New York City, Part 3

It feels like we have been writing about New York City forever, and that's partly because we did so damn much in that place it was ridiculous. Afterwards we literally needed a full day in Philadelphia to recover from such over-activity trauma. Whats funny though is that after all these photo's, there's still one more post to go about New York City that contains about 30 more photos, so just hang tight, we will move onto other places eventually! So without further procrastination, lets get into the good stuff!

NYPD booth right in the middle of Times Square. Which we did actually visit once due to us being ripped off, but we made such an ordeal out of the whole situation the dodgy merchants ended up giving our money back. WIN.

This was the daytime view from our luxurious Milford Plaza Hotel just around the corner from Times Square, it got even better at night would you believe it. 

While not as impressive as the photo above, this was the other view out to the Hudson river from our room at the Milford. 

As part of Kristian's birthday present I managed to get tickets to the inside of The Statue of Liberty which was pretty cool. This was our little cruise liner that took us out to Liberty Island.

The original torch from the statue.

The spiral staircase inside the statue going all the way to the crown.

 Below are various angles of the grand Statue of Liberty that we shot when taking our Liberty Island Cruise.

Unfortunately we didn't get to see any frantic rambling men you commonly associate with wall street and the stock exchange. Instead we say many businessmen frustrated by all the stupid tourists blocking every single walkway, it was entertaining nonetheless. 

Looking down a part of Wall Street near the Stock Exchange.

While our next destination really isn't and shouldn't be an essential tourist attraction due to the horrifying events that took place, you feel somewhat inexplicably drawn to it to discover the true terror, compassion and aftermath that surrounds that fateful September day in 2001, the 11th to be precise.

We decided to take a tour led by a rescue worker and a 9/11 survivor, who as fate had it, was on the 82nd floor of the North Tower when the attacks on the World Trade Center had occurred. The stories she told were gripping, terrifying, devastating and heartwarming all at the same time, they described some of the scenes as people scurried out of the buildings literally running for their lives. One of the more baffling things she noted to us is that most people working in the North Tower when the attack had occurred, had no idea as to what had happened when that first plane had struck the building; majority thought it was a small quake that hit the city or a small explosion on the lower floor. Most literally had no idea until they were either told by their loved ones or had heard it on the news, in which by this time the whole world had heard about the devastating attacks. Amidst all the stories of sadness and adversity, she described some of the most inspirational rescue operations performed to date, and some stories of the lucky ones who had, by miracle, survived the towers falling atop of them, some trapped in little cocoons of steel and metal, only to be one of 28 people later discovered alive after the towers fell.

Interestingly though, our tour guide went on to describe the extraordinary factors of the 11th of September itself, that as fate had it, saved thousands upon thousands of lives. To help you understand this, I need to explain how busy a place the Twin Towers were. On an average day, there was typically 60,000-80,000 people in the towers at any given time, split between businessmen and tourists alike. On particularly busy days this numbers soars to just over 150,000 people occupying both the Two Towers. But as it was explained to us, there were three very important, very coincidental factors that left the number of people in the Twin Towers on the 11th of September to an unusually low 17,000 on the day of the attacks. The first factor was that the night before, there was a big sports game on very late in the night (1am I think was the start time) in which many New Yorkers were vested in. As the game finished close to 4am, many workers called in sick on September 11. The second factor was to do with the school term starting. As it fell, the first day of the New York school system started on the 11th of September, so many parents were taking the morning off to take their kids to school. The third factor was to do with the local elections being held in Nerw York that very day. As it turned out, most workers tend to take the morning off to vote in their local election, and as it turned out the voting offices opened in the morning of September 11. These three factors, along with the extraordinary work of the NYPD and FDNY, led to minimizing the loss of the 9/11 attacks.

So take a look at the photo's of the memorial, which is the giant pool in place of the original tower's footprints. They were shockingly big, with the names of everyone lost inscribed into the metal surrounding the pools. What was nice as well was the fact that if it was one of the victims birthdays, they would put a white rose on their name, to signify such an important day.

These little notes were written by primary school children and included a brief description of the victims life, and a prayer for them inside. 

The white rose placed for this particular persons birthday. 

On our second last night in New York we decided to walk the High Line. I found this particularly interesting in that it was an old abandoned and unused railway line 2 stories above ground that soared over about 15 blocks along the Hudson River. Instead of leaving it as ruins or tearing it down, they have turned it into a walkway with various plants, trees and shrubs that run the whole length of the 2 mile walkway.
Below are some photos of the walkway with its beautiful scenery.

Some of the views as you walked above the roadway, this one in particular is looking down West 22nd street towards Brooklyn. 

This wasn't one of the beautiful scenes along the High Line, it was just a cool automated carpark.  

After leaving the shoe box YMCA hostel, we upgraded in style. Welcome to the Milford Plaza.

Our very nice Queen room with a view. If you look closely you'll also see that the grey blind has goodnight written on it, I thought it was a nice touch,. 

This is what happens when your exhausted after walking 10km+ in New York City all day. You resort to the most amazing burger joint which just happened to be across the road from the hotel. We chose the takeaway option and opted for The Walking Dead on cable. 

So that will be it for now, but we do have one last New York City post to upload tomorrow night then we can move on to our doings in Philadelphia.

So until then,
Kristian & Lauren.