29 Dec - Friday - Lots of walking and sightseeing!

Woke up in the morning to cook instant pasta for breakfast. It was not done very tastefully. I just poured hot water into the tupperware to "boil" the pasta. Anyway, the instant pasta was not fully cooked as the heat was not enough. So we had very chewy and hard pasta instead.
We then set off at around 10.30am to explore New York. We took the subway to Whitehall Terminal. It was good that we bought the one-week pass (costs $24). The pass allowed us to take unlimited rides on the subway for the week. There are so many lines on NY subway and this was very confusing to us initally. Even took a picture of the subway map so that we can refer to it. It is easy to navigate once there's a subway map on hand. Another thing to note when taking the subway is to ensure that you are entering the stations on the correct road. The trains lines are underneath the roads and the platforms are on the sides of the road. There is no central platform which you can cross over if you were in the wrong direction. You have to get out of the station and cross the road to enter to the other station. Pretty troublesome but it's not very often for people to take the wrong direction. Anyway, the ride to Whitehall Terminal was pretty fast. From there we took the free Staten Island Ferry. The NY friend we made during our 8-days tour told us about this free ferry ride. And that we can view the statue of liberty instead of paying like US$12.50 and queing an hour for the normal Liberty harbour cruise. The ferry is the mode of transportation for the locals to travel between Staten Island and New York Island for work.
The ferry to and fro took about 45 minutes and we got a pretty good view of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhatten skyline. Though the view of the Statue of Liberty was pretty small from the ferry but at least we can tell people that we have seen the Statue of Liberty.

After the ferry ride, we walked over to NY's business district. The feel is just so different from S'pore CBD (Central Business District). There is a mixture of old and new buildings in NY business district while S'pore ones are modernised looking. NY's business district has more cultural flavors in them. There are tall skyscrapers of each era everywhere, many street vendors and busy sidewalks.

All that walking made us hungry and we stopped to try Au Bon Pain's Krispy Kreme Original Glazed Donut and Dunkin' Donuts' Chocolate Kreme Donut, French Cruller & Jelly Donut. I thought the Krispy Kreme was a disappointment. Heard many good comments on their donuts but this one was not that good. I guess it was because the donut had been left out in the cold. The rest were delicious. We took pictures of the New York Stock Exchange located at Wall Street. The Trump Building is also along the street. So is the Federal Hall in which George Washington took his oath as the first President of the United States of America.

Then we went to Trinity church. One of the finest and oldest Gothic Revival church in America founded in 1696. Queen Elizabeth II visited it in 1976. Outside the church is the churchyard monument which honours the memory of notable New Yorkers buried there, including first Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.

Becky also bought a bag of crunchy and sweet mixed nuts - roasted cashew nuts, almonds, peanuts and coconuts in the bag. We then walked over to the World Trade Centre site aka Ground Zero. "Ten House", the fire department that was involved in the rescue operation of 911 was there. The wall of the fire department was this long plaque which says "dedicated to those who fell and to those who carry on, may we never forget". The mood was so sombre and also respectful. I guess many people would be emotional looking at the now empty site where the twin towers of the World Trade Centre once stood.

There were also photos and images taken in the immediate aftermath of 911 which are placed along the fence of Ground Zero. I took pictures of the timeline recounting the whole incident and names of all who have died in 911. The magnitude of destruction was really devastating.

Leaving the World Trade Center site, we walked over to City Hall to take some pictures.

The centre picture shows me pointng my fingers downwards in the subway stations. This is because the subway stations are really dirty, dowdy and stinky. Seems like a big prison house with all the rusty grills. No wonder most foreigners who come to Spore always praise our country being a clean and green. We still have greenery in the urban areas.

Tok the subway to Chinatown. Chinatown in NY is really big and bustling with life. Te streets are lined with shops selling NY souvenirs such as the I Love NY t-shirts, fake branded bags, watches & perfumes. It was teaming with people. Many chinese tourists were there trying to get some good buys to bring back as souvenirs.

I also saw a carpark which uses a rotation system to shift the lots. Think it is a good way to implement it in S'pore as there's just not enough place for parking lots and this system saves space.A short distance from Chinatown is Little Italy. Little Italy like its name suggest consists of more european style buildings, and the streets are lined with italian restaurants and cafes with al fresco dining. We tried a cannoli from Cafe Palermo. One small cannoli costs US$4! Cannoli are italian pastry desserts and consist of tube-shaped shells of fried pastry filled with a sweet, creamy filling called "cannoli cream". However, I thought the cannoli was very very sweet.

Headed towards the subway station to go to the Fashion District of NY and we caught sight of a sign which would interest jo and bee. Haha..

Arrived at the place where the high-end fashion is. We walked from 77th street to 47th Street along 5th Avenue. That's 30 streets of branded boutiques! Almost every store has a "bouncer" inside it. They will open the doors for customers who want to go in. But we were quite intimidated by the bouncer and did not step into some of the posh stores. It seemed like the bouncers were judging us and they knew we don't have the ability to buy anything in the stores too. It's a pity that we didn't have the chance to see any stars. But if any celebrities were there, we will sure to notice as the papparrazi would be following. hah!

We walked into F.A.O Schwarz and it is the biggest toy store that we have been to. It must be the king of toy stores and there were all kinds of toys. From life size plushies to minature Audi that looks and functions just like the adult version (comes with a hefty price tag of US$16,000!). This king of all toy stores is definitely targeting at the rich children. There's a section on antique toys too and we saw this piece of scrap metal looking aeroplane model selling for US$65,000.

Also passed by Takashimaya but we did not step into it. Should have gone in to take a look.
We left the glitzy shopping district and took night pictures of the Trinity Church along the way. There was a super long line of people trying to go up the Empire State Building. to capture the New York aerial night view. Becky an I couldn't be bothered to pay and queue over an hour in the cold. Instead, we went to buy BK for dinner and took the subway to head back home. Saw this car which was decorated with objects like CDs, phones.

We felt good that we incur zero expense on sightseeing and shopping for the whole day. Only a minimal amount was spent on food. Just trying to save as much as we can.