Staten Islandland

On Wednesday we decided to see the Statue of Liberty. You could pay for a ferry that takes you there and to Ellis Island and line up for hours to get on it or you can hop on the Staten Island Ferry which cruises straight past the monument for FREE. On we get to the SIF, a giant Orange ferry, and enjoy the half hour cruise to Staten Island. As a tourist, once you get to Staten Island you pretty much head straight back to Manhattan but we decided wed go for a walk around the island. How big could it be? After walking for about a km, we decided wed catch a bus to check out the neighbourhood, maybe visit the mall (hehe mall). After half an hour on the bus we realised that Staten Island perhaps isnt that small and quaint and that we were going to be on the bus for hours, travelling round the suburbs. Off we hop and cross the road to take us back to the ferry, Im glad to say Ive been to Staten Island now so I never need to go again. When we looked at a map we saw that Staten Island was almost as big as Manhattan, whoops.

So we covered Statue of Liberty and also Battery Park, nothing exciing there, we then walked up Lower Manhattan and had lunch, and also came across the World Trade Centre site. They have a part of the site above a transit station which has a timeline of events and also some great photos of New York and its people taken before, during and after the terror attacks. It was moving but not as emotional as what I thought I might have been. The site is pretty much all closed off and not having visited the Twin Towers, I didnt really get a sense of just how big they were and what a grand structure it was. After some more walking, we headed into Century 21, which claims to be the Best Discount Department Store in New York. It is huge and there is some nice stuff, but its like Harris Scarfe mixed with one of those Mr Bankrupt sales, and is where bad fashion comes to die. So many crazy pieces in there, think of what The Nanny used to wear. She must have loved shopping here. It was so busy, at like 6pm on a Wednesday night I hate to think what it would be like during a clearance sale...

Tonight we stayed up to watch the episode of David Letterman we went to see live. The only shot they showed of the audience was at the beginning, and we couldnt pick us up. If you looked at the stage, we were to the right about six rows back. Not a great position but I had a perfect view of Jack Black, which is all i needed.