Having survived the Atlantic crossing (we had surprisingly good weather) and getting through the USA immigration process (which involved standing in a queue for over an hour so that we could be asked what we were going to be doing in America), our first stop in the good old US of A was Boston.

Founded in 1630 by Puritan colonists from England, Boston was incorporated as a city in 1882 . It is New England's largest city and is a mix between historic brownstone buildings and modern skyscrapers.

We only had the morning in Boston, so we needed to be very targeted with what we went and saw. Having had a look at what was available; we decided to catch a taxi out the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum that is located on the grounds of the University of Massachusetts.

As the name would suggest, it is the presidential library and museum of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. The building is the official repository for original papers and correspondence of the Kennedy Administration. The library and museum were dedicated in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter and members of the Kennedy family.

The museum includes exhibits on the presidential campaign trail, his inauguration, the space race, items from his oval office, a piece of moon rock and many other things . They also have a special exhibit on the Cuban Missile Crisis and what went on behind the scenes.

Just before midday we headed back towards Boston Common to have a quick look around. While walking around the common, we refreshed ourselves with a cool lemonade. A couple of photos of the State House were taken – the State House is one of the stops on the Boston Freedom Trail, which we didn’t have enough time to do. We also saw the frog statues that sit near the Frog Pond and had a couple of encounters with squirrels.

Needing to catch a train further south, it was time to head to the Boston’s South Station and find our Amtrak train to the city that never sleeps. Having arrived at the station with a bit of time to spare, we bought some lunch to take onboard and then followed the crowd to get on the train. It would appear that like trains in Italy, being able to get the seat you want on an American train means being ready to pounce in a split second and making sure you are in the queue at the right time .

Having secured our seats, it was time to kick back and enjoy the free Wi-Fi, scenery and the idle banter of the passengers around us (this last one wasn’t great but most people were quiet, it was just the couple behind us who needed to do a running commentary of the journey).

With no issues on the trip, we arrived at Pennsylvania Station on time and after leaving the station, we headed to our hotel (the Hotel Pennsylvania). Having both been to New York previously, we knew that for the price we had paid, we probably wouldn’t be getting a great hotel, but boy did we get a surprise – more on that later.

As we weren’t expecting there to be a long line to check in, we had organised to go to a Broadway show in the evening. When we arrived at the hotel we encountered a long and very slow moving line. After spending 20 minutes in the line that moved all of about 5 feet, we decided to check in later and to take ourselves and our backpacks to the show – this was disappointing as we were planning to get a little bit dressed up for the evening but couldn’t .

To get the show we had to either take a taxi or a train uptown. Given the traffic was crazy busy, we decided the subway was a better option. After battling with one of the ticket machines which for some reason kept thinking we were giving it $100 notes, we were on our way towards the New World Stages and the night’s production of 'iLuminate’. We had one last hiccup before we reached the theatre. Having come out of the subway, we weren’t sure whether to turn left or right, thankfully a lovely New Yorker took pity on us and pointed us in the right direction.

The show takes place in a dark room, with the dancers dressed in light suits that have neon lights attached to them. The lights turn on and off depending on what is happening – in one scene, a character was split in half, so using the lights on the suits, one dancer lost half his lights, with another dancer get half his lights lit.

The basic premise of the show was that there was a talented young artist who struggles to connect with the real world. He has a magic paintbrush that gives him the power to turn the characters of his imagination into real living and breathing creatures. A jealous townsperson steals the paint brush and turns the creatures created by the paintbrush into monsters and starts destroying the town. The young artist fights the jealous townsperson and saves everyone . While the show was mainly a dance show with not much speaking, it was still good to watch.

On our way to the Empire State Building (which was our next stop of the evening), we stopped at the hotel to try checking in again. This time the line moved a bit quicker and we only had to wait 15 minutes. We were on the 16^th floor and after working out that we were supposed to be in 1618 and not 1618A, we got into our room. To say that the hotel is tired and run down would be being nice. Paint was falling off the walls, there were water stains on the carpet near the air conditioner, and there was dust and other icky things in the air conditioner vent and rust/mould in the bathroom. Also for the sake of our necks, we won’t discuss the pillows! But enough about the hotel.

Next stop was dinner and as it was late and we were in America, we decided to visit the golden arches. Unfortunately, we picked the McDonalds across the road from the Empire State Building and it was both busy and dirty . Lowlights of the dinner experience included being accosted for money by a man sitting next to the front door, having the young girl behind the counter give me attitude/eye roll when I handed over a $50 note (last time I checked it was legal tender) and then seeing the ‘don’t care’ attitude of the city as a woman picked through one of the rubbish bins inside the restaurant.

Our final planned stop for the evening was the top of the Empire State Building. Because we weren’t sure when we would be going, we had opted to buy our tickets online and to upgrade to an express pass that would allow us to jump most of the queues. This forethought was great as at 10:30pm when we arrived at the place where you buy tickets, there was a 30 minute queue to just buy the tickets. Then there were long queues to get through the security check point, the place where you get your photo taken, the first lift to get to the 80^th floor and finally the lift to get to the 86^th floor. A couple of people we were standing next to had been waiting in a queue for more than 2 hours!

The top of the Empire State Building was as to be expected – crowded, dark, New York’s buildings all pretty and lit up, Central Park was a dark patch surrounded by lights . Having been around the 86^th floor, we headed up to the 102^nd floor to see what we could see from there. It was pretty much the same, except there were fewer people.

Having had a full day, we retired to the hotel room and braved the beds for a hopefully an ok night’s sleep.

Fun fact:
The exterior of Boston’s Bull and Finch Pub was used as the exterior of the legendary Cheers bar. More than 1 million people visit the bar each year.