This peacock seemed as interested in the crowd as they were in it.

I was woken early today by my two roommates packing and leaving for Savannah, Georgia. They were just starting their trip, and I was just finishing it, as this would be my last full day in New York.

I got up and has breakfast in a rather nice little cafe called Ranch 1. After speaking to my parents a bit on the phone, I caught the subway to The Bronx to visit Bronx Zoo, one of the largest zoos in the USA. I got there and after a short walk from the station, I got to the zoo and found out that it was free, as it was a Wednesday. We should definately adopt this for UK attractions! I made a donation anyway, and went in. The place was absolutely packed with people, presumably because it was free. There were also plenty of school parties, and parents with screaming kids.

The zoo is really huge. It's divided into several sections for different types of animals, so we have JungleWorld, African Plains, Wild Asia, Bears, World of Darkness, Childrens' Zoo, World of Reptiles, and World of Birds. There's also a newly opened Congo Gorilla Forest, which recreates an area of the rainforest so that you can see the gorillas in their own habitat. I didn't get to see everything in one day - that would have been very difficult, but I did get to see a lot of animals, including some endangered species. Each animal or group of animals had quite a large area to roam around in (it was certainly a lot bigger than plenty of student rooms I've lived in!) and many had a small stream running through them where the animals could drink.

It's a giraffe, photographed from a long way away.

I went round the bears section, and then went round the African plains. Then I had lunch at a place which was dressed up to look like an African tribal hut. They still sold the same old pizza that was on sale throughout the zoo though. Next I queued for an hour for the Benguli Express Monorail, which is a guided tour around many of the Asian and African animals on display. It was a good tour, but the wait was a little long. After that I took the cable car back to the central park area, and went home. I would have liked to have seen the Congo Gorilla forest, as I was told it's really worth the wait, but the park was closing (it closes at 5pm) so I had to leave. I would definately recommend a visit to the zoo to anyone visiting New York.

I went back to the hostel and sat and had a bit of a nap. At about 10pm, two girls from Arkansaw walked in, who would be my roommates for tonight. I hadn't eaten yet, so we all went out for a meal at a little resturaunt called Ranch 1 which claimed to serve the best grilled chicken sandwiches in the world. It was really nice, but I think I'd have to taste every other grilled chicken sandwich before I agree with them!

After that the girls wanted to check their email, so we went over to Easy Everything on 42nd street. The queues were really long though, and just at that moment the girls got a phone call from a friend they were planning to visit in New York, so they went off to find his hostel, and I popped into an arcade and spent far too many of my remaining American dollars! Then I went back to the hostel, had a shower, and packed all my baggage so I didn't have to wake the girls up. They turned up at around 1, just a few hours before I was to get up to leave!