New York Day 2

6:30am Fire Alarm! The fire alarm went off this morning at 6:30am, not that anyone seemed to be in any hurry to leave the building, I got up and quickly dressed and queued to get down the stairs to get out, and was met by the NYFD coming up the stairs, turned out it was steam on a sensor, so I went back to bed for an hour or too before needing to get up for Jerry's City Tour. This is the best value $10 I’ve had it the States. At 11am I and about 20 other hostellers met up with a local retired School Teacher called Jerry, he has been running his Grand Tours for over 13 years and they are excellent. From 11 until 1.30am! we walked, rode the subway, hopped a ferry, and got to know the city in ways many tourists never do. We even went for a vey cheap evening meal in an Indian restaurant for less than $20, which is cheap for NY. Jerry took us to virtually every section and attraction in the city; The Brooklyn Bridge, Wall Street, Chinatown, Little Italy, Soho, Greenwich Village, Little India, The Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Saint Patrick's Cathedral, 5th Avenue, Ground Zero, The Statten Island Ferry, The Staue of Liberty and even in to the Marriot hotel on Times Square to experience the inside-outside lifts to the 47th floor! A fantastic day out and a tour I would recommend to anyone who goes to NY (and you don’t even have to stay at the hostel to join it – just turn up before 11am on Tuesday or Saturday). The only issue was I don’t think it did by leg any good doing all that walking.