The Statue of Liberty

On my familys's second day in the city, we continued to embrace all things toursit and did the water bus (aka boat) tour around Staten Island and all along the tip of Manhattan.

 

The Circle Line Sight Seeing starts from Pier 57 on the West side and goes all the way past the Statue of Liberty and up to Brooklyn Bridge. It's clearly a massively tourist thing to do and so is quite expensive and is certainly not where you'll be finding any locals, but all visitirs have to do it. The views are increadible and the info our tour guide gave us was all really cool, and well, who doesn't like cruising down the river in the sun??

 

 

Seeing the Statue of Liberty from the water was increadible, and very provocative of the memories of past New York. I suddenly realised what it must have felt like for all those immigrants - real people, like Chris and his father - who came to America, seeking freedom and a new life. She stands, so imposing and comforting rising from the water. And yet, so many immigrants were turned away, or sepertaed from their families. Our very knowledgable (and very American) tour guide nearly made me cry as he described the way that, despite America being know as the land of immigrants and the land of hope and freedom, many immigrants were turned away on Staten Island...

 

 

I loved exchanging roles so much; I totally embraced my tourist side; look at me taking my tourist snaps. I want to treat London like I'm a tourist.

 



 

It was a lovely way to see the city. If you can, totally do it.

 

You don't have to get the chocolate ice cream with sprinkles for breakfast. Only my sister did that.

 

We also passed on buying the statue of Libery head gear. Tempting though wning a spiky green foam headband is, I thought I wouldn't get much wera out of it. It was a shame really. 

 

 

Saying Goodbye.

On Rain's last day in New York we decided that we had to do something amazing and unforgettable to say goodbye to the city we'd so rapidly fallen in love with. 
So we decided to hire bikes. There is no better way to say goodbye to a city than to cycle through it. 
We started in Central Park (which was quite a scary experience because there's this really aggressive but utterly complex one way traffic system IN THE PARK and all the roller bladers and runners get really quite angry if you accidentally find yourself on the wrong side of the road) and then we cut all the way from the park across Broadway along West 97th Street to the Hudson River.

Here I am, at the Hudson River. On my bike. In New York. Wearing striped high waisted shorts. Life is jolly. 

We then cycled all the way along the river, stopping off for iced coffee in the shadow of The Freedom Tower - still in the midst of triumphantly rising from the gap left in the New York skyline - in the Financial District, where lots of stressed looking men and women in suits (who were undoubtedly v jel of of our fun filled day involving bikes with baskets and sunglasses) were scurrying like ants.

Across Brooklyn Bridge we went, which was even better not in the rain. The sky scrapers take on a majestic quality from the removed position in the middle of the East River, the sheer scale of it audacious. Despite it being our second viewing, we were once again awed into an embarassing tourist silence.

Crossing into Brooklyn was cool. Like, seriously, COOL. I think it's amazing the way each part of New York has it's own unique and highly identifiable character and atmosphere - you really can live a thousand lives in one day.  Brooklyn is more chilled than Manhattan; the edgier, more stoned, more laid back, dressed-in-second-hand-thrift-store-clothes kid sister to the uber chic, frantically fashionable, desperately busy Manhattan.

We drifted past games of basket balls and lounging kids on steps towards Dumbo, the area between Brooklyn and Williamsburg Bridge which is renound for being, well, cool. We cycled down Jay Street, past a group of guys with long hair jamming with guitars in their red van.  Achingly cool patroners, mainly wearing John Lennon sunglasses, sat on missmatching funiture drinking coffee outside bars that, I just know, turn into hotbeds of excitement and music and debauchery and love when darkness falls and the city lights twinkle twice across the river.

We sat in the newly renovated water side park and admired Manhattan from a distance; I especially liked the way we could see both bridges - it lended a circularity to the city, which I enjoyed - and so it was decided that our day of adventure would not be complete without cycling over Williamsburg Bridge too. Besides, during the dog walks of my childhood Daddy would always insist on a circular route though Richmond Park, and has imbedded in me a desire to never retread my footsteps. 
So we got back on the bikes and headed off, all very Olympic spirited I felt. Flying the flag for Team GB, us. 

We paused at Williamsburg Bridge-end to consult the map and immediately Chris adopted us. We hadn't planned our new route; we were lost and he was cycling the same way, so he led us all the way back to the bike hire shop, along the river and through the safest roads. He told us that 'when I go you go, when I stop you stop' and we'd be totally safe and wouldn't get run over.

Which we were, and we didn't. 
He was so great.

Chris was an American Greek who moved to New York when he was eight and who's father had 50 cents in his pocket when he arrived. His grown up daughter had just gone on holiday for the first time to the tiny island that he had left in search of a better life and he was clearly in need of a daughter (or two) to look after. He grew up in Greenwich Village, next door to Robert de Niro and remembered when the city was all three storey appartment buildings and hated the new high rise skyscrapers that dominate the city and 'block out the sun'. He had worked in the Dakota building and saw John Lennon's blood and was 'never a fan of that Yoko Ono one'. He had been in the army and thought that the New York Military Hospital symbolised all that was great about America. 
He was, I'm positive, my favourite person that I met in New York. Big claims. 

Rain's last night was spent in Cafe Wha? (Our fave. We loved having a fave. Especially such a cool, underground fave). We had THE BEST time. 

We sat right at the front and the amazingly cool lead singer winked at us before he began swaggering about the tiny stage. He wore nail varnish and told the audience to never take any bullshit and to always be happy with who you are. I cheered. 

There was a woman getting married the next day and we all celebrated 'real love' and I fell even further in love with the idea of falling in love in New York. There was a birthday party too and so we all sang happy birthday and everyone was a bit mad. The band sang at us to 'get up, stand up' and told us to 'fucking dance! Because if beautiful English girls weren't going to dance, who were??'. We obliged, and joined the crowded dance floor for Twist and Shout, and did the twist, and shouted. I love New York.

 

Then the Latin American music started and everyone went even more mad and there was this beautiful women with waist length blonde hair who pulled me and Rain towards her and made us dance the salsa with her. I can't do that (I can just about bop in time to a beat) and looked like a hippo washing in mud next to her, but we had fun and she was lovely and gorgeous and I told her boyfriend so. She kissed me three times on the cheek. I love New York.  

 

We took the subway and danced home, and soaked up the magic of New York so that it would always live in our bones.

Rainy NYC

Remember how I told you about Brooklyn Bridge in the rain? And remember how I tried really reallyyy hard to describe it to you??

Ok, you don't have to remember. If you don't remember it's fine. In fact, if you never read it, it's totally fine. I'm just imagining some blank faces like the ones my face used to automatically fall into whenever Mr Davidson directed a question at me in physics and so I want to put you all out of your misery.

My description didn't do it justice, so here it is, in physical form.



Beautiful Rainy Brooklyn Bridge...



Me, with no umbrella. It was wet.

Rainy NYC

So our joint day off  was a decidedly wet one, but if you think that stopped us from enjoying it, then you obviously have never been to London. We're made of stronger stuff than that.
And so despite only having one umbrella to share (buying umbrellas in a panic stricken rush in foreign countries has become a bit of a thing for me and my partner in crime, it would appear) and thus being absolutely soaked (our bras got wet. Always a bad sign) we persevered up to Brooklyn Bridge. And omg am I glad we did. It's beautiful!
The mighty tower blocks of Brooklyn Heights and Lower Manhattan square up to each other menacingly from opposite shores and seemed to juxtapose entirely with the unstoppable force of nature from where we stood, in the middle of the bridge, hovering in no mans land over the East River, with the rain assaulting our shoes.

We'd started our day in Greenwich Village, on my insistence visiting the house that Carry lives in in Sex and The City, and stopping for mid-morning coffee in one of the many cute cafes which are awash with local charm and, err, locals. Most were in there, still mulling over morning emails and we felt both tres local and cool, but also super smug because we  had a whole day off to explore New York and, yes, they might actually live here so bully for them but they did have to work. HA.

We spent quite a bit of time exploring the gorgeous side streets and beautiful town houses. We saw one for sale and were all like, 'Ooh ohh we could buy it OMG LET'S BUY IT' before realising that we totally could not buy it. Sadness.

We then caught the subway down to Ground Zero, although we couldn't actually go in because you need to buy tickets in advance. There's loads of building work going on there at the moment because they're finishing off the new tower block that will stand where the twin towers stood. It's awful and amazing to see it stand there. It has been shocking to see the way in which 9/11 effected New York City and the lives of everyone who lives there; I had never fully grasped it before. We also stood and gazed at the humble beauty of St Paul's Chapel of Trinity Church which, despite it's proximity to the World Trade Centre, only suffered the loss of one tree on 9/11

We walked from there to Brooklyn Bridge, which lifted our slightly dampened spirits. We kept up a constant rendition of Empire State of Mind, rap and all, with particular relish of the high warbling of 'Brooklyn briiiiiiiiiiiidge' which totes deff 100% did Alysha proud, and I'm sure everyone else enjoyed listening to as much as we enjoyed performing it. Ahem.

That was just the first part of our day. You will be sooooo jel of what we did after that. Hint: it involved chocolate.
Find out what other exciting adventures we got up to in the next instalment folks, try to contain your excitement.