Let me continue telling you about my trip to the US: 

On thursday (15/01/2009) we reserved bus tickets over the internet from Boston to New York, and also booked hotel in Chinatown. Bus tickets were 15$ each direction / person, which seemed incredible cheap considering other companies, and train tickets. We could book the hotel with two double beds for 280$ for two nights, which was also a good deal I guess.  

Mr. Brazilian was allegedly in bad shame in health all week, so he did not really attend on any trip I did in the city. But I did not really expect it that time. Anyway.

We went to Boston by car from Westford on Friday night, and dropped the car off at the rental. Then got back to the airport with the car rental free bus service, and took another journey from there to Boston South Station, where our bus was about to depart. Everything went nice and easy, and believe me I did not have to plan it for long. 

We got to Boston South in about 20 minutes, then found the Coach Station on the 2nd (!) floor in the building. (Buses were coming up on ramps to the second floor... strange)

Funny thing that the second floor was/is actually the 1st, as in the US first floor is basically the groundfloor. They have to do and mark everything differently. :-)

We had some confusion which chinese bus company we booked our ticket with. (The e-tickets were seemed to be stated only the agent name). Anyway, after a while we have found out the company. This was named as Lucky Star. Chinese people operated it, from Boston South, to New York Chinatown. The bus was late, because of the weather. (It was snowing heavily) Finally after around 40 minute late we could depart. It was fully packed with people, and the condition was not the best, however it was quick and cheap. The driver did not care about the weather, he drove like a lunatic. Also, none of the staff at the ticket office spoke proper english, I was a bit suprised about that. 

After around 4 hours drive, It was almost midnight when we got to Chinatown in Manhattan. As we were getting close to the city, we had the chance to see New York lighted up nicely, it was a very nice view. 

Chinatown is not the safest area in New York, so we decided to find our hotel first, and then go for something to eat. Our hotel was not far, it was kinda under the Manhattan Bridge. The hotel was really amazing. Everything looked very nice, room was well equipped, and clean, I could not complain at all. 

After occupying the room, we went back to a fast food restaurant nearby (Popeye's) to buy something to eat. The weather was incredible cold, around -14 degrees celsius. Of course the staff of the restaurant were all chinese, with very little english, so it was kinda hard to get them understand me. The food we bought (spicy chicken wings, etc) was very bad, I only realised it back in the hotel, because I did not want to eat in the restaurant wearing my gloves in the dining area because of the cold. 

After getting back to the hotel (dodgy people all around) I had a chat with the receptionist girl about the city. She gave me a map, and gave me some really good directions where to go, what to see, how things work, public transport, etc. After this 15 minutes "presentation", I was ready to see the city the following morning.

I could not sleep well, I was so excited.