Downtown Manhattan, New York, Fri 23 May 2008

I went for a walk in the morning to check out the Soho area, which turned out to be one of my favourite areas of NY. Pretty cobble stone streets, quaint little coffee shops and fashion stores dominated Soho. There were also gorgeous art shops including an animation art shop which had some of the coolest paintings of various cartoon characters. Even though I was walking around the area till about 10:30am none of the clothing shops were open, it seems people sleep in late in Soho :). But it was enjoyable just strolling the streets. I stumbled across Bloomingdales too which was open so I had to check it out. I don't think it was the flagship store but it was still 5 stories with plenty of unaffordable clothes and shoes.

Sadly I needed to get back to my hostel to check out (I couldn't find a hostel to cover all 3 nights) so couldn't stay around Soho waiting for the shops to open. In fact I hardly did any shopping in New York, too much other stuff to do. Maybe I'll get a chance to go back another time for a shopping trip.

After I dropped my gear off at Hostel number 2 (on the west side, top of Chelsea), I headed to downtown Manhattan. I took the free Statton Island ferry that transports commuters and tourists and has great views of the Statue of Liberty. I didn't think there was much point going to Liberty island since you can't go up the Statue anymore so I settled for the free ferry. I really enjoyed it too because it was a beautiful day and I could enjoy the sun while looking back over at the views of Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge. Manhattan is full of helicopters! It is rare to see the sky without one or two of them flying around. On the ferry you could see one of their landing pads down on the waterfront and watch them constantly landing and taking off.

Back on land I strolled through Battery Park which is right at the bottom of Manhattan. I hoped for a lie down in the sun but not a lot of grass so settled for a seat overlooking a pier. There were a lot of performers in the park too. While walking away from the park I noticed a lot of traffic controllers around and it wasn't long before I found out why, a hue row of police cars with their lights going headed around the corner.. and they kept on coming. There must have been about 15-20 of them. And then a few minutes later another lot. No idea what it was for or why but it was fun to watch.

Next stop was the sight of the World Trade Center, also known as Ground Zero. Not much to see, the whole area was blocked off with high fences for construction but they did have one mural depicting the events and the names of many who lost their lives. The mural had flowers and notes under it and the mood was a sad one. Around the corner was Ladder 10, the first fire station on the scene. Many of that company never made it and they had a memorial permanently stationed there for them.

I walked back east and visited Trinity Church, a very old and popular church in New York. It was beautiful inside with a huge stain glass window and was incredibly peaceful so I stayed awhile. The church sits opposite Wall Street so that was my next destination. There really isn't much to say about Wall Street, its a business district so it's not that exciting. I walked past the New York stock exchange and came across a Tiffany & Co which looked so fancy I didn't have the guts to go inside... :)

The last thing I wanted to do downtown was walk along Brooklyn Bridge. Looking at my map I headed up the east side of Manhattan until I realised that the bridge was quite far above me! I had to walk back inland for quite awhile to find the start of the bridge, the maps I had didn't indicate this at all so I ended up walking so much further than I needed to. The bridge was worth the wait tho as it had spectacular views back over manhattan and on towards Brooklyn. I walked the whole bridge there and back which was no small feat considering how much I'd already walked and how long the bridge is. I just googled and the bridge is about 1.8 kms in length. I knew it felt like a long bridge walk!

Deciding I'd had enough of walking I decided on Little Italy for a good meal and a well deserved rest. I expected Little Italy to simply be a street with a few italian restaurants. Man was I wrong! It was quite a few blocks of a closed off ave filled with carnival style stalls including games, icecream and sweets and decorations. It was filled with people wondering around and the street was lined with restaurant after restaurant with the most delicious sounding menus. I finally settled on one that had a small cosy feel to it, a friendly italian owner (the owners are out on the street trying to get you to eat at their place), a small table overlooking the street and home made Sangria. The table made for great people watching, the Sangria was delicious and the food even more so! I had a home made lasagna which was just incredibly tasty, and of course I couldn't resist dessert, deciding on a lemon sorbet which came out inside a hollowed frozen lemon. Extra points for the cool presentation! The owner and waiters were very friendly and took pity on my sitting on my own so would come and chat to me often. There was a guy and girl who had arrived during my dessert and sat next to me, and when one of the waiters mentioned something about New Zealand the guy struck up a conversation because he had always wanted to go.

Their names were Dominic and Emily (and they're no doubt reading this so I better be nice... ;) ... just kidding guys.. oh and sorry about the bad photo!), and they were so friendly. They were both local New Yorkers (yay some locals!) and worked together as fashion buyers, which took awhile for them to explain to me what that was. It was great chatting to some locals and they were fascinated by my travels so far. We got along so well I ended up ordering another Sangria and chatted to them through their dinner too. We all left the restaurant together and headed back to Soho for a drink and ended up in a margarita bar. It was a great night and it was so nice to have some company. We exchanged numbers with the promise of catching up again later on in the weekend.

We all headed down to the subway station after our drink to head home and we spotted some workers on the track. I started to get worried but Emily pointed out this was normal and they just stand in this slight indentation in the wall when the train goes past. I couldn't believe it! The space is so small, you really wouldn't want a big pot belly with that job!