Harry Potter on Broadway, and other such delights

New York City is one of the most exciting places in the world. We arrived at our final destination, sweaty and grubby, but in one piece. Devastatingly, i dropped my Obama mug at the Washington bus station and it shattered into a billion pieces, just like the American economy. I was extra specially annoyed because hannah has successfully carried a Harry Potter memorobelia mug all the way from bloody orlando and managed not to break it- typical! I have just searched ebay for a replacement, it is severely lacking in any type of quality tat relating to the US president. Anyway, as i was saying, we arrived and got the metro up to our broadway hostel, annoyed that we had to cash in our Dolla coins in the ticket machine as it couldnt possibly be useful enough to take notes...so we arrive, check in and find our room to be most prison-like of them all, with a bunkbed, sink and window...this is the official title of the room as we did actually spend time ranking them...well thats what you get when you spend two months with just each other for company...we also ranked the craziest people we'd met on holiday, so feel free to ask me about it!
So, we got some pizza from this place called Sal and Carmines, which was just around the corner and it just so happened to be recommended by everyone, including that guy that plays the facebook guy in that film about facebook..anyway it was soo good i think we had a slice a day for our whole stay. Then we had a glass of wine and planned our attack on the cheap ticketing system of broadway.
At 7 am we got up and out to go and get tickets to see a show- its friday today so a prime viewing day, and we go to some theatre and queue up with a load of harry potter nerds (they werent actually, they were quite normal looking) and somehow manage to get standing tickets for that nights performance for a measly 32 dolz. Which is pretty good if you take into consideration the fact that the people sat in front of us would have to add another hundred to their tickets for the pleasure of their view.. Anyway, shortly after that we wander into times square and have a little wander around and then we navigate our way up to the Metropolitan Museum as, joy of joys, the Alexander McQueen exhibition is stillll showing, despite having been scheduled to close just 3 days before. Well, lucky us, we had the pleasure of queueing on 'Closing Weekend'...But that wasnt even the start of it. Museums in America are expensive. we completely take for granted that you can walk into the manchester one near the uni, or the bristol one at the top of park street and check that your favourite mummy exhibition from your childhood, is thankfully still there. in NYC,and indeed everywhere bar washington, you have to pay up to $25 for that privaledge...boo. BUUT, every cloud has a silver lining, some of the new york ones are 'recommended', which means when the snotty looking cashier asked us how much we would be paying to see this world famous McQueen exhibition, we say 'Five Dollars each please'. He was not impressed, but whatever, its culture, were students, he should be thankful were in museums and not out looting and rioting.
So then we queued for 2 hours to get in to see everything and then we queued the whole way around to see everything, (anyone sensing a theme?) All that said, it was wonderful, he was incredibly talented and its sad to think he will never again spray a model with paint on a catwalk.
By now my feet felt like they were on fire, we were both limping around like we'd wet ourselves so we decided to WALK HOME THROUGH CENTRAL PARK. we got lost. eventually made it back to have an hours 'foot rest' before we went back out to see DANIEL RADCLIFFE AKA THE REAL HP on broadway. Our seats were actually brilliant and he was also brilliant. The show was about a guy following a book called 'How to Succeed in business without really trying' or something along those lines, it was pretty funny and hp had a good singing voice too...must be magic! (sorry) anyway, so if any of you are in NYC at any point before december i urge you to get up at the crack of dawn and go down to get tickets. So that was fun, we also managed to fit in a drink at a local bar and chat to some locals who were telling us all about new york in the snow.
The next few days we spent trawling around various shops trying to get presents and things like that...which was fun if not tiring. It was super hot there as well which didnt help matters, and neither did our riding the metro all the time- black crispy bogeys all round!
Hannah and I have both been to NYC before which is why we didnt do 'classic tourist things'...also because theyre expensive and we would rather spend our money on bulk buying Reeces peanut butter cups. anyway, we went to 30 Rock(erfeller plaza) and looked thorough all the NBC tv paraphanalia. I almost bought some House Fridge magnets. . . . . . On our final night we went to this lovely little bar called 'Sip' and drank a massive jug of sangria in celebration of surviving all the nut jobs of america..was pretty good..and on our last day we went to the illusive schnitzel shop which we had been hunting for some time and had schnitzel and potato salad for breakfast....The joys of avoiding wholegrain! Anyway, we somehow got to JFK, it took us 2 hours and checked in about 4 times before we could wander duty free and spend our last, worthless dollars on super reduced alcohol and Key Lime Pie flavoured chewing gum (fyi it was vile)
2 films and 3 episodes of 'Jamies food revolution' later we landed at heathrow and i have subsequently not been able to get up before midday...DAMN YOU JETLAG!

'That White House isnt very white....oh, its the Treasury.'

So, we are in Washington D.C, not Washington State, and its so much better than i expected! This isn't really fair, but we kinda added it in as a filler because New York is so expensive...anyway, were staying in a place called the Loftstel. Its weird. There's some crazy woman who was convinced i was speaking Arabic when i was telling Hannah that according to US Weekly David Beckham was paying Usher to teach his children how to dance. AND, then she had the bloody cheek to tell me i should change my name because the new leader of Al-Qaeda's daughter-in-law is called Lucy. She can do one.
Anyway, to add to this were staying in a room in the basement with no windows with the most sullen, po-faced girl ever, who also happens to run the hostel. A lot of people seem to live here so all her stuff is spread all over the room and there's nowhere to put anything, which is annoying...i feel that using all of her expensive products is the only way to deal with this. (joking)
On our first full day we hit up the Organic Supermarket round the corner which is the nicest place everrrr, and we got a little picnic lunch of ham sandwiches and crisps and went off to the metro to be proper tourists and sight-see!
Once we had communicated that we wanted to go to the mall (pronounced Moll) we set off and popped out the other side in the biggest area of free tourist attractions imaginable. it would be bliss if you had a small and irritating child to entertain for half-term. We firstly hit up the Natural History Museum for the tarantulas, diamonds and originally, the rest-room.. We saw the Hope diamond (yes please) and Han persuaded me to see the Tarantula feeding which was pretty cool, except for all the annoying small children who were getting in the way and shouting out answers. Like, obviously arachnids have 8 legs duhhhhhhhh. idiots. We didn't get to hold the cockroaches but LUCKILY saw on in the bathroom last night to make up for it. I especially enjoyed the dead body/forensic section. mmm.
Next we had our picnic, which was excellent, and embarked upon our epic hunt for the White House, which was more difficult than we originally expected. after mistaking the Treasury for it, we eventually find the shining white building and take more comedy photos, to add to our collection of those taken at the Washington Monument..
Today we continued our challenge to see as many of the free (and educational) attractions as possible, starting with Congress which looks kinda like the White House but bigger, and then the Library of Congress, that is the biggest library in the world..it has 520 miles of bookshelves dontya know!? It was pretty stunning inside, much gold leaf and the likes. Its actually quite strange seeing old buildings over here, seeing as its quite a young country. Nowhere else we've been has had anything like it. After the libe we had lunch outside congress and then wandered into the Botanical Gardens which were beautiful. Had to take temporary refuge in a childs wendyhouse during the rain- pretty comical sight, hands and knees and all! It started tipping it down so we stayed and checked out the medicinal plants section and the primeval section too, did all the sniff tests of spices from around the world which, from the height they were set at, weren't for adults, but whatever. Finally it stopped raining so we went to get some comedy Obama related souvenirs and then headed all the way down the Mall to the Lincoln Memorial, past the Declaration of Independence memorial and the Vietnam Memorial...god they love remembering things here. Anyway, by the time we were looking up at ol' Linc in his giant chair, it was pissing it down and we took shelter there, and in the gift shop where they had fake old money and Martin Luther King's speech (that's where he gave it..full of interesting facts today!) We took on the rain and plodded all the way back to the metro, only to have our journey interrupted by OBAMAS HELICOPTER FLYING PAST THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT AND THEN LANDING AT THE WHITEHOUSE!! OHHH EMMMM GEEE! made my day. i waved. obviously.
So, now were preparing for our final city, which is meant to be mega hot, by washing our pants and drinking hot chocolate..any tips for NYC feel free to contact..

Lots of love, not long now!