The Two Towers
Woke up late this morning, probably a little too much walking around yesterday and jet lag on Lauren’s behalf. In an effort to beat the traffic we decided to check out the subway system and figure out how to skip walking miles on miles. The NYNY subway has 24 lines and is the most extensive underground rail system in the world, as a bonus when you wait for your train you can look up through steel grates at ladies skirts. Of course having people walk on top of you has its disadvantages like crap falling on you, but since everything else in the Subway system looks like it hasn’t been cleaned for years it’s okay.
The trains themselves are pretty clean, air-conditioned (thank god!) and come very frequently. In fact I think the longest time I’ve waited is ten minutes, usually three minutes is the normal wait time. Pretty impressed with the subway system overall, once you figure out your way and directions the rest is easy.
My lonely planet guide to NYNY was published in the year 2000 and hence has lots of detail on the World Trade Centre Two Towers (including that for $15 you can go to the observation deck!). The group decided we had to check out what’s been happening at ‘ground zero’ so we utilised the subway to reach our destination (Chambers St) and found our way to where the Two Towers were.
It’s no longer ground zero, it’s very much a construction site. There are fences covering all around the huge site with information about the tragedy and what’s happening now. You can’t really see it in this photo but in the top right hand side there is a slightly inspiring slogan on a building that was heavily damaged from the 9/11 attack.
They’ve done quite a bit of work; in the pit there is a new subway (the old one was crushed), new foundations and things like water and storm drains. The buildings around the site are being repaired still as well (seems that there was quite a bit of collateral damage).
There is a piece of the sphere that was in between the two towers that has been salvaged and is now located in battery park. It looks pretty cools, and is bits and pieces of the monument that survived put together. Will have to check that out tomorrow, as we decided to push on and check out a few other places in Manhattan.
In the afternoon we visited Times Square, which in my opinion is one of the coolest things in NYNY and full of advertisements!
Flashing things everywhere, almost like a more condensed version of Las Vegas except no casino’s. There are large companies everywhere with big shops of various wares. You could say it’s almost a shoppers heaven though Lauren hasn’t bought anything yet; she doesn’t liked to be rushed when shopping and everywhere is packed. Hopefully she’ll get used to it, in the meantime her purse will appreciate it.
We found numerous movie theatres, one theatre (AMC 25 Cinemas) had a whole floor of cinemas dedicated to Michael Moore’s latest film – Fahrenheit 9/11. Resting our feet a little we watched this blatant bash on George W. Bush and the American point of view of the Iraq war. I won’t comment too much on the movie as that would require another post – but I was overall content with our movie choice. Seeing the twin tower site before hand added quite a bit of impact (loved the start of 9/11 with the crash of the planes with a blank screen and audio only – quite dramatic). I was disappointed with the amount of time taken in the film to paint Bush as an imbecile and connected with the Bin Laden family. It all made sense though, in a Mooreish type of way – in the end I preferred Bowling for Columbine as it was more a critic on the American culture and less a manhunt. At the end of the film half the audience clapped in approval and I can understand why being in New York City.
Finished the day with a local food shop cooking us some authentic New York pizza, must have been almost a metre in width and very filling! Can’t wait till our adventures tomorrow!
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