It’s around 4am when I arrive in New Haven. I text a message to Wouter’s cell phone, letting him know that I arrived home safely from my date with Leilani and that’ll sleep in the car. My intention was for him to read this, when he would wake up in the morning… but it worked out otherwise. The message wakes him up and he lets me come in. So I can sleep on the couch for a few hours… I told you he’s a sweetie.

When we wake up around 8am on October 19th, we have a short breakfast with Jon and head on for our day-off in New York. Planning to hang around a bit and see something of the city (before we catch our plane to Düsseldorf, tomorrow afternoon). When driving over the Williamsburg Bridge we notice, once again, how impressive the New York skyline actually is. First destination is JFK airport, where we’ll drop off our Chevy. Have to admit that that was a small emotional moment… images covering 2 weeks of extensive touring in the US where flashing by, when we handed in the keys. We’ll be depending on the metro and our feet, for the rest of the day.

We do some sightseeing in Manhattan: Empire State Building, Wall Street, Broadway, Times Square… you know the deal. I’m looking out for a Starbucks and luckily it doesn’t take long before you find one over here. We decide to check in at our hostel up in Harlem, before getting dinner - pasta at an Italian Restaurant. Gnocchi for me and spaghetti, with two giant meatballs, for Wouter. Reminiscing about the last two weeks, we’re getting ourselves into a sentimental mood. We don’t really want to leave! We’re already determined to come back next year.

Upon return at the hostel, Wouter is in for a little surprise: a big woman is sleeping in his bed. After some negotiations with her and the staff he gets himself another bed in the room. All well and settled… we think. Turns out that this woman has a master degree in snoring… The whole room doesn’t really sleep that night (except for her ofcourse). Kinda tedious, but oh well… what can you do? Just cope with it I guess, but I’m still shaking off the irritation when I get up. Luckily the sun is shining, so it doesn’t take that long. We’re making our way for JFK. We’re flying back to the continent.