Day 14 ...New York New York - 10th July

Woke up early (groan again!) but it wasn't as painful for me as it was for Nate, who definately needed to be fed but I dragged him through the city first haha. We took the subway (after some confusion over tickets and direction and me being distracted by a French Bulldog) but we got it together enough to get to Battery Park in one piece. We ended up walking up to Wall Street first, and it was really hot and weird to be standing there again. It was like a weird black hole where time had folded and I was standing on the same spot as I had 2 years ago (albeit a little older and wiser and sexier, and in hotter temperatures than last time). The really weird moment was when we had breakfast inside the Trump Building cafe. When I was here last I remembered thinking that it would have been a good place to take Nate if he was there - and then here we were! And there he was sitting in it! I was glad I took him there. The food was ok, the airconditioning much better! (Though in America they just say A.C)

We meandered down Wall Street to Trinity Church and I just felt awestruck. Not so much inside the church were we sat inside respectfully in the pew and whispered noisily to each other about my use of the camera. But the best part was the cemetery outside! They were from around 17th century upwards and many were old and worn. A lot of them had this weird symbol of a skull with wings on it. I just felt a real sense of history there, staring at them - these people who had arrived at this New World, had their lives, loved and lost and died, and had lovingly created these stones for their family and friends, these monuments we were looking out. And now you look all around them at this massive metropolis some 200 years later while the headstones wear down, and the bodies are in the dirt no more.

As the World Trade Centre was so close we headed there next. Its hard to think that a plane could do something like that. The place seemed quieter than the rest of New York (apart from the constructions sounds duh) and people seemed to look over at it more than other sites, as if they couldn't look away. Similar to car accidents you see, you can't not look.

The walk to Battery Park was hot, humid and crankiness inducing but we both held up well together. We lined up forever and a day to get tickets in Battery Park in the hot sun, then again to get on the boat. On the boat I got fully discusted with a mum breastfeeding a 3 year old. Gross!!! I flashed them the dirtiest look I could muster and gave up my seat on the fully crowded boat to get away from them. Man, if it can walk and talk and have a discussion whether it can latch onto your tit or not (which is what this mother and child had done) then it shouldn't be doing it!!!

The Statue of Liberty seeed taller than I last saw her - maybe because I had crapped on so much about how stumpy she was. Nathan thought she was well proportioned but wasn't too sure about the tacky gold flame. She is still small though, when you think of the American movies where choppers fly around her head and her head dwarfs them. So not true. And I did notice this time that she has no ass.

It was so hot there, its hard to figure stuff out when you're in a slick of sweat and all these New York fumes have stuck to you, which ends up feeling like a kind of goo. We ate under the statue and I came to a cultural understanding why 1 out of 2 Americans are big fat obese tamales. Picture this: you can either spend $3 bucks on a small hot tasty piza covered in cheese and pepperoni and tomatoes and stuff OR you could cough up $6 bucks and have a salad which is basically a bunch of limp lettuce, only 1 small onion ring, 1 capsicum ring, no tomotoes or anything, and a few cold chicken bits. Hah! After a while it would wear you down no? Especially when there's a title with seven words in it for a Cookie-Dough-Chocolate-Fudge-Topped-With -Icecream-and-Hot-Chocolate-Fudge-Pie. Mmmm

After the statue, the ferry took us to Ellis Island and we saw the Immigration Museum. THey had some great stuff there - I especially loved the luggage they used to have back in the day. It was so funky! I would love to have some to use for small trips and stuff. And I also found this fantastic institution-ey hallway that was great for photographs. I'll stick some on my wall I think.

Our feet were so sore, they felt like the bottoms were bruised or something. And I think I was overstimulated or something as I acted like an idiot while we waited for the ferry back to NY. (...and saw another older kid having a good old breastfeed as well. What is wrong with people?)

Once of the ferry, we walked up in the financial district to the bull statue. It is representative of the bull and bear market and the statue just materialised in wall street one day. They moved it and it's now famous. We took a few photos of us running away from it and kicking its privates etc. The usual immature stuff, and not surprisingly everyone else was as well haha. We then decided to walk a few streets around the area as it was still light before dinner. After some trekking I decided the Brooklyn Bridge wasn't too far off so we hiked along the waterfront out of the district and took some great photos of the bridge. It is very picturesque. It stretched inland for quite a while, but we wanted to walk on it so we started the long trek inland with our feet totally killing, and I had pulled my jeans up as they were sopping on the inside with sweat. It was so hot! The area around the financial district had lovely newish highrises, clean streets and some elegant old school highrises mixed in. There are a lot more classy deli's there so that the workers have a great quick choice for lunch. Nate likened it to being cluttered but orderly. The area near the bridge however had shorter and older buildings, and a lot of rubbish that had been thrown from the bridge. We walked a fair way inland to City Hall, then all the way back onto the bridge. THere wre heaps of walkers and joggers and we got really high above the city. THe sun's rays behind a cloud made an awesome backdrop for the city skyline. We walked up and touched the bridge pilon, then headed around and went back into the city. Sigh! Very hot and tired by then.

We tried to figure out where to go for dinner and became a bit lost and confused to try and find a good place. It's nigh impossible unless you are a NY local as everything is fast food, or really dingy bad looking deli's and stuff. So we wandered around getting hot and confused and ended up walking all the way back into the financial district! We noticed we were back at the trade centre and stock exchanged before we realised how far we had actualy gone! We were lapping and re lapping and meandering all that day! We were going over the map together when two friendly guys walked up and were like "hey, what u guys looking for?" We told them and they were "you lookin' for somewhere to eat? Well, if you go down 2 blocks then up this street you've got Subway, (mmm?), Wendys (uh oh!), Burger King and Captain fuckin' Chicken (or whatever it was he said!)" waving their arms enthusiastically and proud of themselves. We were like "uuhhh...that's great but we're looking for something with a bit more of a vibe". This simply served to confuse them but another local sensed our predicament and came over to help us out. That's one thing I'll give to New Yorkers - nay all Americans. The service industry is incredibly rude and frustrating and terrible. But any normal non-working person is more than happy to help you, and go out of their way to help. If you ask them anything, they give full on detailed answers and suggestions, or if you look lost they wander over quite often.

Anyway, this guy recommended a particular street and we realised we were almost back to Battery Park again! So we thanked him and set off for this place. And what a fantastic tip he gave us! The street was one that you'd never know was there unless you lived there. It was a small cobblestoned street which had small buildings surrounded by huge highrises, and it was closed off from traffic for the evening. THe restaurants had long tables that were dragged onto the road and everyone was sharing tables and restaurants together. We picked a restaurant and it was really nice (a rarity in the USA) and a couple next to us were surpised that we were tourists as not many of them knew this place existed. I got a special $16 lobster night with a baked potato and corn cob - wicked, and the best side salad I'd eaten in this country thus far. It was high quality but quite cheap in comparison. I couldn't get my lobster claw open and after much screeching and straining it shot out of my crushers, barely missing Nate (who had anticipated this and ducked when he saw it coming) and skittered across the table in front of everyone!

Anyways, we had a ovely evening and headed back to the subway and went to bed, exhausted after a great day!