Day 14 in New York

Today we decided to explore the Financial District. We headed over to Wall Street and had a look at the New York Stock Exchange building. We also attempted to get close enough to the bronze bull statue but there was a bus load of Asian tourists surrounding it so we will head back another day and see if we can get closer (I have a mission to perform for Theresa ;)).

On Wall Street

One of the entrances to the New York Stock Exchange

Across the road is the beautiful Trinity Church and graveyard. I really like it because it is completely surrounded by these massive buildings but these century's old grave-sites are still allowed to rest. Maybe I'm morbid but I think these old traditional little graveyards are...magical is the wrong word, but I don't find them creepy. Maybe I find them peaceful? I'm not sure. I just sound like a freak obsessed with death!

Trinity Church

Trinity graveyard

Next we went by the World Trade Centre site which is under construction for the new memorial and museum that are being built. Next to the site is the World Trade Centre Tribute Memorial which is set up by the families of those lost in the attacks. We had the option of visiting and going through the gallery or having a tour of the gallery and areas around the site with someone who had been there or who lost family. We decided for the first option as we thought it would be too sad hearing the stories. As it turns out, we didn't have a hope either way. It was so sad and very emotional. We were both in tears. They had quotes from people who were there on the day, quotes from answering machine messages left by those on the planes, whole walls covered with missing posters and photographs to remember those who lost their lives. There was also the footage we all know too well and countless stories of the rescue efforts. Neither of us thought we would be that effected by it but a lot of it I couldn't look at, it was just so sad. It didn't look like anyone else was crying (there were lots of people there) which I don't really understand as most of them were American. Maybe we are just overly emotional. Either way, if any of you ever go, take a tissue or two.

Memorial site under construction

Next we walked through Saint Paul's Cathedral which is also next to the site and was one of the many support centres for the rescuers on September 11th. It's also amazing that it was still standing because it really was only this tiny little church right on the edge of the area.

You can see the construction site through the trees at St. Paul's

We kept walking through the streets, walking past the old Woolworth Building, which is one of New York City's oldest and most famous skyscrapers and was the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1930. And a bit of a pop culture reference for all you Ugly Betty fans, this is the headquarters for MODE magazine on the show, or so I am told. Continuing our walk we came to City Hall Park which happened to be hosting an event called Come "Out of the Darkness" Community Walk for Suicide Prevention. These are hosted in communities all over America. Purple was the colour of the day and it was fantastic to see such a major turn out for such an important cause.

Woolworth building

Our night consisted of us heading back to Rockerfeller Plaza to try and go up the top again but clouds had set in and it just wasn't worth the trip up if we weren't going to be able to see anything. We'll try again another time. Without this to fill the next few hours, we, er, went shopping in and around Times Square (new bag and a prezzie for Mum) and then headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for drinks, dinner and dessert! And then more shopping at the Rock Shop! Got a couple of cool t-shirts and accessories (scarf and badges) here.

We headed back to our room as we were planning on going back to Wall St. (which is 3 blocks from our building) to watch the filming of a new HBO show that was happening on the street but as it turns out, we read the sign wrong and it's happening tomorrow morning at 6am (the part of the sign we read was for when all cars had to be removed from the area by or they would get towed). We are so not getting up at 6am!

Halloween decorations in our building's lobby