NYC Day Two
Since last night was a drinking disaster, we slept in until noon today. Marcos insisted on working so Ali and I did our own thing. After we walked with Marcos to “ups”, he pointed us in the direction of the subway, which we took to Union Station.
From Union Station, Ali and I walked all the way south to the Staten Island Ferry terminal. Along the way, we walked through China Town, SOHO, walked through Wall Street and sat in the City Hall park. There is a lot of security around key parts ofkok New York. For example, the New York Stock Exchange and the NYC Court building are both surrounded by fences and guards. I’m not sure what things were like before nine-eleven but it’s too bad that things are at the current state. Regardless, it was amazing to wander amongst the beautiful architecture found within New York City. NYC takes advantage of every possible available space and Manhatten it’s neat to see all of the old buildings all connected together, not at all like Calgary where first, we don’t have all that many old buildings and second, all of our buildings are separated and as a result have windows on all four sides.
The other great thing about NYC is their support of the police and fire department. In the span of an hour we saw people (regular looking New Yorkers; whatever that means) doing hands shakes and high fives with officers. And the NYPD beat cops are everywhere; you can’t throw a stone within a city block without hitting at least two of them. And the support is reciprical also. In City Hall Park we saw a beat cop carrying an old lady’s shopping bags and holding her hand as he escorted her through the park. Simply amazing.
We got to the Staten Island Ferry terminal just in time to catch the 4 o’clock ferry. It’s a free ferry ride and is a great way to get up and close with the Statue of Liberty. At least as close as you can get for free. It’s 30 minutes each way and there’s not a lot to do on the ferry but there’s no better way to see the Statue of Liberty and the Manhatten skyline.
For dinner, at the incredibly late (for dinner anyways) hour of 10pm, we headed down to the meatpacking district and had dinner at ‘One’, a dining experience that’s supposed to be all about sharing but we didn’t do much of that. After the dinner hour, One becomes a bit of a dance club but not at all a good one; so we left at half past midnight. I would recommend One for the food but not for the club.
On our way home we encountered ‘Marcos in the raw’, much like the Bitonic days, and it will undoubtably have me laughing for the remainder of the trip. As we were cabbing back from the meatpacking district to the Upper East Side, where Marcos lives, we passed by another cabby with a girl hanging her head out the window. In a seemingly paniced state, Marcos rolled down the window while simultaneously telling us to “check this out!” This was then followed by a loud, Marcos-patented “Whoo!” in support of the girl and what Ali and Marcos have now coined the ’Manhatten Clam Chowder’. Nice. It’s funny how no matter what city you’re in, there are always young, drunk people heading home in cabs.
Update: there is a better way to see the skyline and the Statue of Liberty. See the day four blog entry.
Sat, 01 Oct 2005 08:43 Posted in General
