NYC 231007

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NEW YORK 22 OCT 2007

Had a crap night sleep from my roomy snoring his head off (Thank god hes only here for 1 night) and also from all the noise on the street (Workers, polices cars ambulances). NYC is without doubt a 24hours mad city. Got up early and set off on foot to explore more of the city. Burger king for breaky. Had a sausage and egg on a bagle (whats all that about??). Bought a hop on / off tour bus ticket for all all manhatton and brooklyn. Decided to do downtown first. (inc times square, madison sq garden, macys, Empire SB, Chinatown, little italy, wall st, ground ZeroRockfeller, and loads more)

Visited ground Zero / World trade center visitors center. It takes you through the whole event, History, the build up, the terrorist attack and the afhermath of 9/11 step by step. I also went on a tour around ground zero. Our tour guides were a fireman and police officer that were caught in the 9/11 attack and were actually buried when the tower collapsed and are so lucky to be alive - they basically talked us through the whole event and told us hows they felt and everything they saw. The whole experience was very sad and emotional for everyone. There were several people on the tour crying. Will never forget it...very touching. The guides do the tours everyday and even they still get upset when talking about it.

From there mooched around downtown NYC and got toally lost and didnt have a clue where the next stop was for the tour bus. Eventually after walking around for an hour or so i saw a tour bus which i ran after it after and easily caught as the average speed around NYC is about -2miles an hour. Rested at a port (on east side downtown whilst waiting for the brooklyn tour bus. Got chatting to a really cool and good looking Ozi girl who was travelling on her own (obviously switched on the dean charm) - unfortunately she was married so no joy on this occasion. From there did a Tour bus of Brooklyn which was cool. We got a great few of manhatton from the otherside of east river (see pics). People from Brooklyn seamedreally cool and friendly (especailly the kids) they were al lwacving and letting on. However we were told by our guide (a 50 year old tranny wearing stockings and boots!!!!) that not all are friendly over here. Went past some of the very posh expensive streets and town houses where a lot of the rich and celebraties live. From there went up the east side of manhatton past the rockerfellar, united Nation building. Got dropped off near rockerfellar so had a long walk back to Hostel. However NYC is an amazing place at night so chilled out on a few of the little parks they have in the city and took it all in. Got back late, very tired but still managed to go out for some beesr at an irish pub and watch some football. O Nearly forgot got back to my appartment to be greeted by 3 thai girls....things could be a lot worse! lol

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Photos

Empire State Building lobby 231007
Not sure who that handsome sex god is in the picture???

View from Empire State Building 231007
View of uptown Manhatton - see central park in the distance

View from Empire State Building 231007
View of downtown Manhatton. Before 9/11 the twin tower would have dominated the skyline to right hand side of pic

Ground Zero WorldTrade Center 231007
Tower7. The only remaining tower from 9/11. There were actually 6 towers destroyed in 9/11 not just towers 1&2. The other towers were much much small than the one we all saw calapse on tv.

WTC ground Zero 231007
The site where the world trade ceter tower used to stand. Constuction has started on the new WTC but no building or tower will be built on the foundations of the old towers 1&2 as over 1000 people are still unaccounted for.

downtown Manhatton 231007
View of downtown Manhatton from otherside of east river (Brooklyn)