Today we woke up early and had breakfast and got dressed. We walked down to the harbor, and caught a ferry across the Hudson River into New York, the big Apple. We hopped off onto Wall Street, where the Stock Exchange takes place. There were people everywhere in suits, yellow taxis honking at each other, and huge skyscrapers blocking out the sun, meaning it was -2°C. dad went down into the subway to get us some tickets, because our walking tour was going to go through the subway as well. We walked down Wall St, until we got to a huge statue of George Washington outside a building. This was where our tour was going to begin. I noticed while waiting that all the grates had steam coming out of them, like something in the sewer was burning below.
After about 10 minutes our guide arrived, a man called Derek. He introduced himself and we went into the building behind us, called the Federal Hall. It turns out that George Washington was made the first president in this building, which was why it had the big statue of him out the front. We went back out onto the street, which was still really cold. There Derek pointed out to us that there were wooden squares going all the way down the street. The wooden squares in the road are where the wall was between English land and Dutch land when they were settling America. This is why Wall St is called Wall St, because it used to have a wall down the middle of it.
After about 10 minutes our guide arrived, a man called Derek. He introduced himself and we went into the building behind us, called the Federal Hall. It turns out that George Washington was made the first president in this building, which was why it had the big statue of him out the front. We went back out onto the street, which was still really cold. There Derek pointed out to us that there were wooden squares going all the way down the street. The wooden squares in the road are where the wall was between English land and Dutch land when they were settling America. This is why Wall St is called Wall St, because it used to have a wall down the middle of it.
the Stock Exchange in Wall St
We walked into a really old church next, which was one of the oldest churches in America. In the graveyard outside there were the graves of many important people in the USA’s history. After coming out of the church we came to where the Twin Towers once stood. There was construction going on all around there because a new building is taking place. Derek explained that this new building is going to be the Freedom Tower, the replacement for the Twin Towers. The construction is only half done but it is already the height of all the buildings around it. This tower is going to be absolutely massive. We walked through another church, filled with 9/11 information and memorabilia. It showed how many countries around the world helped with the clean up operation, and there were heaps (including Australia).
the World Trade Center site and the new Freedom Tower
We caught the subway next, through the city’s underground train system. The train and stations were exactly like in Madagascar. We got out, straight in the middle of Little Italy. Little Italy was where all the Italian immigrants lived when they first came to America. The entire place has an Italian feel, with pizza restaurants everywhere and signs written in Italian. We had lunch in a park here. We also went in a very old Italian deli (the cheese was delicious!) and a cake shop with great tasting canoli.
After lunch Derek talked about crime in NYC, and it turns out that NY is now one of the safest cities in the USA. In the 1970’s, however, it was said that you could stand in Times Square for 10 minutes and see all 10 commandments being broken. We then went into Chinatown which was so crowded and noisy we had trouble moving. There Derek bought a spiky Asian fruit which smells horrible to see what it would taste like. There were also fish shops with live fish out on the sidewalk, one even had a bucket of live toads you could buy! After Chinatown we went on the subway again.
Next we were in Greenwich Village where we saw nothing interesting really, except the smallest apartment in the world, apartment 15 ½. The door was only about a metre tall and it wasn’t as wide as our dining room table!
apartment 15 1/2
We then went to Washington Square, where we saw a man who had wheeled there a full sized piano and was busking. Derek told us that the man earns about $200 a day, because he is so good.
We then caught another subway. We then went to the NY library, which is the 3rd largest library in the USA. We then went out on the streets again, and walked to Grand Central Station. It was almost exactly like in Madagascar. We saw the steps where the policemen run down, and the clock that Melman gets his head stuck in. To finish off the tour we went into a room in GCS, where Derek got Ethan to talk into the corner on one side of the room while I talked in the other. Because of the shape of the roof we could hear each other perfectly. Derek then told us one last piece of trivia – that each subway track is the exact width of a Roman chariot, and then we said goodbye. We then caught the subway back to Wall St, caught the ferry and went back to the RV, where we went to bed.
woah - Roman chariots rule! A teacherish question - what about the railway gauge system in Australia?
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