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Finally the conference was over and we could begin the "real" holiday! Zac headed back to Oz, while Chris & Jac flew north to visit New York, New York.

Flying into New York was an awesome experience. The view of the city disappearing in every direction, and the fantastic view of Manhattan as a huge concrete jungle was nothing like we'd seen before.

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After a night in Queens near La Guardia airport where we arrived (only hotel available on the saturday night) we headed in to Manhattan to see what city living was really all about. Our Manhattan hotel was right next to Times Square, so naturally that was the first sight to be seen.

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Times Square was dazzling with lights, building-sized billboards, people and taxis.

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A few more pics around Times Square. We had dinner at the Times Square Brewery one night and enjoyed the micro-brews that are obviously brewed there. Below the brewery on the right is the Times Square entrance to the subway. We used the subway quite a bit during the week.

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One of the first things we did was grab a famous New York giant pretzel! Here Chris is enjoying a pretzel in Times Square.

And what looks cooler than Times Square in the day? Times Square at night of course. Here things are just starting to light up as the sun is going down.

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As soon as we got over the dazzling view of Times Square we went for a walk around Central Park. A huge park in the middle of all the concrete, but still manages to fit in somehow.

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There were a lot of nice sights in the park, and even a few weddings. Most of the time the trees hid the fact that you were actually in a city, but near the edges you got to see more of New York's interesting architecture.

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We saw our first Squirrel in Central Park too.