The first day in NYC was what we considered to be unsurpassable in terms of the amount of travelling and sight-seeing done in a single day. We thought wrong. Day 2 was significantly more eventful than its predecessor. We woke up to a free breakfast at the hostel, where thirty-something people would collect for a healthy start to the day. We boarded the L Train in Brooklyn for the third time in 24 hours and once again headed to Manhattan. We then took the 1 train south to the South Ferry docks. That's right, the Statue of Liberty was next on the itinerary. We exited the subway at Battery Park and walk over to the ferry docks. We took some photos of the beautiful scenery and it was utterly exciting to see the Statue in the distance. Standing in Battery Park seeing almost everyone there taking pictures of the Statue or shadowing their eyes with their hands to get a view is typical, I think that's all people come to Battery Park to do. We found the lineup for the fairy, which stretched for almost half a mile. A french tourist and his girlfriend held the line for us while we went and purchased tickets, and believe it or not we came back and the lineup was near done. We were on that boat in no time.
The ferry is a lot like the ferry to Center Island in Toronto. It's almost exactly the same. It's amazing to see the Statue of Liberty grow in the distance and you get closer and closer over the course of twenty minutes. We got off the ferry and crossed Liberty Island and walked along the main pathway that leads right around the Statue. It's stunning because looking up is a strain on your neck. I took maybe over 150 photos on the island itself. I was very impressed by it. It's stellar proportions and the detailed carving on its green-copper structure kept my eyes stapled to it. The view of Manhattan from the Island is also remarkable. The four of us sat barefoot on the grass in front of the Statue for about half an hour, just to say we did it ;). We were enjoying pointing out the infamous landmarks from across the Hudson River. We also spotted the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridge, as well as some places in New Jersey. What a great sight it is.
On the ferry ride back we stopped over at Ellis Island, but UNFORTUNATELY didn't have time to visit the immigration museum because of schedule/time constraints. When we got off the boat, there were snake-handlers with some steroid pythons on their shoulders. Greg, George and I went over and paid ten bucks each to hold them ourselves. They were so cool, you could feel the movement and the scales sticking to your skin and they tried to maintain a grip on your body. I called it off when the python I was holding turned its head towards my crotch as if though to bite it. "Okay sir you can take it back now, thanks."
The New York Stock Exchange building was just how I pictured it would be. In fact the entire avenue looked so financially important I felt like an idiot walking by all these New-Yorkers in suits, holding briefcases. The only time we were close to each other was when we were ordering drinks at Dunkin' Donuts :P. We stood around drinking slushies for about ten minutes before we realized we were DIRECTLY in front of Ground Zero. We paced speedily towards it and came to a closed off fence. For those of you that don't know, the Freedom Tower is being built over Ground Zero to commemorate the fallen Twin Towers, too bad construction was underway. Fortunately we didn't give up hope, we walked around the site and talked to another New Yorker who explained to us all the revealing spots at the site, which we went to and snuck in some amazing pictures. God bless you stranger. We left Ground Zero after about half an hour to head towards the Brooklyn Bridge, right nearby in South Manhattan. What an amazing structure, the Brooklyn Bridge. When you walk on it, you walk in the center of it. The center pathway then gets elevated above the traffic below and you're virtually walking over it. The visibility from the bridge that evening was so incredible and it offered me some stunning landscape pictures of Manhattan and Brooklyn, even the Hudson River, Statue of Liberty, Manhattan Bridge, and the South Street Seaport. We crossed the Brooklyn Bridge twice. I swear someone sells water every one minute while walking up the bridge. It's a long walk too, maybe about fifteen to twenty minutes one way at average speed. It's so worth it though. the bridge itself rocks and shakes like an earthquake simulator, it's definitely a lot of fun. On the right side pedestrian walk both ways, and on the left cyclers bike both ways. There are a lot of people on the bridge as well, from tourists to hobos to just regular New Yorkers exercising their way home with a brisk walk across the bridge.
The sun was going down and we had a dinner date with Farhan's cousin. She works on Wall Street and lives in the area as well. We met her on South Street and had dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant near the South Street Seaport. All the meals were written in Italian and the prices were rounded to the dollar. The food was also ridiculously overpriced (and just when I thought TGI Friday's the previous night was bad). At least it was a fancy place and a spot to keep in mind for the future, when I bring my wife back with me;). Dinner was served by candlelight which set the mood for romance but created an awkward setting for four guys and one girl (who was actually on break at 9pm from her job on Wall Street). We talked and ate with her for about an hour about the expensive lifestyle that is a necessity to live comfortably in NYC and about the passion for overpopulation and steam-broiled streets. I loved every word, she spoke like a true New-Yorker and got me excited about living in the city, the only thing she was missing was the accent. At around 10pm we departed and walked along the South Street Seaport. I took some more fabulous pictures and bought some souvenirs for my peoples back home. I also found another bottle of this brand-name mango juice I saw the day before at a hot dog vendor. It was so good I bought another bottle.
From the Seaport we walked to Pier 11 and up along Wall Street again. We walked along a narrow, stoned road and came up to a junction that was surrounded by massive, important-looking buildings. One had the Trump name on it, the other had a George Washington statue in front of it (Federal Hall), and the final one just a little way away (New York Stock Exchange) had an impressively oversized American flag hung across its entryway. There were few people in this corridor at that time of night, which was at the intersection of Wall Street and Broad, so we exploited this absence of humans to go outrageous with our pictures.
We called it a night and went back to the hostel for sleep, which came easily. Little did we know what Day 3 had in store for us...
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