Today is July the 4th: Independence Day. The plan
is to do walking, a lot of walking. Times Square, Wall Street, Statue of
Liberty, 9/11 Memorial, Madison Square Garden, High Line Garden and to find a
spot to watch the fireworks later tonight.
Trams and Trams, Turned Terrific
The High Line Garden is something pretty special. Basically
the City of New York transformed this old hobo ridden section of train track
into a two mile long garden walk. What makes it special is the train track is
actually above ground and travels through some upmarket areas like Chelsea.
Incredibly well done with pathways, different species of plants and well placed
art pieces. What a fantastic way to reclaim something that seems lost forever.
Wall Street is humongous. The buildings are hard and sturdy
with massive American flags draped over them. We visited that popular brass
Bull statue which has a particularly shiny head from all the people’s sweaty
hands on him. Something that should tell you all you need to know about tourists is that his head was shiny... his head and his balls. Big shiny balls from a decade of photo groping.
9/11 Memorial
We walked from Wall Street over to the Twin Towers Memorial.
We walked there all bubbly and cheerful from the excitement of it all but let
me tell you something: That memorial sight is one of the most spiritually
draining places on earth. You feel your soul take strain. It hits you hard as you walk about
these two massive pits with hundreds of people’s names cut into the perimeter
steel work. Your perception of what is real shifts as you count the names and gaze at the vastness of it all. How could so many people
have died? Right here, where we are standing. Just death and chaos and sadness.
Barbara and I walked around for a bit but said very little to each other.
I
just remember her looking at me while we stood on the edge of those water fall
pits and she said “There is so much hate in the world”. What an emotionally
moving place.
Free Ferry over Tour
It took a few blocks to recover from that. We walked down to
the ferry docks and took the ferry to Staten Island. This is the free ferry that we were told gets you up and close to the Statue of
Liberty. The idea is to use the free one and not pay the tour guide type ones.
Top Tip No. 16: It doesn't. The free ferry is hundreds of yards away from the statue and you barely get a decent picture. If you want a close up then pay the tour money.
Independence Day Fireworks Display
Barbara’s cousin lives in NYC so he popped out to come see us, we walked
a few blocks (well ran due to the rain) to a vantage point for the fireworks.
The rain subsided for a short while and the fireworks kicked off. I must day I figured the vibe would be more electric, much like a New Years in London or Burj Khalifa open day, but it wasn't. Not from lack of trying, perhaps it was just the poor weather.
Around midnight we headed back on a train. A really, really
full train with this one guy trying his best to Tetris his bicycle in with him.
Quite perplexed and with a lot of elbows from the passengers he decided to get
the next one. That’s just NYC hey – Midnight and the train is so packed that
the dude and his bicycle, which he rides at midnight for some reason, can’t get
on board.
So here we are, packed in like sardines and quite enjoying
the vibe. Ding – Station Blah Blah
goes the automated announcement. We carry on having a giggle and talking about
how the day has been. Ding – Next Station
Blah Blah as we cruised through another station. Then we clicked: We missed
our stop. Quite a few stops ago already. We didn’t realise how quickly that
train moves along underground. Sections that seemed to take hours to walk
flashed by without us noticing. We bailed out at the very next station which
ended us up 20 frikken blocks from home. Now at this stage of our trip we are
super broke so we can’t afford a Taxi or an Uber or even a train back. Our
cents have been bean-counted to perfection to get us to the airport tomorrow
and that’s it. We walked, and walked and walked all the way back. All part of
the experience I suppose.
A Classic Slice
We ended up near our Hotel and went to the one place I had
been eyeing out. 99c Pizza slice. Yes please. 99cents for a greasy cheese slice
and a further dollar for the soft drink. 2 bucks gets your dinner if you are so
inclined. 2 Dollars and then just down the road a Michelin Star restaurant
selling Wagyu Beef fillet for 50 Dollars. Such an incredible city.
Anyways, it is off to bed. Tonight is our last night in The
House and tomorrow is our last day in the U.S
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