Report: New York, USA

We did the empire state on our first night, it was about 8pm on a fri night..no ques..it was nice to see the city lit up from there..but we went to Top of the Rock on our last day it was about 4pm so the sun was about to set..it was gorgeous! way better views that empire i think! you can see the central park which is amazing! and of course you can stay indoors with great views..or head up to the highest floor where you are outside. Also, dont forget to look up when going up the lift...tis mad!

WE did the gray line tour for down town and uptown...they were very good, the tour guides are new yorkers through and through and know everything! the down town one goes all around statue of liberty , little italy and china town etc.. and the uptown one does up around central park and harlem..shows you where all the rich people live...one tour guide showed us where he lived al his life, where he was baptised and where his parents got married, showed us his old school and where his kids went to school etc...he had a real love for the city and it was great to hear all his stories. these tours are "hop on hop off" so you can get off at any of the stops and there will be another bus along every 15 mins after that.

WE stayed in the Park south Hotel on 28th street..it was fab..breakfast included which was as many bagels, toast, muffins, fruit, yogurts, boiled eggs tea coffee you wanted..was a great start to our days..The empire state was about a 10 min walk, macys was about 15 and times square was about 20 mins walk away...which was great.

we had dinner in The View restaraunt one night (top of the merriot hotel), we didnt get a window seat as hoped but it was nice enough...you dont feel it rotating atall...the bill came to $200 dollars incl tip. which was a bit steep for what we got...i think my boyfriend was still a bit hungry afterwards.anyway booked that with www.opentable.com

We went to an ice hockey match in madsion square gardens on the sunday evening..i would recommend anyone to go there..the atmosphere was unreal..it was between New York Ranger and the New Jersey Devils...it was like watching a cork and kerry match to be honest..such rivalry...New jersey had won their last 9 games and new york had lost their last 4..it was mostly new yorkers there, so when the rangers finally scored the first goal of the game during overtime the place went mad..it was brilliant. WE got the tickest at www.coasttocoasttickets.com

We also did the yankee stadium tour..that was fairly interesting..again the tour guise was an true yankees fan from when he was a child..so he was very good at this job..it was cool to see the stadium that they call "the house that ruth built" they will be closing it next year or 09 to baseball games as they are in the process of building a new one right next door..we booked that tour through ticketmaster, we got the subway home from here..cos it wa a bit far out for taxis, we were in the bronx, so went to the subway..we found it very hard to figure out, but with little help we found our way and got home, didnt use the subway anymore after that.

WE came in from JFK to dublin yesterday morning at around 8ish....i saw one woman being stopped...they were taking aload of cd's out of her bag..i didnt see how many bags she had cos i just looked straight ahead and didnt make eye contact...Me and my boyfriend had 2 big bags each. when traveling to cork from dub with ryanair we had to pay €140 for our over weight bags..:(

edit:/ i brought over $3,500...and i spent every last dollar (have a few quarters left though) My boy friend went with $4,000(as he didnt have a credit card) and he came back with nearly $2000 , but an emptier bag than mine, even though he still bought loads!