Still exploring :)

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Day 3 - Sunday 22^nd February 2015 New York

The snow has stopped, although it was falling all night, so its about 2 inches deep now. The roads are clear and the paths are mostly clear, so I decided today was a good day to take a trip to see the Lady herself, on Liberty Island. I got my ticket to the grounds of Liberty Island and also asked for a pedestal pass, (due to the icy snowy conditions there was no point paying for a crown pass as we were not let outside) I got the ferry over to the island, navigating icy conditions and even mini (extremely mini) icebergs. Well they were big lumps of flat ice floating in the east river, I know understand what the titanic had felt like that night (only without the drowning, and the sinking...etc.) the ice bumped and scraped the side of the boat as we navigated (I say we, but all I did was stand on the top deck, watching the ice and taking pictures of the statue of liberty) the estuary river.

Upon disembarking on the island, I headed for the line to get to the pedestal, it wasn't too long a wait until I was in the exhibition showing how the statue was designed, and constructed. Then I climbed stairs (for what felt like hours, but really wasn't) to get to the pedestal. Now because it was still early morning at this point (9.20am) the ice and snow had not been cleared and also the snow from higher up on the statue had not melted, so for health and safety we were not allowed to step out side the door of the pedestal observation level. So after looking out both sides of the statue, it was time to head back down and continue the tour outside at the base of the statue, listening to the free audio tour as I crunched over the snow, leaving my mark (my footprints and a small snowman) on the island. By the time I had finished walking around and playing with the snow, I was very cold, but luckily it was almost 12pm and the ferry to Ellis Island was just departing, so I jumped on and began the experience of entering the United States as they would have, now Ellis Island is still recovering from Hurricane Sandy, so a lot of the artefacts and displays have been moved off site until the repairs are complete, but they have plenty of pictures and notices to read and listen to so there wasn't a shortage of things to see, read and listen too. By 3pm I was tired and headed back to the city. The visibility was good tonight, (the snow storm had turned everything white and made for limited visibility the night before) I headed to the Rockefeller Centre for a walking tour of the art work around the inside and outside of the building in the centre and the top of the rock observation deck. The next available tour time was 7.30pm, so I went to the observation deck first, The elevator up is really fast and the roof is clear with flashy lights and music playing as you watch the top of the elevator shaft getting closer and closer as we speed towards it, stopping just in time! I liked that even though the view from the top of this building is similar to the view from the Empire State, it was now twilight so all the lights of the city and skylines could be seen. I wandered around enjoying the view for a while, taking some photos of the skyline at night, then headed back down for the walking tour, I am not knowledgeable at all about art, but this tour was brilliant, Our guide clearly had a passion for art and was able to get this across to use in a friendly informative manner, We stopped outside one building that had a huge mosaic done on the 3 sides of the entrance porch, it was impressive just looking at all the tiny tiles and gold leaf that was used. Then the guide started to tell us about the elements of the pictures, it was a billboard telling people to listen to radio, and suddenly it wasn't just an art work any more but it "made sense", the lines coming from the lady's head were her thoughts as waves the scribe and the orator were taking these "thoughts" and passing them on to the every day person, who in turn with the knowledge was able to defeat the monsters of ignorance and stupidity. The other work of art that stood out to me, was back at the end of the tour in the Rockefeller centre again, I don't want to ruin it so if your there just start by standing in the middle of the lobby, then walk all the way over to the right of the lobby looking up at the picture all the while, then walk back all the way to the left, keep looking up all the time, then consider that the artist had to think all this in his studio in France, so that it would look like this when it was hung on the ceiling here in New York. By this stage I was tired and freezing cold (New York in February is cold, like even the snowmen, think its too cold) so I headed back to my warm hostel.

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