“I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York's skyline." - Ayn Rand

Did you know, it was
actually mostly empty
when it first opened
and right before it
declared bankruptcy,
King Kong came
out? Within
6 months, the
officers were filled. 

I love New York. I am in love with this city. The glamour, the glitz, the work, the atmosphere, the poor, the culture - everything. It's got this really amazing culture and vibe. People are busy, need to get places (hence everyone crossing red lights non-stop, even especially on big roads) but no matter what, they still stop to ask if you're okay, if you're lost or if you need help. It's exactly the city I want to be in and the city I need to be in. It's busy, works hard, plays hard and won't take any shit from anyone. People play by their own rules, and people persevere to get ahead. You can see it in their eyes and the strut of their walk.

Busy streets!

It is completely and utterly wonderful to walk beside them and to experience not one person - not one tour guide - tried to approach me or talk to me. Apparently I can blend in quite well (thanks, Toronto).

this feeling of being so insignificant yet so confident at the same time. Insignificant because I am just one of almost 8 million people in this city but confident because I've made it this far as one. In fact, while walking through all the tourist destinations and areas,

Like, how do I not get fat?

Today was my first day of being able to really walk around and take in the sights. I woke up early because I guess I was just so excited for the day.  Like, 6 am excited. I was supposed to spend the day walking around and getting to see downtown. And that's exactly what I did. Around 12, after eating some lunch, I grabbed my ankle brace (in a previous photo people made fun of me and said I was only wearing one sock, that was actually my ankle brace), threw on a coat and got walking.

Beautiful view of Broadway

I started by walking down Fifth, taking in the sights, enjoying the cloudly but warm weather and just breathing in the city. It was busy. I swear to God I have never seen so many cars run red lights, so many people walk right in front of cars on their green lights and everyone just completely disregarded the rules. It was interesting, after being used to the city and integrating into the culture of crossing red lights, I thought it was silly that people were standing at a red light. Well, didn't take me long to integrate.

This is how they park their cars?!

As I was walking down Fifth, I was overcome with the amount of skyscrapers and high risers in the city. The sheer amount of skyscrapers really blew me away! I walked by the Empire State building and the line up was insane, so glad I wasn't going up. I also walked by so many pizza stores that were only $1 and $0.99 a slice. God I'm going to have high cholesterol. 

Place for everyone to just sit in the
middle of two streets!

Again. Thank god I'm Canadian, right?

I was honestly just wandering through the city and saw so many wonderful things, small boutiques, independently owned restaurants, mini cafes, everything really. And really cute places to sit outside and eat! One of the great things about New York is that there are so many public places to sit, relax and enjoy, like Madison Square park! Where I just walked by and saw kids having fun, couples 

How busy is this market?!

enjoying each other and dogs running around in the dog park! It was amazing and just so nice to see in the middle of the city. 

Well. Some things don't differ
too much from Canada.

As I kept walking down Broadway, I ran into another Park, Union Square Park and it was just completely amazingly wonderful. I ran into an outdoor market. They had everything, ostrich sausage, duck sausage, LAMB sausage (you can tell where I went), fresh cheeses, fresh veggies, flowers, alcohol, pretty much everything. I loved it. I enjoyed and basked in the fresh goodness and the livelihood of everyone and enjoyed it so much!! However... I accidentally walked into a protest.. a cannabis protest. It was... interesting to say the least. Lots of cops (Who apparently all carry semi-automatics?!?!), lots of people.. Apparently the concert and protest happen every year. I didn't find a need to stay, so I

So big, so packed. 

headed out. I kept walking downtown and ran into a few more protests. I then ended up finding this really cool exhibition in Astoria place and checked it out! It was this really cool creative outdoor exhibition. Loved seeing it. 

These older folks were hanging out.
Playing majong?

I then kept walking down and found the Chinatown! It is huge. Holy crap. I cannot believe how much bigger it is than the one in Toronto. It is like 3 times the size of the one on Spadina. It was amazing to see it and I hope I can go back and grab something to eat from there one day! Around it were so many parks and basketball/

Supreme Court is huge.

 soccer fields where I saw a bunch of kids, teens, parents and toddlers playing. It was just great to see them. After that, I headed over to the US Supreme Court, which is this really cool and imposing building. It was huge. I gotta say, it is definitely a beautiful place to see. I sat for a bit and just enjoyed the city and the sounds of the city. . It was so nice to see people out and about, exercising and doing so many different things.

Beautiful well kept park. 

World Trade Buidling

Just down the street, I walked down and saw City Hall! ... And ran into another protest (this one was mothers against gun violence). I walked through the park in front of City Hall (Yes, there was a park and it was beautiful to see). I also got a quick look at the Brooklyn bridge, which was huge and really cool (and where the protestors were actually marching from). I kept marching on past St. Paul's church (which has a huge cemetery, I noticed that all the churches

People placed roses
beside many of the names.

have cemeteries in them?) and spotted the new World Trade Center area. I went by there and noticed that all the tour guides completely skipped over me and kept talking to other people... (Am I a New Yorker now?) I walked by and got to see the new building that was erected as well as the two gigantic pools of

water and memorials that were set up in the place of the original Twin towers.

The memorials were huge. 

It was very sobering to see the names of people etched in and the deep puddles that were in the ground. It was also extremely busy with so many people there. Also a lot of cops and security. And I mean a lot.

Afterwards, I kept marching down. I actually found Wall Street and walked down it, it was very small and very busy with a lot of people. I hung out a bit at Federal hall where there was a huge exhibit going on and I went in to see. Turns out

Standing beside a piece of history!  

it was also the place where Washington was first inaugurated as the first president of the United States! How cool is that?! I also saw the NYSX but who cares about that, really. 

On the ferry over to Staten island!

I kept heading down since my end goal was to head over to Staten Island. Again the tour guys completely by-passed me and went for other people. The line up to get onto the ferry was big. It was pack and I mean PACKED. Wow I felt like a sardine. And it

Close enough. 

isn't even high tourist season yet!! I sat down on the Ferry and watched as I went by the statue of liberty. It is a really cool statue! And I always think it's so funny that it's seen as such an "American symbol" even though it was gifted by the french...When I got off, there wasn't much on Staten island to see and I was super hungry so I grabbed my FIRST NEW YORK PRETZEL and ran into the 

It was ok I guess. 

ferry back to the city. Man was my view gorgeous. I also ended up listening in on tour guide's conversation and listened in on some of the history. Like, did you know that the Brooklyn bridge, about 5 km long, had to take into account the shape of the earth? Crazy facts. 

I was a bit tired (Had been walking since 12pm, it was about 5 at that point) so I started walking back uptown since I had booked a ghost tour for 7:30. I stopped by a Starbucks to rest up and bought my first AMERICAN FRAPPICINO!!! (I gotta be American now). I sat there and

Beautiful, the weather cleared up.

tooled around for a bit before I headed out again to Washington Square park. I saw a lot of NYU kids and buildings  (in NYU territory) before I got to the park.

Some guy playing some music.

Let me just say. Best, and favourite park ever so far. Oh my god, I walked in and there was a guy just playing on a piano.  It was beautiful, he was playing a lot of classical music and there was some girl who was dancing along with it. People were sitting and enjoying the music. I sat down for a bit and enjoyed the music as well. I then walked around the park, saw so many buskers, musicians, people just hanging out in general, people practising guitar, buskers and even people street dancing (Although they were broken up by park cops, yes park cops. Everyone was mad at them). It was quite a sight to see.

Some of the weird "art" that I walked into

Afterwards, I met up with a tour group, Free Tours by Foot, New York to do a "haunted tour of New York" It was pretty spectacular. I really do recommend it. I learned a lot of stuff! For example, many of the New York parks are actually built on cemeteries and dead bodies! They even found some recently. They were put there because back in the day, it was farm land and people were dying from plague and other diseases and because they did not want to bury people near the water (don't want to contaminate it!), they would bury them in what was farmland! How crazy is that to think 

This is what the Disney Symbol
was modelled after!

The tour was about 2 hours and I got to see a lot of cool things, such as a small hidden cemetery, a guy blasting music from a disability bus, lots of bars with these cool front cellars for people to go in and out, I got to explore the West Village where they filmed Friends, see some speakeasies, oh man, just see a lot of really cool stuff, including a place with a small courtyard! (It was beautiful, very European style). I learned a lot too.

Federal Hall

of. That so many places are built like that. Wow. I found out a lot more fun facts about where people were murdered, how there were hangings and what houses I should never ever live in because they're "interesting." Actually, speaking about hangings, which are done on Sundays were very much a 'family' oriented activity, where they would bring picnics, I was told that families would bring everyone and they would all sit around and watch. Is this where the term hanging out comes from? Who knows.

Where money goes to die

After the tour, it was time to head home, so I walked up from the village and while wandering, I found a bunch more places with $1 pizza. While going into one of the places and ordering a pizza, a small man went in, and he seemed ... like not the richest person - by far, and had some construction clothes on. He didn't seem to speak English well and so the guy at the counter switched into Spanish, called him "Friend" and tried to make him feel as welcome, safe and comfortable as possible by encouraging talking. It was actually really nice to see that. They must see hundreds of people who can't speak English, and the fact that the restaurant owners switched into Spanish to try to make people who may not speak English feel more comfortable really resonated with me and made me really happy.

All in all, a really great, long and tiring day. Almost 10 hours of walking! Tomorrow, even more!