From the time our luggage turned up, our holiday took a massive turn for the better after the whole homesick lonely in Toronto in big hotel just like the movie "Lost in Translation" thing.

New York City Rules!

There is just something about the Big Apple that just makes it great. There is probably nothing I can say that hasn't already been said about the world's most famous city, but it does have that "magic" that you hear about.

Before I go too much further we must give props at this point to our friends Anthony and Elisa who were kind enough to let us stay in thier very conviently located Manhatten appartment. Thanks Guys!

Our first day was a blast, despite the pouring rain. We started the day New York style with a delicious cream cheese bagel and a coffee each and made for the Guggenheim Museum. This is a pretty famous art gallery, full of great modern art, including works by famous guys such as Kadinsky and Picasso, and is unique in that the actual building itself is renowned as a great work of art (or architecture if you want to split hairs).

From here we went for a stroll through Central Park, and went for a look at the Chrysler building and the Empire State building. Sadly since the weather was so sucky, the top half of both buildings was fogged in so we had to reschedule them until later in the week. By this time it was lunchtime, so we grabbed a bite and headed for Times Square.

Oh my god, so much neon! Seriously there is neon signs and big screens everywhere. Times square is also home to some very cool shops, such as the Toy's R Us with a ferris wheel inside, the MTV shop, and the 4 storey Virgin Megastore.

But the best thing about times square is that Karen and I were standing outside the MTV shop, consulting the map when we were approached by a guy with worldwide pants t-shirt and a Letterman show credential around his neck.

"Do you want to come and see the taping of the Letterman show tommorrow night?"

Whoah! Do I? Shit yeah!!!!!

He actually took a while to convince me that he was for real, and I didn't actually believe that it was true until we were queing to get into the Ed Sullivan theatre with tickets in my hand. By this time it was almost 5 and we decided that our day just couldn't get any better, so we fought the masses on the subways and went back to Anthony and Elisa's flat.

That night we took Anthony and Elisa out for dinner, to repay thier kind hospitality, at a bar and grill in Greenwich village. The rain held of long enough for us to enjoy our meal Al Fresco and started as we were settling the tab. We decided to head inside to the bar, and we were standing there enjoying our beer when two very burley men with little ear radios walked in, escorting two very non-burley A-list celebreties. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen!! I kid you not! Those two little imps from Full House who have grown up to be anorexic ultra millionaires were in the same bar as us. Cool.

From here we jumped in a cab (our second cab, and neither driver wore a hawaain shirt or talked like Travis from "Taxi Driver") and headed to the oldest bar in NYC, McSorleys. Rustic is probably the best word for the place, but it was cool because they brew their own beer, and you can only buy it two glasses at a time. This was a formula for disaster really, but at least we didn't have to go to work like our hosts.