And Lady Liberty...

It’s Friday night and Josh and I just got home from a pretty massive day.  He’s playing a game on his iPhone and I’m going to tell you all about Wednesday.

In an effort to save money we had breakfast at home before heading out.  Now, the problem with having breakfast at home is that once we get to wherever we’re going we’re hungry again, kind of negating the original breakfast.  Anyway… It was cold and drizzly again so I dropped into H&M to buy a (purple) hoodie (the cardigan I brought with me wasn’t really cutting it) and then we ate again. 

So by now I was cosy and warm (and full of lunch) and ready to get on with the day.  We got on what we thought was an express train downtown.  While it bore the little red diamond of the express train we soon found out that it definitely was not an express train.  In fact, it was the strangest subway journey I’ve been on yet.  Very slow.  With lots of stops.  Nothing particularly unusual I guess, but my experience with the subway has been largely incident free so this was mildly unsettling.

You’ll be pleased, but most likely unsurprised, to know that we reached our destination safely.

We purchased tickets and passed through a fairly extensive security check before boarding a boat that would take us to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Our first stop was Liberty Island, where we spent approximately 30 minutes walking around and taking photos to prove that we were there.  She’s big, she’s impressive, and she’s surrounded by tourists.  The grounds are nicely kept…  And we learnt some interesting things about structure and design.  We found it an fascinating juxtaposition that a statue depicting liberty was placed on top of defensive military base, Fort Wood.  While it is no longer operational, there was a time (prior to 1944) when Liberty Island was both military base and vision of peace and hope.

So, after perusing and mocking products in the gift shop (while waiting for our boat) we caught the ferry to Ellis Island.

Our first stop was Cinema 1 where we watched a movie about immigrants and the process of immigration at Ellis Island.  It was interesting and moving and it really sets the scene as you walk out into the museum.

In the restoration of the building they have left some of the damages made to tiles and walls unchanged.  It really gives the place an eerie feel and you become aware that you’re walking the steps of the people who came to New York so many years ago. 

There was an excellent exhibition of photography taken while the building was left to decay between the years of being operational and being restored to it’s current state and there were awesome examples of graffiti left by immigrants who were kept overnight.  Through all of the halls of information and artefacts I couldn’t help but pause to read every excerpt of any personal account I could find.  I really found the whole experience very interesting.

At 6pm the security guards came around to tell people the museum was closing.  I’ve never been asked to leave a museum before.  We had to leave through a back staircase.  Interesting.  Josh and I decided that it would be quite easy to hide and stay on the island overnight if you wanted to…  But why would you want to?  It’s ghostly enough when it’s full of people during the day. 

Keeping this in mind, we boarded our boat to go back to Manhattan and I spent the trip watching different groups of people take photographs of each other.  I often wonder how many people in the world have me in the background of their holiday pictures.  Think about it.  It’s an interesting thought to ponder over, particularly with a bit of imagination!

We caught the subway home, had some of our local Thai, and did a bit of web-based job-hunting before bed.

Speaking of bed, that’s where I’m headed now.

Love from here to where you are… Jules xx