Today Mark and I had a lovely day wandering around Greenwich Village and East Village, Nolita, Chinatown, skimming the edge of Little Italy and across to Ground Zero. We finished the day eating ice cream in Battery Park, took in the view of The Statue of Liberty, and ran back to the subway dodging serious drops of rain!
The walking around this part of New York is much easier on the feet, you don't feel as compelled to rush, and the trees are green and shady, many of them giving shelter to squirrels (my new friends, why oh why weren't they ever introduced to Australia?)
First stop today was St Marks Bookshop where Mark studied the shelves and I bought a few postcards. This whole area is infact suited to more of a local style of living, where I felt more like an onlooker than a direct participant. I spent lots of the day staring into shop windows and reading menus taped inside windows, you can only eat so many times per day! I found (what I think is) my favourite street so far, it's called Orchard Street. It is the perfect collection of small shops, restaurants, slightly off-beat designers and discount stores. I have since read they close the whole street every Sunday to have markets, now that would be AWESOME! But I wont be here on Sunday, so I'll have to keep on dreaming...
We then walked through Nolita (looks like another great place for food, oh, how I would like to be taken out on dates here!) and through Chinatown, where all I wanted to do was wash my hands and vomit. Chinatown here is not only huge, it really is filthy and the smells were so bad it put me off the idea of food, or even breathing really. I am open minded but after smelling those smells I have no idea how you could just pop into a shop for a bowl of noodles. It did look like there were lots of jewelery stores here though, but I'm in no hurry.
We kept walking and found ourselves at Ground Zero, it's everything you expect and you feel even worse. I looked up and saw a poster of lost fireman in the disaster and felt my throat close, I didn't go into the museum at all because I knew I'd become a mess. Instead Mark and I went to Wintergarden where we could take in the view from 2 storeys up and get a few photos. I won't go on about the tragedy but I WILL for a moment. Just the feeling you get from being there, reflecting on the hatred and loss of life, the fear, the courage, the valor of those involved... it all sounds so old-fashioned but this was real and you could feel it. The challenge and drudgery of being involved in the rebuild, going to work everyday knowing that underneath your feet there is such a recent history of mass suffering and misery... my heart really felt it.
And we finished out day at Battery Park, eating ice-cream and walking South to catch the ferry back to Hoboken. If you don't have time to catch a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, Battery Park is the place. It's a lovely walk and there are lots of quiet spots to sit down and take in the view. Only it started to rain so we had to run back towards the subway instead! I'm glad to say I'm finally becoming more familiar with the subway and how it all works and little pieces of New York are starting to fit together, making it a little less puzzling.
Still happy to say there's so much more to do, days and days of it, and there will be lots we miss out on. But today has been another excellent day, it's been such a happy adventure!
