On Friday 17^th, I didn't go to school. Instead of that, I took the train to go to one of the most famous towns in the world: New York City.

It was a long trip: four hours of train. During the trip, I read computer magazines and I began to read "Little Women". I quickly fell asleep. I woke up when a voice said: "New York City, five minutes". I looked through the window and saw the skyline of New York. What I first saw were the two skyscrapers of the World Trade Center. It was like in movies. That vision stopped when we entered the tunnel which goes under the East River.

We stopped at the train station. We took three escalators and arrived in the street.

There were high skyscrapers everywhere, limousines, yellow cabs, the streets were crowded. It was also very noisy. I hadn't though New York was so busy. There was also a big traffic jam: a normal day in New York City.

Afterwards, we took a famous yellow cab to our hotel. Our room was big. It looked new. It had two television sets with a VCR. We left the hotel to go to the "Planet Hollywood" restaurant. It was cool, it had big screens everywhere, loud music, it was really American.

The next day, we woke up late and had a quick breakfast. The hotel was fifteen meters from the Fifth avenue, so we went there to do some shopping: we went into FAO Schwarz, one of the biggest toy shops in the world, into a Coca Cola store, a Disney store, a Levi's store. I was impressed by the skyscrapers, because sometimes they were so high that we could not see the sky.

Then we took a taxi to go to the American Museum of Natural History. It was very interesting. We went to the dinosaurs section. Then we went to the museum's IMAX, a cinema with a huge screen, and we saw a film called "Survival Island". It was about an island in South Georgia where millions and millions of penguins and sea elephants reproduce each year.

Afterwards, we went to the top of the Empire States Building. It was wonderful and amazing. We had a global view of Manhattan: the World Trade Center, the Statue of Liberty, Central Park...

New York City is really different from European towns: all the streets are perpendicular or parallel, except Broadway. Everything is high, the streets are full of busy persons with cellular phones...

The next day, we went to the Central Park Zoo. There were many animals such as otters, sea lions and seals, snow monkeys, gila monsters, toucans, piranhas, bats, pythons, and three huge polar bears. They were all beautiful, but I think that the cages were too small. For example, there were about thirty piranhas in an aquarium two meters long. I think also that the animals didn't like the pollution of New York, compared to the pure air of the jungle, the sea or the mountain.

When we left the zoo, the bells of a church rang and played the Washington Post. It was surprising, but that's America.

In the afternoon, we walked in the town, did some shopping, and took the train back to Lexington at five o'clock.

I will never forget this wonderful weekend when I could discover the most amazing town in the world...