Lest we forget...

Phew, what a day. I've been awake since before 3am - damn time zones - but hey, I still haven't resorted to the matchsticks ;-)

I started off my day proper with a good long walk and subway to Battery Park, to get the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island 10am ferry. Had a tootle up Lady Liberty's pedestal (oo-er missus) and the weather was so poor that I was glad I hadn't paid extra for the crown view! Back on the ferry to Ellis Island and had a walk around the museum with a very interesting audio guide - I was yawning like a fool and kept wanting to say to people noooo, I'm not bored, just jet-lagged!

I walked up to the 9/11 memorial site after a bite to eat - it was fairly quiet and I had an advance ticket so got straight in. I didn't expect to be affected really - I mean, it was a terrible, awful, horrible tragedy and I knew people who worked in one of the towers (fortunately, they got out physically unscathed) but it wasn't really personal to me. But my god it's so powerful. Two (infinity?) pools, set where the original towers were, with 30ft waterfalls which ebb and flow with the breeze, cascading into a pool which empties into a centre void. Around the edge of each is a 3(ish)ft metal rim, inscribed with the names of each person that lost their life on 11 September 2001 and 26 February 1993. All 2,977 of them. Two thousand, nine hundred and seventy seven names. Everyone going about their daily lives - working, travelling - each waking up and not knowing that this would be there last day on earth. It's profoundly moving.

I dashed back to the hotel and treated myself to a cab to the day's last activity - a food tasting tour of the Lower East Side. We met near Astor Place subway and followed guide Eric around the streets. Aside from myself, there was a trainee guide (who was herself very knowledgeable), sisters from California who's been living in the Lower East Side for almost a year, and a German mother and son (or cougar and toy boy, not really sure...). We visited Papaya King - it's in Zagat you know! - for a real New York hot dog, Jum Mum (who knows?) for pork dumplings, a frankly skanky looking bodega called Gem Spa for an egg cream - forget Cadbury's, this is a drink made with soda water, chocolate syrup and milk (weird, yet surprisingly appealing). We went on to Veselka for Ukranian borscht and Iggy's pizzeria, then finished off at Veniero's pasticceria for a divine chocolate cannoli. Nom nom :-)

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