thought of going to places like Museum of Sex, Museum of Modern Art and New York Skyride (tch, frankly, this didn't amuse us at all after having experienced the Soarin' in Epcot) if we didn't have the card. we got free admission to Madame Tussaud's, Bodies... The Exhibition (this is highly recommended!!!), Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NBC Studio Tour, Top of the Rock and Statue of Liberty too. There were a lot more other attractions that we didn't have the time to visit which would be FOC if the card was flashed. We had also visited Chinatown, Little Italy (where we dropped in at Lombardi's for some delicious New York pizzas) and Flushing (in Queens, rumoured to be the home to a significant number of Malaysians. I only spent a night dining at one of the Taiwanese Restaurants and thus, didn't get to verify the rumour xp). The public transportation in NYC deserves a praise but they really ought to clean the subway stations. We were shocked when we saw the place so different from what we expected. the trains were also not any better than the trains we have here in M'sia. But the train route network in NYC was extensive enough, so getting from one place to another was easy. Attractions like Century 21 Department Store, Wall Street and WTC are all accessible by trains.

Washington, DC, a place where we felt was infinite times better than NYC, obviously, after all the mishaps that happenned to us in NYC. But more importantly, the place was definitely cleaner and all the buidlings over there were so my type. we bought the I Love DC instead of I Love NY shirt. Can you now feel our grudge towards NYC? LOL we (or rather I) booked a room at a guesthouse in the suburb of DC (not really far away from downtown. a few blocks away from the nearest subway station and there were bus stations every few meters along the main road). The 19 museums of Smithsonian are probably the most famous attractions in DC. why? because we don't have to pay a cent to get into any of the museums. but due to time constraints, we had only visited the Natural History Museum and Smithsonian Castle while we were there. National Mall, where famous attractions like Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, National WWII Memorial and Korean War Veterans Memorial was only less than 1km away from the Smithsonian Museums. I could not believe that we had only allocated a day to visit all these places. We obviously needed much more time than that. poor planning *sobs* While you are there, you might wanna stop by the Smithsonian National Zoological Park which can be reached by subway train. and again, there is no admission fee for this :) this part of the States is just superb LOL Not to forget the landmarks of DC which are the White House, US Capitol etc are conveniently located near subway stations, so don't hesitate to visit all these places.

phew, that basically wraps up my adventure in the world's famous cities. Next up: San Francisco, LA, Las Vegas and Tokyo trips.

p/s: anyway, I feel that I must tell you this. Claymore is a very good manga. Must read it! xp

p/p/s: again, some of the pics above were taken by my fellow comrades! X)