Liam Bowers

I walked around Manhatten for about 9 hours. My feet hurt but I had to start getting used to it. I walked througth central park as its about 30 seconds away – it seemed wrong not to. I was only in there a short while but it was enough to realise how big it is. It’s big, really big. I came across a kids playground – it was huge. It puts ours to shame. I wish I had one of those as a kid. No roundabouts though so they’re still missing out.

I got off the subway in the Rockafella centre station. It took me 20 minutes to work out how to get the heck out of there – it’s a labyrinth!

I thought I’d head toward Times Square (it had to be done) and came across a huge market on 9th street. The street (or at least a sizable part of it) was blocked off. I didn’t see all of it, there was just too much to see.

I came across the NHL store and thought I’d pick up a top. My original plan was to get a sports top from each city I went to but it would be extremely costly. The ice hockey jerseys started at $120. My problem was – which team would I go for? How do you pick a team / city when you have absolutely no affiliation with any of them.

I ended up with a New York Rangers jersey. a) I was in New York, which is more than I can say about any of the other teams. b) The logo doesn’t change so it wont be outdated any time soon.

Times Square was quite interesting. Massive displays on the sides of the buildings made everything bright and lively. As per usual however, any famous tourist destination is full of tourists! They were like ants scurrying around. There was a Toys ‘R’ Us there with a bluddy merry-go-round in it! Madness! There was also a M&M’s store. Some how they managed to come up with enough M&M crap to fill 3 levels.

I wandered to the world trade centre site and over heard a few of the tours going on around me which were quite interesting. It’s smaller than I thought it would be. I imagined a gigantic hole (or two) but it was just a fairly big construction site. The plan is to create a single smaller tower and a two memorials at the site of the original towers. There was a couple of guys almost preaching about the 9/11 conspiracy. It was quite entertaining and rubbed a lot of Americans up the wrong way.

I had a wander to Battery Park and the water front and had my first glimpse of the statue of liberty. It was quite a nice experience.

China Town was interesting although I was definitely a minority.

Little Italy was also nice, lots of nice restaurants.

I came across Washington Square Park , a small park but had some fantastic street performers.

A day full of touristy stuff done!