Sightseeing
Time Square
After one good night sleeping, we started our tour from the Time Square. The scene was a lot of big and colorful signboards hanging on the buildings. Addition to the attractive theater district, everywhere in Time Square was filled in with crowds of people, taxies, tour buses and tour-ride bicycles, 5-seat in a round-shape bicycle with a tour guide yelling "com’on, take a ride". The pedestrians would rather stay in the middle of the intersection, not only for taking good pictures of the Time Square but also for the half-naked cowboy scenery. The an-underwear-on cowboy sang with his guitar to attract tourists taking pictures with him and collected money with his one-hole-on-the-side guitar. We heard that this cowboy had been there making his tourist business for more than 2 years.
It was not just the good sunny day attracting tourists but also the Easter weekend. We went around again and again and couldn’t take a break at Starbucks coffee because there were too many people waiting there and we chose the next door Ben&Jerry’s. Later, we were heading for central Park.
The Central Park
We entered the Central Park by the 8th Avenue after seeing the Warner Times Building, which was a curve-shaped. I knew that Central Park was too big for our feet to walk around in the late afternoon. I wanted to see the sea lions and the penguins in the Central park Zoo. I wanted to visit the Bethesda Fountain also and I heard that the designer also designed the lake in Mont-Royal Park in Montreal. Anyway, we just reached the closed Wallman Rink at sunset but we were satisfied. We walked a little bit around with the smell of the houses’ shit and the pretzel salespeople.
The 5th Avenue
I knew that the 5th Avenue was not a shopping place for me but we walked along and experienced. From Central Park, we walked towards the Empire State Building. We arrived the Empire Building about 8 o’clock and there was a long line waiting for getting to the top of the building. We knew that there’s no possibility of getting in the building and we left for Macy’s. Well, there were people everywhere on Saturday night! We stopped at Macy’s, where definitely I had to come (because my English name is Macy), and take a little break. The night finished with late night at Time Square.
The Statue of Liberty
The statue of Liberty is on the Liberty Island. We should take a boat from the Battery Park to the Liberty Island, the Ellis Island and then back to the Battery Park. Before getting to the Clinton Castle for purchasing tickets of boats, we passed by sellers of pirated branded handbags, watches, and sunglasses. I heard a medium-size handbag asking for $40. Both of the waiting lines for the tickets and for the boats were long, but we got some entertainments along. There was a red-dressed black man performing his yoga effect, who put himself in a 30-inch square transparent box, and a clown with a multicolor wig playing guitar.
The way toward the statue of Liberty was exciting and everyone on the boat was catching the pictures of the joint of friends and the statue of Liberty while we were approaching to the Liberty Island. Me too! We took more than ten pictures of us and the symbol of the United States for later showing our friends and families. When we arrived the Liberty Island, The limit number of entries to the inside of the Statue of liberty had reached, so that we were not able to enter the statue. It was not a big deal and we walked around the statue and took more pictures of the island and Manhattan on the other side of the river. We skipped the tour on the Ellis Island, which was the first step to the New England for the early immigrants, being an Immigration Museum after 1990.
Ground Zero -- ex-World Trade Center
After September 11, this place became some people’s nightmare, but the Americans want to show their braveness. Now the place is reconstructed and called Ground Zero. The path of rail-train underground was done and there was information showing the plan of the future World Trade Center, at the exactly same address. Standing here, I felt kind of sympathy and confusion. The sympathy was for what had gone and the confusion was questioning, "how people will remember what had happened when the new one comes?” I felt like that there should be something to tell the story about the Americans’ arrogance and reflection, and their misery from the attack of terrorists.
The Washington Square
The Washington Square Park, in the Greenwich Village, is famous for its marble Washington Arch built in 1889 for the memorial of the father of the United States George Washington. The Washington Arch was so similar to Arc de Triomphe in Paris that my friend from Paris recognized it immediately when he saw the picture. The Washing Square Park is not as famous as the Central Park but we loved the minute calm in the urban. New York University was in the corner and we heard that NYU students spent most of their out-of-school time in the Washington Square Park. I could have imagined that NYU in downtown New York City might look like McGill or UQAM in downtown Montreal. Walking along the building with the flags of colors white and purple, NYU stands for the scholastic air in the city.
The End.
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