Day 10: New York

Time passed by so quickly that I didn't realised it was already the 10th day of us traveling until when wrote the topic for this post. Anyways, the original plan was for us to wake up at 6.30am, but it didn't materialised because all of us were just too tired. By the time we woke up, it was already 9am and we hurriedly got ourselves dressed up and head to the hotel's lobby for the free continental breakfast (did I mentioned that our hotel comes with free breakfast too?) that was provided (which ends at 9.30am). The moment we were done with our breakfast, we headed back to our room to complete our half done morning chores. Without wasting much time, we were out on the streets and walking towards the nearest subway station again. Another long subway ride awaits us, and this time, it would be the longest yet because we are suppose to arrive at the very last station of our subway line. As usual, I slept through most of the ride.

After a close to 45 minute subway ride, we have finally arrived at the World Trade Center station (curios that it's still called the WTC station even though it's already not there) and the end of the subway track could be seen.


The end of the subway track

The moment we exited the subway station, the first thing we saw was the Ground Zero itself (the very place where the WTC once stood). Below are 2 pictures of Ground Zero.





It was saddening to know that thousands of people died on that very place itself, hopefully never such thing of that scale would ever happen again. That area of Manhattan was also known as the Financial District promptly because of the businesses and economics which are situated there.


The Dow Jones Building (also the World Financial Center)


One of the streets of the Financial District

Close to the place was also the Battery Park (which most of you guys wouldn't know), which is the place where you can take a ferry to Liberty Island (still don't know?) where the Statue of Liberty stands :).


Battery Park

We were so excited about going to Ellis Island that we immediately bought the ferry tickets but we didn't realised that we are not allowed to enter the statue itself because they had ran out of tickets for it for the day (the tickets are free but given on a first come first serve basis). When we were aware of that, we wanted a refund on our ferry tickets but the lady at the counter told us to come back at 8am the next day and we might be given the entrance pass.


Statue of Liberty from Battery Park (at least I got a picture of it :p)

And so, we didn't spared much thoughts to that after that and continued our walk to the famous Wall Street (don't tell me you had never heard of it!).


The Wall Street itself


Me touching the bull's balls at Wall Street :p


Another part of Wall Street


The New York Stock Exchange building (back)


The New York Stock Exchange bulding (front)


The Trump Building (remember You're Fired? :))

After our inspiring walk at the Wall Street, we took a subway to the Brooklyn Bridge area to have a look at the famous bridge with our own eyes.


The Brooklyn Bridge (car passage)


The Brooklyn Bridge (human passage :p)


A view of Brooklyn from the bridge


A view of Manhattan from the bridge

The walk across the bridge wasn't a very long one, but half way past the bridge, it started to drizzle and we were caught with our pants down. We hurried quickly to the Brooklyn end of the bridge and found our refuge under the bridge itself.


The Brooklyn end of the bridge :)

And the rain just got heavier and we had no choice but to run all the way to the nearest subway station and we boarded a subway. Our next stop was at 5th Avenue of Manhattan (the rain haven't even subsided a bit) and we had no choice but to wander the streets from shade to shade. At first we wanted to look for the biggest Apple Store but we didn't had a slightest idea of which part of the street it was, (in fact which we later got to know that we were walking towards the wrong direction of the street) we just gave up and stopped by at a Mc Donald's to have our Tea.


A picture of rainy New York


The St. Patrick Cathedral at 5th Avenue

After we were done, we headed to the nearest subway station and while at the entrance, we saw the map of Manhattan and got to know where was the Apple store, and naturally we wanted to take a subway back to 5th Avenue (we were already far away from 5th Avenue and it was raining outside). After we boarded a subway train, we were told that certain parts of the tracks were closed due to a malfunctioning subway carriage. We tried different ways of getting to 5th Avenue (by transferring from line to line) but in the end, we just gave up (because it seems that we just can't get to 5th Avenue by subway at that time) and exited the subway station at 50th Street. It was still raining heavily but right outside the subway station was a shopping mall, we didn't hesitated and entered the mall right away.


The Mall that we entered at 50th street


The inside of the mall


A picture of outside taken from the inside of the mall

After loitering at the mall for close to an hour, we were ready to move again. This time back, we wanted to try our luck at the subway station to see that if there's a way for us to get to 5th Avenue, and apparently, we were lucky and the subway services were back to normal again. And so, we headed back to 5th Avenue and we ran in the rain just to get to the Apple store (I thought that we were crazy). At the store, we tried out the iPhones (I just wish that I could lay my hands on one) and iPods (the usual stuff we always do when we visit an Apple store). After we were done fiddling with those gadgets which we can only dream off, we decided to call it a day, and so again, we ran in the rain to the subway station at 5th Avenue and took a subway ride all the way back to the Jamaica-Van Wyck Station.


A part of 5th Avenue during the night

On the way back to our Hotel (it was still raining and that's the sign of Hurricane Hanna heading towards us but might later weaken to a Tropical Storm by the time it reaches NY), we dropped by Wendy's to get some burger for my dinner. By the time we got back to our hotel, it was already 9.30pm and we washed ourselves up and prepare ourselves for another hectic tomorrow.