USA
Day Two
Well. Today was a huge day, to say the least! We started off with a rather creepy wake-up call around 7:30am. Everyone (finally) met downstairs for our first breakfast in the hotel. Everyone got very excited as the hotel provided waffle makers, which are a lot more fun (and complicated) then you would think. After breakfast, we met with our guide Remo and got on our bus and took a ride to midtown, to our first destination of a ferry that took us to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Along the ride, we were all very excited as we saw genuine yellow taxis and NYPD cop cars. After seeing Lady Liberty, we sailed to Ellis Island, where we took a tour of the museum there (Ellis Island is where roughly 12 million refugees were processed from the mid-1800’s to 1954.) Remo was our guide through Ellis Island, re-enacting the journey that would have happened all those years ago (Cuan was labelled as crazy and refused entry to America). After the tour it was a quick lunch, photo stop and then the ferry back to the mainland. (Word of warning to future travellers: the seagulls on Ellis Island are mutant size). Then we rode through the city to see the Brooklyn Bridge at Pier 17. Next our journey took a sombre turn as we went to Ground Zero (the site of the September 11 attacks), and visited St Paul’s Cathedral, the only building in the vicinity not affected by the fallout of the collapse. Back on the bus, and we rode to Wall Street and saw the Wall Street Stock Exchange, and next was a detour to Central Park. We took a quick walk through a small part of it (we also saw the spot where John Lennon was shot), and saw where some of the scenes of Spider-Man were filmed (being in New York literally feels like a movie). Then we walked through Chinatown and Little Italy, both very interesting and busy places. Now everyone was pretty much starving, so we took our route to a two-storey MacDonald’s (after a stop in a souvenir shop, as some unnamed dedicated shoppers were starting to whinge). After saying goodbye to Remo, we walked through Rockefeller Centre and saw the ice-rink. Then we walked to Times Square (many, many lights) and had a look in the Toys-R-Us (there was a life-size Tyrannosaurus Rex and a two-storey Barbie house!) Finally, after much nagging, Mr Roberts allowed a “quick” detour to Macy’s where the girls ran amok, and did some much-needed shopping (Macy’s is the largest department store in the world, which pretty much equals a shopper’s heaven). Next (yes, we were still going) we walked up to the Empire State Building, and went up to the 86th floor to look at the panorama views of late night New York. Lastly was a subway ride back to the hotel (we had to beware of alligators, hobos, rats, pickpockets) which was relatively uneventful, apart from nearly losing Callum to a pair of hungry subway doors, we made it back to our hotel unscathed. Tomorrow we leave early for Washington. By Anna and Telicia.
