I hopped on the subway and headed further down town. I'm getting better at this subway thing, I took the right one this time! It is a massive web of underground lines that are not all connected and there are four or five different subways that stop at different points along the track, so if you take the wrong one, you could accidentally bypass your intended stop and end up in the Bronx! Often, you actually have to take one subway to a certain point, hop off, walk a block or two and get onto a different subway to get where you want to be! It's crazy.
Anyway, I hopped off the line at the World Trade Centre. What a sobering and amazing experience. I walked out of the subway and looked straight up to see the partially constructed Freedom Tower. It is already a monstrosity of a structure, towering (no pun intended) over the rest of the city and as far as I heard, once completed, it is intended that it will forever be the tallest building in the city (I suppose symbolizing that freedom is more important than everything else?). There was quite an interesting moment while I was standing at the WTC memorial, when an elderly black gentleman suddenly burst into song. It was a beautiful moment, really. He had a powerful voice, hat held in his hands, belting out The Star-Spangled banner at the top of his lungs in front of the Freedom Tower. I guess Americans are nothing if not patriotic :) he gathered quite a crowd and earned himself an appreciative cheer and some scattered applause upon his triumphant finish.
But I get ahead of myself. Before I walked around to the memorial site, I actually walked up a block from the subway and found the little church where the firefighters had hung their civvies clothes and changed before going into the towers. What a poignant place. There are 9/11 memorials placed all around the church. A table filled with post-it notes containing messages from everybody who has visited the church; various photo boards with pictures of that day and descriptions next to them; pieces such as a fireman's helmet, jacket and boots, a cross made out of bits of steel from the mangled remains of the towers; and an American flag with the names of every single person who died that day written along both the red and white stripes of the flag. Outside this church is the Bell of Hope. Erected exactly a year after 9/11 happened, it is to commemorate the bond between England and the USA, and is rung every year on 9/11. I left this church and walked down to the site where the memorial fountains were built in the foundations of the fallen towers, but unfortunately even though it's free, you have to book online for the tour so I'll probably do that on Saturday.
I left the WTC and hopped on another subway line. This took me to the southern most tip of Manhattan. Here I got onto the Staten Island Ferry amongst masses of people. I didn't realise how huge these ferries are! We sailed (if a ferry can be described as sailing?) fairly close to the Statue of Liberty. She's smaller than I expected! But still an awesome sight. I got off at Staten Island and meandered aimlessly through the ferry station unsure of where to go. As I wandered out of the doors, I saw St George's Ball Park in front of me. I headed up that way, curious to finally see a baseball diamond up close (I saw so many when we landed!) and it turned out there was a college (university) game on, so I sat and watched the last four innings. Cricket makes so much more sense :) it was an amazing field though, as it is right near the edge of the Island and has a perfect view of the Manhattan skyline! Quite an awesome experience.
As soon as the game ended (Staten Island lost to the visiting team), I returned to Manhattan via the ferry as it was getting chilly and clouds were starting to form, making it fairly dark. I caught the subway back to the hostel, getting in at 7:30 (in total, a ten and a half hour adventure... Very sore feet and slightly sunburnt!). But my day didn't end there! At 9pm I joined the hostel pub crawl and, much to the dismay of my aching body and feet, we walked ("because it's such a lovely evening") another twenty blocks to our first pub instead of the usual subway trip.
American pubs are exactly like South African pubs, except instead of cool things like rugby on tv, they have basketball, baseball and hockey. Amazingly, the basketball commentator sounded exactly like Hugh Bladen to me (South African rugby commentator to you non-rugby watching peeps) over the dull roar of the pub because I couldn't hear his accent, only his voice. I felt quit at home after that :) I stumbled across a few games of beer pong happening at the back of the pub and stood watching for ages while nothing happened because Americans suck at beer pong :-P due to my extremely long day, sore feet and sunburn, I lasted two hours before I decided to brave the two blocks to the subway and go home. Before you panic, mom, the subway is as full at 11:30pm as the Gautrain is at 5pm ;) This really is the city that never sleeps!!
I wish I could upload some pics for you guys to see but I'm still working on getting around the incompatibility of my iPad with every other piece of non-Apple technology on the planet. I hope to be able to put some up soon though!
Until later... Stay classy c",)
Well it sounds to me like you are having the time of your life. I'm so glad you are enjoying it so much; you really have had it building up inside for years so hopefully everyday is an adventure like this one was. By the way, my Skype won't let me add contacts (something to do with the network) but please add me. My username is Paully281.
ReplyDeleteLove you heaps
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