World Trade Centre, Ellis Island and Lady Liberty

Yesterday I jumped back on the hop-on hop-off bus and took it downtown this time. I jumped off at the World Trade Centre site, and spent some time wandering around there. It's basically just a massive construction site, cranes and scaffolding everywhere. You peek through the wire and there's a big hole and lots of workmen doing their thing. One of the giant cranes says something like "Helping rebuild the Freedom Tower" on it, and a big American flag plastered all over it. The flags are big here, everywhere you go you see flags. Lots of people taking photos. There's a walkway you have to cross to get to the other side of the road, and when on it you get a better view of the whole scene - the photo is on the left. From there you get a real sense of what is missing. It's this enormous gap, basically, where you know these two massive buildings once stood. The site itself isn't particularly affecting - it's too busy, there are too many people just going about their business for it to be a really 'still' experience, as least for me - but once you see the hole, then you kinda start thinking. Even walking there, when I couldn't actually see the site itself, I was thinking, 'This whole area would have been covered in smoke and dust and ash'. All the buildings, the sandwhich shops and the dry cleaners, they were the shops and the streets we saw on TV, covered in brown. It was a little spooky.

Then I walked down to Battery Park, where the ferry for Liberty & Ellis Islands leaves from. It's quite pretty down there, by the water. A park with lots of greenery, and some shade, and some benches and grass to sit on. They've also got a statue there, a big globe sculpture that used to be down at the WTC site, but which managed to 'survive'. It's pretty beaten up, but there's an eternal flame burning in front of it. The plaque says "it endures as an icon of hope and the indestructible spirit of this country".


I stopped at that point and had an icy pole and a drink of water. The weather was gross beyond belief. The line for the ferries were huge, too, I couldn't believe it. I decided to wait and see if they got any smaller, which they did, eventually.

Then I got the ferry out to Ellis Island, skipping Liberty Island - I didn't think it was worth it, to wander around at the base of the statue, unable to see it because you're so close ... plus it really didn't interest me. Ellis Island was fucking incredible, though, despite the huge number of people there. I took the audio tour through all the rooms and up the staircases and through the corridors - the most interesting room was the Registry Room, this massive hall where they used to process all the migrants. (Ellis Island is an island just off Manhattan that any migrants coming in off ships had to stop at in order to be processed. The buildings there now act as a museum. Yep.) Anyway. I stood there and thought about how my nonno's grandfather and my nonna's father both came through here, were both 'processed' here, and how terrifying it must have been. Not speaking any English, not knowing what the fuck was going to happen, but having the guts to get on a boat and go to a different country in search of something better. It made me put all my own homesickness and dirty-shower woes in perspective (the showers are pretty dirty, though, I'm pretty sure I have some gross tinea shit growing on my feet now - Jes, bring shower thongs).

The photo above is the view of the Manhattan skyline from Ellis Island, through the windows of the Registry Room. Imagine the feeling of being so close to your destination - it's literally JUST THERE - but also not knowing whether you're going to get to go over there or not. They were subject to all kinds of health checks and shit ... if they were puffing when the got to the top of the stairs, they were checked extra carefully to make sure they weren't going to bringing in any diseases, and to make sure they were strong enough to work and wouldn't become dependant on the State. I wouldn't have made it through - I was puffing like a bitch by the time I got to the top of the stairs.

The Statue of Liberty kind of stands there, watching over the whole thing, flags waving all around her on the island. She's actually enormous, so huge. Her feet are the size of a house or something, a really small house. It's been so surreal seeing all these 'iconic' New York figures up close and in the flesh - there's this weird detachment that happens, and I've said this already here, but you feel like you've seen it before because you HAVE, just on TV a whole bunch, never in real life. It takes some of the fun out of it, maybe.

Anyway. New York is growing on me. I'm better at wandering around alone. I have a few good bagel places to visit and get lunch. I don't know if mentioned this already - saw Sex and the City on Monday night. So good to see the girls again! I really liked it, it's a total fantasy story and completely absurd but it was great. Last night I saw Boeing Boeing, which wasn't amazing - I don't think I can do farce. The crowd went nuts though. I only saw it because Christine Baranski is in it, and she was unreal! This grumpy French maid ... just hilarious. Tonight is Wicked, tomorrow and Friday I might try and see some 'plays', off-Broadway stuff (even off-off-Broadway!). Top Girls kinda whet my appetite for some 'proper' theatre. Wanker.

Tomorrow I'm having lunch with Erin, and going to see some art. Hopefully. I'll get around to it eventually, it's just a matter of fitting it all in! I want to do the following things before I leave - the Met, MoMA, Grand Central, Empire State, United Nations building, Greenwich Village (I've already been there but I really liked it and want to go back to do some more wandering).

That's all, I'm done! Sunday evening I fly out for London.

xd