Last day in NYC I want to see everything

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I woke up in my hostel bed refreshed. Sleeping in a hostel is a hit and miss. Sometimes the beds are comfortable and sometimes not. You also don't know what kind of roommates you are going to get and who will come in at what time. This time I was exhausted enough that I went right to sleep and slept through the night.

Breakfast was provided by the hostel and consisted of various cereals, bread and pancake mix. I needed to check out before I left for the day and I was waiting for the hostel clerk to show up so I could ask where I could store my backpack for the day. To pass the time I chatted with a friend on Facebook who was apparently madly jealous I was in NYC. I didn't feel too bad about that because she was the one who will receive the Cinderella magnet. It was past 9am and I was wondering where the hostel employees were. Some people commented since this was daylight savings day they were probably running an hour behind. Finally I gave up and left my backpack under the bed and I was on my way.

First stop of the day was the Freedom tower in Manhattan. The tower is now the tallest building in America but it is not actually finished yet. There is still a considerable amount of construction going on in the area and you can't visit the building yet. I went from there to the Brooklyn bridge. The pedestrian entrance to Brooklyn is just a few blocks from the Freedom tower and I started walking across it. I was debating how far to go on the bridge and I opted to just walk halfway to get the best view before heading back to Manhattan. The bridge is quite an impressive piece of construction and is worth a visit.

My next stop for the day would be Staten Island. I was so used to the subway at this point I opted to just take the subway to the ferry stop. The Staten island ferry is free to use and is supposed to be used by commuters but I was informed by some people at the hostel that a lot of tourist use it to go back and forth. The ferry passes close the Statue of Liberty and that is the reason why I took the ferry. It didn't pass as close as I like and I couldn't go on the topdeck on this ferry. They have different boats used on different days so the one that I took didn't have an accessible topdeck. I didn't go that far into Staten Island after the ferry docked just far enough to see the Manhattan skyline and eat a hotdog at a nearby restaurant. On the ferry ride back a woman who had gotten off started yelling into her cellphone something about "WOULD DANIEL STAND UP FOR HIS MOTHER". She was shouting for awhile even with all the people around her.

After the ferry back to Manhattan it was on to my next stop for the day, The Empire State Building. Last time I had been in NYC I had enough time to visit either the Chrysler building or the Empire State building. I chose the Chrysler building because it was closer but it was a bad choice and I couldn't go up the Chrysler building. The Chrysler building is owned by a private corporation and no longer allowed tours. This time I had done enough research so I had bought a ticket to the Empire State building before hand and skipped the line hahaha.

It takes a lot of walking to get the proper elevator to take you up. I took the fast elevator up to the 80th floor and walked up the remaining 6 floors because the attendant advises people that the wait for the elevator is quite long. So 6 flights later I was at the observation deck. It was quite of view of New York City from up there. You can see all the major sites in Manhattan from up there and I will say the part I liked the most was a pigeon that had gotten up the Empire State building was just sitting there on the ledge staring at tourists. It was quite windy up there and very cold compared to the rest of New York. As a Canadian I felt right at home.

Due to budget constraints the Empire State building was the only tourist spot that I had paid for. $27 to go to the observation deck and it was worth the money. I took the elevator all the way down after that and headed to my next stop which was the UN building. It was about 16 blocks to the UN from the Empire State building but it was nice to wander around Manhattan and I enjoyed the people watching opportunities. I did some minor shopping along the way and I would have bought a lot more but I didn't have much luggage space for the trip back.

When I reached the UN building I was disappointed to see the flag poles did not have the country flags on them. It was apparently off season so the ambassadors were not there so there were no flags. I wandered around a bit and headed back to the subway. It was the only disappointing tourist spot I went to. After that I didn't have anywhere else I wanted to go besides Chinatown so I went there next. I was not sure what to expect with Chinatown because I have been to the one in Toronto often enough. I will say it is fairly crowded and Canal st is full of jewelry stores. I ended up eating my last meal in NYC in Chinatown and chose something at random and was quite impressed by the food.

After that I was basically done for the day and NYC. I will tell you now that it felt like I had a sprain in my left foot. It was getting hard to walk around so I decided I could just wait for an hour at the hostel instead of trying to force down another monument. On my way back I demonstrated my subway knowledge by helping a woman with 2 young children get to 96th street and how to use the self service kiosk for the subway metro cards.

After that I got another taste of New York life when I was approaching Fulton station the station was full with Hasidic Jews. In full attire as well. I was not sure what was going on but they packed every subway car to bursting for several stops. I even showed one of them how to get to a particular stop. It was quite a crowded ride into Brooklyn after Fulton Station.

I got to my hostel and collected my backpack but since I had another hour or so before I had to head down to the port authority. I just chatted with some people and surf the web while I waited. At the end of the hour my foot was feeling better and I said my goodbyes and headed out.

So that is my trip to New York City. It is a city that doesn't require any selling to visit. Just go there and you will not be disappointed.

P.S

I was so tired on the bus on the way home I am pretty sure I saw a wizard sitting in the bus station in Rochester.

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