New York – Day 2

I should mention that the New York trip happened the weekend before the Wedding, but everyone back home has been asking about “The Big Day” so I decided to post out of order.

Our second and final day in New York was at a different pace to the first day… mainly because there were now 20 of us Aussies walking around. Our first stop was where the train from New Jersey stoped, The World Trade Centre. From there we went to St Pauls church right next to the WTC, then onto the Staten Island ferry to take some pics of the Statue of Liberty, back to China Town and then finally Little Italy.

My first view of the WTC pit (through mesh) after getting of the train in the train station

Photos of the WTC have been put up as a memorial around the WTC train station

Another view of the pic looking north

A piece of the tower that has been left as a memorial in the site

Right behind me is the WTC Site, this fire comany would have been one of the first to the site and tragically they lost half of their company when the towers came down.

Being at the World Trade Centre site was a strange feeling, it was one of the two must see’s of my NY trip, the other was the Empire State Building. I almost felt as though I shouldn’t be taking photos and there was a strange calm/quietness around the site. If it wasn’t for the building of the new “Freedom Tower” on the site I would think that this area would have been quite a bit quieter than the rest of the city.

As it has only been 2 weeks since the 5th Anniversary of the towers being hit there were still remnants around the place and there obviously is still a lot of hurt as you would expect. We then went over to St Paul’s Church that backs onto the Trade Centre site. While most of the buildings around the Trade Centre site sustained at least window damage when the towers came down St Paul’s didn’t have one window broken. The church ended up becoming a rest area for the Fire Fighters and other rescue workers trying to find survivors in the days following the collapse of the towers. The whole visit to the WTC site was an experience that is too hard to put into words and one that will remain with me for quite some time.

It seems that all of the NYPD vehicles seem to have dents in them... watching them drive through trafic I can understand why!

hmm... I don't think the drivers in New York can read. I have never heard so many horns honking!

Joel & Holly with NYC in the background

The trip out on the Staten Island ferry was a relaxing one and a great time for some “happy snaps” including a few of the Statue of Liberty. On our return trip I noticed a plaque and found that we were travelling on the “Andrew J Barberi” Ferry that crashed into the docks on the 15th October 2003 and killed 9 people while many more were injured.

Our last stops in NYC were Chinatown and Little Italy. It was funny thinking back to my experiences in Hong Kong 6 weeks earlier and I couldn’t help but think how similar the China Town in NYC was to the real thing… just the people were different and I wasn’t one of the few tall ones around!

New York Stock Exchange

New York City was everything that I expected it to be… Loud, Fast and full of Rude people. It was funny at how different it was to what I had already experienced in the USA… completely different to Fairfax VA and Washington DC.

We left NYC in the early evening and arrived home around 2.30am after a much easier drive back and eventually some much needed sleep!

Goodbye New York...