New York - Day Three

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I had booked my ferry ticket for 12, but hadn't quite believed the ticket offices assurance that I only need arrive at this time to get on the boat. My memory drifted back to believing a greasy Italian that we really didn't need to reserve a seat on the train from Naples because of our inter-rail passes, only to see us being charged for an expensive ticket on the train, and I decided to leave well in advance to time to ensure prompt arrival. The journey took about 40 minutes, as the harbour was right at the end of the city, so I arrived 50 minutes before 12.

I then saw the long and tedious ticket line I'd waited in yesterday, followed by an enormous line which speakers announced would take an hour and a half to board a ferry (once one actually had purchased a ticket). Smugly, I walked up to the considerably shorter reserved ticket queue, and within twenty minutes was sailing towards liberty island, having passed through the airport style security.

On arrival, I headed straight to the back of the pedestal where I passed through yet more security, this time more stringent than would be found in an airport. Conveniently, backpacks were forbidden from being taken into the monument. How fortunate then that for a small fee (admittedly only a dollar, but it grated nonetheless) I could hire a locker for two hours. Still there was a little more room for smugness, as one needed the correct ticket in order to actually enter said pedestal. This didn't cost any extra, but they'd run out of the daily allocation for people without reserved tickets.

I wandered through the museum, and headed up the steps to the top of the pedestal, which is as far as anyone is able to go. Presumably it is an acceptable risk that I may be an Islamic madman just underneath the statue - but to blow myself and others up those few extra meters that would take me inside the statue itself would be unacceptable. I muttered dark thoughts to myself and came back down, just in time to tag onto the ranger guided tour of the island.

After this, queued more for a ferry to take me to nearby Ellis Island, which actually turned out to be more interesting than Liberty Island. It's a largely artificial creation which processed millions of immigrants coming to the US from the late eighteen hundreds to nineteen fifty-four. The grand buildings had fallen into disrepair, but were re-opened as a monument in nineteen ninety. Again I took a free ranger tour lasting about an hour of the building, which followed the journey of an immigrant being processed. Interestingly, only third class passengers would ever be sent here. Anyone in first or second class was fast tracked straight from the ferry to citizenship.

In the evening, I took a stroll in central park to scout out the potential for swimming the next day. As I walked past the pool (that is also an ice-rink in winter) a raccoon darted in front of me and proceeded to raid a rubbish sack that had been left out for collection. At this time, a 'gangsta' black man and his female friend ('ho' ?) walked past in the other direction. I believe this to be an accurate transcription of their conversation

Her : What's that?
Him : that's a Ra-koon
Her : What does it do?
Him: It fucks you up

A quick google search returned nothing to support this claim.

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