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New York: Times Square and the Manhattan skyline

There is so much to see in New York and to be said about it that makes it difficult for me to fit it concisely into this blog.  Pictures of places say more about them than I possibly could, so I have included as many as is necessary here (being that this is also my penultimate blog post…).  I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by New York: I had expected an impersonal, heavily over-populated metropolis similar to London.  What I found was a superbly diverse city thriving with culture and style matched by no other location – bear in mind when I say “I’ve been to New York!”, what I actually mean is that I’ve seen Manhattan – I’m sure I’d have a much different but hopefully balanced opinion if I’d witnessed the neighbouring boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx.  I did briefly make it over to Staten Island on the ferry though…

  

  

…of course mainly for the views you get of The Statue of Liberty en route.  The ferry is free and operates 24 hours-a-day.  The statue looked disappointingly smaller than it did in Ghostbusters 2 though.

I managed to navigate the Subway system with a degree of success which made getting to most major tourist attractions easy.  Although, the most fun to be had was by simply pounding the streets for myself.  The hostel I stayed at was right next to Central Park, where I took a long stroll all the way down and across to Fifth Avenue:

  

  

  

  

Towards one end of the park was an area named Strawberry Fields, so-named due to its proximity to The Dakota – the building outside which John Lennon was shot dead by Mark Chapman:

 

  

  

On the day of my visit (July 4th) there were a number of people whom had gathered together to promote peace and recite the names of soldiers killed in Iraq.  The atmosphere was tranquil yet sombre.  The circle on the ground was dedicated to the memory and legacy of John Lennon:

  

  

The same day I wandered around Grand Central Station…

  

  

 

…walked around the infamous electric display of Times Square…

 

  

  

…and even took in the 360-degree view of Manhattan from the top of The Empire State Building…

 

  

  

  

…it was certainly a busy day, topped off nicely by a trip downtown to the Battery Park docklands where we watched the Independence Day fireworks explode over New Jersey:

  

So little time to see everything, yet so much achieved!  Went for a meal in the Little Italy district…

  

…and saw Times Square again, this time at night:

 

  

  

On one of my final days in New York a group of us visited the financial district of the city, which took in the New York Stock Exchange…

 

  

…and nearby of course, the standpoint from which you can view the former site of the World Trade Center:

  

  

  

This is one location where neither pictures nor words can explain what I was seeing.  Unless you had ever seen the Twin Towers prior to their destruction, it is extremely difficult to imagine the sheer size these buildings must have been – how much devastation, destruction and many lives lost in one day, in one area of New York.  I can only say how moved I was by the experience as we stood in silence taking it all in.  Seeing it with your own eyes certainly puts the value of life into perspective.  The area is still currently a construction site, where the foundations are already being laid for future building projects which will commemorate and renovate this part of the city.

I can see why people come to New York, be it for a holiday weekend, on their travels or looking to live here: it is every bit as iconic as you could hope for, based on both its history and events more recent.  There’s a million-and-one things to see and do, and this place has probably seen more tourists and immigrants alike than any other city in the world.  I guess I got a little taste of what’s been described as the ‘New york state-of-mind’.

For me, it’s back to Blighty. 

I will conclude this blog with one short final entry once I’m back home and settled.

Mission: Round-The-World trip 2006/07 – completed.

J.

Tags: Random Stuff, The U.S.A, Travel

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 8th, 2007 at 8:32 pm and is filed under The U.S.A, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.