My last day in New York today. I woke up even later than yesterday, and dragged myself into the shower. There was a bit of a queue for the shower this morning - or should I say a 'line' - that's what they call it here. But eventually I had my turn and was finally out the door.

I had a few things that I wanted to try to do today, things like visiting Astoria, a walk in Central Park and finalising the few eating bits and pieces that I wanted to try.

So, first stop was Astoria. This was my first foray off the island of Manhatten (not counting the trip to the statue of Liberty) and it felt good! I sorted myself out on the right train to take me to my destination and before I new it there were signs for 'Andrew Michalides - attourney at law' and 'Hermes Bakery' and all sorts. The language spoken on the train changed slowly from mostly Spanish to Greek. I hopped off the train at the end of the line and then just followed the train line back down again, walking up and down the various shopping streets as I went. Astoria seemed familiar like the Manhatten skylilne, and this neighbourhood had more of those smaller houses that you see in the movies, with wooden slated fronts painted yellow or light green. The skyline was generally flatter, although not particularly more attractive. It was raining today though, so everything always looks a lot duller in the rain, doesnt it?

After my stroll through Astoria, I got back on the train to head to the Rockefeller centre. I had gone past this on one of the tours yesterday and found that there was a branch of Magnolias Bakery here - that famous bakery with the cupcakes. So, that was my mission, and I found it quite easily. The actual space of the shop was quite large, but the majority of it was given over to the actual business of the producing of cupcakes and tasty baked goods. The retail area was quite narrow, and it was packed! They do a roaring trade in cupcakes! There must have been about 10 or 11 members of staff in there, either serving excited customers or preparing trays and trays of more cupcakes and other treats to put into the oven. The smell was overwhelmingly sugary, and I was totally caught up in the excitement of trying to figure out what delicious looking thing I could make MINE.

I decided to forgo the cupcakes and I chose a key lime cheesecake and a cup of tea. There are no tables to enjoy your hard earned cake at, the place is just too busy for that, but they did have a bar stuffed into the corner of the room where people could stand and hack into their pudding if they wanted to. As it was still raining outside, I chose this option and my oh my was that cheesecake tasty. Yummy, yummy, yummy. I was so dissapointed when I couldnt eat anymore!

Back out into the rain and I needed to search for a bathroom somewhere. I remembered I had seen a Hilton hotel back up the road, so made my way towards it and nearly cried when I stepped into the Lobby. This is where I belong! I dont belong in a hostel, where bugs, imagined and real crawl across the carpet, and weird fellow hostellers decide to just cut their hair in the bathroom - as you do when you are travelling! I belong in a place that has soft music piping into the lobby. Where young men in crisp white caps open the door for you, and where somebody rushes in of an evening to turn down your massive duck down duvet and fluff up your pillows for you before you retire for the evening!! Anyway, I woke up from my reverie with my bladder nagging me and headed instinctively to where I knew the toilets would be.

But the luxury couldnt last for long, and, having noticed how massively HUGE my hair had gotten in the rain and tried to tame it back with a hair bobble, I left the hotel to try to achieve the last couple of things on my list. I was heading in the direction of Central Park and I passed one of the many Tee-shirt sellers and picked up my mandatory 'I heart New York' tee-shirt. And then I plunged myself into the depths of Central Park.

It is indeed a very clever little space. Quite literally as soon as I stepped into the park the hustle and bustle of the city seemed to dissapear. A few steps in and the sky scrapers were obscured enough to let me forget about them and enjoy the tranquility of the park. There were many people enjoying the park today, families out with their children, couples walking hand in hand, tourists taking rick-shaws around the park or for the foolish with too much money a horse drawn carriage ride. There were musicians, mostly saxophonists, but one guy was playing on his bagpipes. The saxophonists were busking, with their cases out for any donations, but the bagpiper was under a bridge out of the way, so I can only assume that this was one of the few places that he could come and practice his bagpipes without disturbing anyone too much. You cant exactly practice something like that in your home when there are 40 other people living on the same floor as you, with the same number of people living above you and below you. He wasnt bothering me at all, and in fact I thought he was quite good.

There were some people playing baseball in the park too, there are special pitches set aside just for this purpose. I thought that I may have stumbled across the New York Yankees practicing or something, but then I noticed that the men were all oldish, and, shall we say, past their prime? There were women playing in the teams as well, so I swiftly concluded that this probably wasnt the New York Yankees, but fun to watch anyway.

It was at about this point that I received a text from Sarah asking me if I had done my song for New York yet, and with all the excitement of the last few days I had completely forgotten! So, now was my chance in Central Park. So, I got the camera out, tried to find a spot where there werent too many people and did my thing. It only took me three takes until I got the shot I was satisfied with. See for yourself the video at the end of this entry!

I continued on my walk, but, as you might imagine, as I had no neatly numbered roads to follow and was using only my dreadful sense of direction, I came to a road at some point and realised that I had just walked a complete cicle, and had also somehow managed to miss out the majority of the park! But, to be quite honest with you, by this point I had run out of energy and desire to do anything else that involved walking or doing anything new. Ideally I wanted to go back to my room at the Hilton, have a lovely soak in the bath, crawl into the big bed and switch the TV on. Of course, the prospect of going back to the hostel was not quite as inviting, but then I remembered that wonderful Martin had filled my laptop up with all sorts of movies and things while I was in the UK, so that would definatly do me for entertainment.

I got back to the hostel, watched a couple of the TV programmes that were on there for me, nipped out of the hostel up the road to a sushi place that I had spotted at some point on my walks and got myself some yummy sushi and a very big bottle of Japanese beer, and returned chirpily to the hostel.

And now I have managed to pack all of my bits and pieces into my case, and I am ready for an early start tomorrow morning, flying off to Indianna to catch up with the first of a group of friends that I am visiting that I havent seen for ten years!