New York: Day 2

Before we begin, a little background: New York City consists of five "boroughs", the centrally placed island of Manhattan flanked by the Bronx due north, Queens in the east, Brooklyn in the southeast and Staten Island southwest. My buddy Luvshack lives on the Upper East Side at 97th Street and Madison Avenue, in a posh old-money neighbourhood of Manhattan, a block and a half away from the vast expanse of greenery that is Central Park.

Thursday was a gloomy day with a light drizzle. Probably not the best day for sightseeing, but my limited time in the city left me with no choice. So I took the train south to Battery Park to board the ferry to Liberty Island, where the Statue of Liberty is located.

As a tourist attraction it is sort of like the Taj Mahal - you hear and read so much about it that actually seeing it is not as awe-inspiring as it could have been. And it doesn't help that after 9/11 you're not allowed to climb up to the crown any more. In fact, you're not even allowed to set foot on the base, an eleven-pointed star that used to be Fort Wood.

After walking around Liberty Island and taking more pictures and video of seagulls and Canadian geese than the imposing monument, I boarded the ferry to Ellis Island. The island, originally the point of arrival for thousands of people from all over the world now houses an excellent exhibit recording the early twentieth century wave of immigrants entering New York Harbour. I originally thought I'd be done with Ellis Island in half an hour, but the tour was so fascinating that I ended up staying till the 5 pm closing time!

I think part of the attraction of Ellis Island is that the events it describes are old enough to merit a museum exhibit but recent enough to have an immediacy and a sense of belonging that other exhibits lack. There are actual disembarkation cards and medical reports on display, passenger manifests that allow you to search for ancestors who might have entered New York in the early 1900s, interactive displays listing various immigrant populations living in the US today and audio recordings of immigrants reminiscing about their experiences.

The rest of the day was really busy too, albeit completely unplanned. Riding on the subway back to my buddy's place I noticed that the train stopped at Wall Street and Grand Central Terminal, so I decided to visit these two landmarks as well.

Easier said than done…

Walking up Broadway on the west sidewalk, I completely missed Wall Street the first time. The reason, I discovered while walking back down on the other side of the street, is that the most powerful financial market in the world is located in an alley no more than twenty-odd feet wide that ends on the eastern side of Broadway! Quite a shock, but I recovered well enough to take that most predictable of photos: a Wall Street sign in front of the New York Stock Exchange building. (Just as an aside I was carrying my flash-less Minolta X700 SLR loaded with 800-speed film, Canon camcorder and Luvshack's Fuji point-and-shoot digital camera – taking all three along was the smartest decision I made.)

It was about 6 pm and the movers and shakers were swarming in the streets, in their power suits, black (the colour of choice in the City) overcoats, laptop bags, miscellaneous electronic paraphernalia and a uniform sense of hurry. Not being a particularly people person and having had my touristy wants momentarily satisfied, I hopped back on the now-crowded subway up to Grand Central.

The gigantic structure that is Grand Central Terminal is located on 42nd Street and Park Avenue. Here, I noticed signs for a train shuttle to Times Square at 42nd and Broadway and an exit to the Chrysler Building. So after a quick touristy photo of the Great Hall, I walked out to find the latter, but after about ten minutes of aimless wandering with no Chrysler Building in sight I had almost given it up as a bad job. But looking at the map more closely, I suddenly realized that it had been, metaphorically speaking, right under my nose the whole time – at the corner of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue across the street from the station, its grand stainless steel spire impossible to see from the street so close to the building! So, prevented by geography from taking another tourist photo, I got back into the subway station to take the shuttle to Times Square.

Wheeeeeeow! Times Square is the single most over-the-top lavish garish opulent place I’ve seen (Las Vegas has yet to happen). Incredibly bright lights, spinning, flashing, sparkling signs everywhere – the “Crossroads of the World” is truly magnificent. Every store, even the humble MacDonald’s, is decorated to suit its location. But the display I liked the best was a three-dimensional Washington Mutual home loan ad showing Jack climbing a giant green beanstalk to his dream palace in the clouds. There’s just so much dazzle it’s a wonder that drivers don’t get into accidents more often.

After gawking around in the perpetually crowded streets for a few minutes I took refuge in a souvenir store where I picked up – but of course – an “I 'Heart' NY” pin. Looking at my map in this less claustrophobic environment, I noticed that Rockefeller Center was not too far away, so I decided to trudge my way there.

Rockefeller Plaza, on 50th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues, looks like something straight out of Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead”. I don’t know when the place was built, but it was almost as if Rand had set her book there. More touristy photos later I met up with Luvshack who had bailed out of a yuppie meeting with fellow Yale admits at a bar called Whiskey Blue. After a dinner at the modest T.G.I. Friday’s and cursory glances at Radio City Music Hall, Saks Fifth Avenue and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, we wended our tired way home.