Friday, NYC Day 2

Sorry about the delay.

Friday Megan had to work (people work on Fridays) so I got up that morning and went to get my touristy double-decker bus boarding pass. I was all proud of myself for knowing where to go. So I get on the bus and our tour guide had craaazy teeth. I felt bad, but not enough to not blog about it. Imagine someone blindfolded placing each tooth in your mouth...they were just facing all different directions! Haha...

Anyway, I did the downtown loop. It was one of these tours where you can get off the bus at a stop, and then get back on a different bus whenever you want. I got off where the biggest department store in the world Macys was, because the Empire State building is on the same street. 2 4 1. Of course, when you stand under the Empire State Building there's really nothing to see. I didn't go to the top because a) I'm cheap and b) It was freeeezing!

So here's my view of the two together. That was my view from the top of the bus (who sits on the bottom?) Empire State Building on the right, Macys on the left. The cover is all scratched from branches and low signs.

Here's a couple more clear ones:


I walked into the Empire State Building to check it out, then I went to H&M and Forever 21. Can you believe I didn't buy anything? Then I went to THE Macys. I was really not in the mood to shop at all, I just wanted to experience it's hugeness. And I don't even know if I saw most of it. Think of just one department you're used to in your town's Macys. Baby Department? Okay, now imagine one entire floor JUST for baby clothes, oh and this floor is 4x the size that you're used to, and instead of each corner of the floor being for Baby, Men's, Women, etc, it's a different brand of baby clothes. And one end of that floor is fancy brands from which you'd think people would be crazy to buy their baby clothes. Wanna shop petites? One entire floor. Bags and accessories? One entire floor. That place was crazy. There's at least two sets of escalators on each floor too, and one set is really cool and old and wood and creaky.

I got back on the bus and this time our tour guide was an Italian/Latino guy that was pretty funny. He'd be like, "You gotta try the cheesecake while you're here of course...they got strawberry, blueberry, and ladies, LADIES...CHOCOLATE." And though Chinatown, "They've got watches, DVDs, and ladies, LADIES...PURSES." He also told us LADIES to go into Gucci, take pictures of us holding bags, and then leave. Haha. Here's some nice pictures of buildings on that leg of the trip:

My next stop was Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Center. I had to get off there. I finally found the little visitor's center. I was surprised there wasn't anything bigger to visit, but I suppose that's part of the re-construction. It was SO awesome anyway. They had guided tours by people that were survivors of 911, or you could do an audio tour. I did that so I wouldn't have to wait, but along the way I paused my player and eavesdropped on a tour that caught up to where I was. Amazing.

On my player was a bunch of people's stories that had been recorded, and you'd walk to certain points and listen to them talk. It was very touching and emotional a lot of times, but even though I'm a crier, I held back for appearance's sake. You walk into this financial building, and there's some spots with big windows where you can look out at Ground Zero. I don't remember if they were always there and re-built, or if they are new, but it's very eerie looking out and seeing nothing where you knew there used to be a spectacular view of the two tallest buildings in the city.

These pictures of course don't give the same experience, just imagine how huge that space is...nothing is open like that there except for parks. And there's a mess of construction stuff. They're building a cool memorial and the Freedom Tower which is going to be 1776 ft. tall. See the tall shiny glass building on the left? The Twin Towers were twice that height. It was hard to fit into most of the pictures, so you can imagine how tall even that is. The last one is of another angle, further into the building in front of the biggest window...you can see how small those people look.




Next to the visitor's center is Ladder 49 I think. Anyway it's a fire department that is RIGHT there. There's this huge memorial on the side of their building showing fire fighters doing all the things they had to do that day. It says "Dedicated to those who fell and to those who carry on. May we never forget."It's long.
Inside the visitor's center is incredible, and I wish I had more time to spend in there. There's a wall covered in "have you seen this person" fliers of people never found. This is a picture of one of the steel beams from the buildings found.
And this was spooky to look at. It's an airplane window found in the wreckage. Can you even imagine what it had been like to discover that? I had just been looking out my own window two days before. It makes it very real.



It was about dark by the time I was done so I got back on another bus. This tour guide knew tons and spoke very eloquently and annunciated her t's distinctly. That's the only way I can explain how she spoke without doing an impression. It was cool. This is the best picture I got of the Chrysler building the whole trip:
I met my sister back at her office. That's where I finally got a good shot of the New Year's Eve ball. They had a better view than anyone!
I also got a picture of this building. The night before my sister had shown it to me and said apparently at 7:30 pm there's red lights around the stars that light up, and the globe on top blinks, calling you to Broadway. Well she had to work late so we got to see it :) You can see the cubicles and office lights in the reflection. Hehe.

We caught up with Daniel and we got a dollar slice. I was warned the pizza cart would be a street where there could be some trannys. Well, unfortunately I didn't meet any. Anyway, that pizza was darn good, and it was super thin crust with a little cheese and a little sauce. I'm convinced that's all you need. Then we got on the subway. Snow slush mixed with street grime mixed with the slight smell of urine was what I climbed on down the steps. Ha. Gross. Thanks again for letting me use your Metro card Megan!

That night we went to the Upright Citizens Brigade to see a comedy show. It was pretty good. Not really stand-up comedy, more like 2 guys doing sketches. Daniel thought it was hilarious. I had a good time, but I wasn't laughing as hard as he was. Haha!

Then we went to a diner-type place that Daniel later compared to Denny's. It wasn't too fancy, but whatever, it was late and we were hungry. OH and next to us was a long table full of people that thanks to Daniel's eavesdropping, we learned are part of a club where they battle it out with light sabers. Their memberships fees go to stage rentals. That's what their heated discussion that night entailed. Nerds are so cool.