NYC Part II

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After Carnegie, (it seems so long ago already) we had a couple of days extra in NYC before heading up to Canada. We began the 17th of February with a brunch at a sort of salad bar - I hope this phenomenon comes to Christchurch, basically, you choose which type of lettuce you want and the bowl size, then you choose the ingredients you want in the salad. Each one is priced depending on what it is, so meat would be more expensive than tomato for example. Then you choose your dressing and pay for the salad. I guess it’s sort of like Subway, but there is much more choice. We headed off to the Museum of Natural History. I’m not a big fan of museums, so I was a little skeptical. We had a good look around the entire museum. There were displays on all things natural but by far the most exciting part was the butterfly room. We walked into a room filled with plants and hundreds of live butterflies. Jahan was lucky enough to have one land on his hand, I could have stayed there for hours.
After the museum we went for a stroll through Central Park. I had, in my head an idea of what I expected Central Park to look like. I thought it would be much like Hagley Park, green, spacious and lots of people around. I couldn’t have been further away form the truth. Although it is a nice (and surprisingly) peaceful break from the normal hustle and bustle of Manhattan, it is a concrete jungle, full of paths to run/walk on and not much grass. The grass that is there is a dull grey colour. Locals told me that it is due to it being Winter, but I know that grass in Christchurch is green all year round. We stopped for a while to look over a lake towards the Manhattan sky line and take in the chilly atmosphere. I was hoping to spot a celebrity or two, but to no avail.
A local recommended a restaurant to us, so we went there for dinner - located in the Little Italy part of town (a subway ride away from the hotel) it was situated in a small, quiet street but was packed full of New Yorkers. The food was good.

We had pre organized tickets to a basketball game, so we took the subway to Maddison Square Gardens to see the New York Knicks play the San Antonio Spurs. The stadium is very large, not as big as the stadium we sang in, in Calgary in 2007, but large none the less. The game was great; it’s so different to be amidst the excitement of Americans at a sports match. We managed to avoid the overpriced and tasteless snacks they walk around offering during the game, but by chance happened to be sharing the stadium with some rather famous people. Whoopi Goldberg has season tickets to the Knicks games, she was in the crowd. Fat Joe, (a hip hop musician) was also there and I was very excited to see Eva Longoria (from the TV show Desperate Housewives) at the stadium, to watch her husband, who plays for the Spurs.
We had made friends with the concierge at the hotel and after the game we went out to a bar with him for a drink. It was really nice to spend an hour or so chatting with a local. The bar was empty, except for us, so the barmen were playing video games on the big screen. A homeless lady came in and asked us for money and directions to Connecticut, the barman told her he had directions to the door- Apparently she comes in every week asking for directions to somewhere. It’s sad, but I can’t help thinking some of these people had a choice to make a long time ago, and they made the wrong one.
Our final day in ‘the City that never sleeps’ took us to Wall Street and Ground Zero (the location of the 9/11 disaster). My expectation of Wall Street was that of tall, modern buildings, businessmen dressed in black suits walking quickly down the sidewalks, talking on cell phones past lit up signs with the latest figures flashing. Once again, my expectations failed me. Wall Street is easy to walk past without even noticing it. Most of the building are made of stone and are heritage style. There were not many people in the street, mostly tourists, and no lit up signs. We went to the Federal Hall building, which is where past presidents made their first speeches at the top of the steps. (Lincoln & Washington). It’s pretty amazing to think we stood where they had so many years ago.
I was totally shocked to see two policemen with HUGE guns guarding the hall. (Jahan tells me the gun was an M4A1- that means nothing to me). Anyway the gun was very, very large and extremely scary. I believe that the US is on a security level of Orange at the moment. (This is normal) If it changes to red, we would see policemen and guns like these all over the place.

After Wall Street we walked to Ground Zero. Beside the site (which is under construction and is about 4x4 blocks in area), is a small, old church. It seems out of place surrounded by sky scrapers and beside the sit of such tragedy. I guess I expected some kind of overwhelming feeling when I got there. We walked around two sides of the site to get to the memorial. There are flowers and plaques and some information about the people who dies there. The overwhelming feeling hit me. The words going through my head were “They are all here”. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but I wasn’t keen to stick around and find out. So, we walked away mostly in silence. What happened there was awful, but it happened, it’s a part of world history and I’m glad I got the chance for a reality check. Things like that don’t always feel real from our corner of the world in NZ.

We finished our afternoon in a very large camera store - and didn’t buy anything! Then it was off to the bus station to go to Montreal.

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Photos

T Rex at the museum
This is the museum from the movie 'night at the museum'

Eva Longoria
Being interviewed

Whoopi Goldberg
They put up the pictures of the celebrities who are at the game on the big screen. She sat in front of us so I couldn't see her face

Federal Hall
Notice the policeman with the gun to the left of the pillar near the centre

Ground Zero
Under construction

Comments

[Mummy Su]

Spooky..?
Hi guys! I'm surprised you did'nt really feel the loss at 'twin towers!' We have visited the site of the Bali bombing and it was really moving for us. Also the Phi Phi Island sunami site is quite overwhelming. Lizzie, althou I like history as I guess you do.Museums seem to be a guy thing...! I've always assumed NYC to be alot like Las Vegas, it is at 'night time', that it is at it's most fantastic! All the lights and alot more exciting as we don't really have that here!Althou when I get there I would like a 'white xmas!' lol wish me luck!! hugs'n'luv xxxxxxx