New York City / Part Two

Day four started with taking a free ferry to Staten Island which gave me an opportunity to see Statue of Liberty again, most of tourists went on the ferry back to Manhattan straight away but I decided to have a walk on Staten Island, it was quite shocking just how empty the streets were over here, it felt like a sleepy town compared to a super busy Manhattan which was just around the corner, in fact I could clearly see its skyline from where I was walking. After an hour I also hopped back on the ferry.

I carried on walking up the Broadway but the weather turned bad which gave me an opportunity to take refuge in the Peter Dillon's Irish pub where I had two (American) pints of Youngling beer and listened to some Irish American folk music. Once it stopped raining I went past the Rockefeller building again and took few pictures of the famous Atlas statue, then I went to the corner of Central Park where "Home Alone's" pigeon lady scene was filmed and lo and behold someone was feeding pigeons not far away from here! I also spotted a lady changing her clothes (including the underwear) right in the middle of the walkway, New Yorkers were surely a very original breed.

I finished the day by watching Broadway production of Stranger Things at the Marquis Theatre, this was a fairly new show and special effects were spectacular, it was one of those shows that kept you going "how the hell they managed to do that?!"

My fifth and final day in New York started with going to Grand Central Station and admiring it's architecture the building itself was nearly demolished in the 70s but thanks to a campaign lead by Jacky Kennedy it has been preserved. Then I went off the beaten path and boarded the Roosevelt Island Tramway, a four minute long ride in a cable car where you were suspended above the Hudson River with some interesting views of the area. From here I took a metro to Union Square and had a best bagel I've ever eaten called "Triple Crown" at the Tompkins Bagels, I can confirm at this point that New York's bagels are really something else, apparently thanks to a good, soft water (NY's pizza might be a bit overhyped though).

After the meal I kept on walking towards the Meatpacking District and the Pier 57 which had a great views of the Hudson River and Manhattan. I stopped by the Vessel a honeycomb like, very futuristic building which I didn't particularly like and thought it was a tourist trap. The last stop of the day was yet another Broadway show, this time it was Operation Mincemeat in John Golden Theatre, based on real events from Second World War, involving a British diversion operation aiming to move Nazi forces out of Sicily. This was my least favourite show, partially because it was trying to copy other successful productions like Hamilton and Come From Away, it was still a good evening.

Operation Mincemeat concluded my long and busy stay in New York. I believe that I have a good overview what this city is about now with it's crazy traffic, loud and outspoken people, fascinating architecture and endless things to see and explore. New York managed to convince me that it is worth visiting again and perhaps I'll do it in the future.

I had my last "New Jersey" breakfast bagel in the morning and boarded the bus to Stuart International Airport back to UK, my south coast American odyssey was over and I could start plotting the next adventure now.