The Last Few Days

There is certainly no shortage of places to ice-skate in New York. Whether it be Central Park, Bryant Park or a host of other venues, there are loads of people happy to spend the day throwing themselves around the ice and even falling over for the amusement of others. And the day after we went on our hike around the city, the weather turned cold enough for us to have been able to ice skate anywhere we wanted. And this was the day that we chose to go and see the Statue of Liberty.

Now, everyone will tell you to just take the Staten Island ferry, which is free, as it gives the best views of the statue. But, quite frankly, this misses the point of the visit altogether- the gift shop experience. Penny had to drag me out of there kicking and screaming, my hands out clutching at the air in front of the classy Statue of Liberty clocks, corkscrews, plastic statues, boxes of mints (called 'Monumints'), pens, shot glasses, Liberty crowns.

Man, it was a cold day and to get out to the Statue it involved.. you've guessed it, queuing again! Standing in line to buy a ticket, standing in line to get on the ferry, standing in line to get a hot dog- OK, we didn't actually do the last one because we were too worried about losing our place in the ferry queue. There were plenty of street 'entertainers' around- some of them dressed at the Statue and charging you to have your photo taken with them- something that happens all around the city, in fact an Elmo was arrested the week before for over agressive marketing- and food stands but me and Pen stood firm and just waited for the boat- and complained about the cold.

It is true that the statue is really quite difficult to photograph when you are actually standing next to it- the angles are all wrong and you have to fight your way through the crowds to see it. Here is a fantastic self portrait of me in front of the Statue



That should give you an idea of the outcome of most of the photos. So we saw the statue, raided the gift shop and went onto Ellis Island (stood in line for another ferry as the cold winds cut across us), raided the gift shop there and went back to Manhattan. We went back to Time Square and into a 'Toys R Us' that was so big it had a ferris wheel in it (no, we didn't go on it).

The next day we woke up to glorious sunshine and so we did the Staten Island ferry thing.

I guess that they are right about the view but again you have to fight your way through all the other cheapskate tourists trying to see it for free. We also went to the sight of the World Trade Centre (I should say Center as it is an American building after all) and saw this memorial to the victims of the terror attack

Around the area were loads of Chinese men doing paintings with your name in them- I had seen them in Time Square too but this guy was the best I saw so I got him to whip up a couple of paintings for my friend, Linda's, two kids for Christmas



They came out so cute that it was a struggle not to go back and get one for myself and one for everyone I know. But I didn't. We went to see another movie and then home. Penny was due to leave the next day so we just got up in the morning- moved me to another hostel for the next night and hung around in Central Park for the morning. I saw Penny onto the airport shuttle bus and went to buy a book. That evening I saw all the kids out treat or treating, carrying their own body weight in candy and chocolate. There were some really cool costumes. The day before we had seen lots of people dressed up in Time Square and I even saw an angel on the subway- but he turned as I tried to take a sneaky photo

Ah well. I spent my last night chilling in the hostel ('Jazz on the Park', it is pretty cool and not too expensive though I was in a room with 11 others I am more than used to sharing my bedroom with strangers by now!) and went off to JFK airport the next day.

One thing that I will say about American airports- they are so dull! They seem to get so many other things right over there but these they just have wrong- not enough shops, if any, let alone the food choices which always seem to be in areas you can't get to. But JFK was the quickest international airport that I have ever been through. They don't stamp you out of the States so there is no Immigration queue to go through, or Customs or anything really. Which meant that I got there too early and spent the afternoon looking at the one shop that was at my gate. Then, all too soon, the plane arrived and I was on my way home.

Dammit!