After reaching Washington, we were so exhausted that all our plans to visit a museum (at least one in 2 years) were canceled. I suggested to Lyusya that we go to my place to spend the night, freshen up, and then with renewed energy, see a bit of Washington early in the morning before heading to New York. The decision was unanimous. We went home, I introduced Lyusya to all my roommates, we went to the store, bought real food instead of the stuff you eat on the road, saving a lot of time. (We usually ate subs, and that smell makes me feel sick now—Subway has such a specific sandwich smell). We had to get up very early at 5 AM to catch the first bus to the metro to get to Washington faster and jump on the nearest bus to NY. We reached DC around 7 AM, decided to have breakfast on the lawn near the monument (we brought yogurt), then walked from the monument to the bus station, passing the Capitol and some museums (but we didn't have time to visit them, and they don't open that early). Reaching the station, we bought the nearest ticket—the bus was leaving in 15 minutes—and quickly hopped on. Approaching NY, the weather turned bad again with a heavy downpour. By the time we got to the hostel, it was already 4 PM. They told us there was a problem with our booking: we had one night for two people and another for one. We tried to find another hostel, but everything was full, so we had to trick the hostel a little. But first, we had to move all our plans for conquering NY to the next day because we only had a little time left that day, and the day after that, we had a few hours before Lyusya's flight back to Oklahoma and my return to Virginia. So, I suggested spending the rest of the day in Chinatown buying souvenirs. I already knew where to go and immediately bought magnets and T-shirts of decent quality, returning to the hostel with peace of mind so we wouldn't have to rush or stress about souvenirs the next day. The next day, we got up as early as possible and went at a gallop. First, we took the boat to Staten Island to see the Statue of Liberty. We had breakfast at the ferry terminal building, then rushed back to the Brooklyn Bridge. I wanted my dream to finally come true and walk across that bridge (last year my sprained ankle didn't allow it). We crossed the bridge and ended up on the Brooklyn side—it's so beautiful there! We walked around the park, took a bunch of beautiful photos against the Manhattan skyline, strolled a bit through nearby Brooklyn, and headed back to Manhattan. Then we headed towards Central Park. Last year I didn't manage to walk around it much; this time we covered only half, but we reached the famous fountain and the hemisphere where the beginning of Step Up 3 was filmed. Then we tried to find a place for dinner, but it dragged on because I really wanted to find a Cheesecake Factory in NY, but it wasn't there. We had to look for another place. Then we gathered our strength and walked around the nearby streets, then wandered into Grand Central Station, where many famous movies were filmed. After that, we decided to walk to Times Square, walked around, and sat on the famous steps. It's so comfortable there, crowds of people, everyone going somewhere, everything moving. That's exactly where you realize there are 7 billion people in the world. After that, we walked a bit more, but we had no strength left for anything else, and we got to the hostel around 1 AM. I tried to stay awake with Lyusya in the lobby, which had sofas and a TV, so as not to leave her alone, but I had no strength. I went to sleep for a bit and ended up sleeping through almost half the night. Then we quickly checked out, left our bags in storage, and went shopping and just walked around without rushing. But after a while, I had to see Lyusya off to the right subway line going to the airport, take a walk myself, and then go to the bus station to head home.