NY, NY

Awful start to our trip .... no wake up call at 6.30am, but luckily I was awake, problems with the automatic ticketing machine, the failure of our ticket agent to give us the correct forms so once we reached immigration; you went through US immigration whilst still in Toronto airport; we had to turn round and go back out again to get the right paperwork and my carelessness at leaving a camping gadget (pen knifey type thingummy jig) in our hand luggage that didn't make it through security... but then we got onto our little jet plane; only 3 seats wide and 15 rows long; like a private jet plane and relaxed.
The trip downtown was easy from Marios' instructions but we were unable to contact him due to his new US cell phone playing up, so we ended up leaving our bags with a dress hire company that looked after bags on the side and went for a wander up 6th Avenue and into Central Park. We had a great afternoon looking around, watching a softball game, from the bleachers, between 2 very serious middle aged teams with lots of whooping and calling from the other spectators, and much hand slapping and punching the air from the players.
We finally met up with Marios at about 6.30pm and we went to his flat to dump our bags. He was meant to be moving in to his flat on 1st Sept but there are delays (for one, the toilet is not connected and two the workmen will be in early in the morning to finish fitting the kitchen), so we couldn't stay there so after a Mexican dinner we went to Marios' hotel and snuck in. He has a little apartment really with kitchenette, sitting, bed and bathrooms. Tris, Celso and I slept in the double bed and Marios took the pull out couch in the bed... so pretty comfy really and for free!
For those of you who don't know Marios and I worked together at Courtmoor School until July and he is now out here to work in a school run by the United Nations. Any kids from the families of people working in the UN are guaranteed a place there, but on what basis Marios does not know.

Now I'm knackered because we spent another whole day sightseeing, starting at the Empire State Building from about 8.30am. (Marios had to go to work at 7, so we got up and out of his hotel room before the cleaners came round). So you will just have to look at the photos for now and I will fill in the gaps later. Rather a lot of photos (especially from the top of the Empire State Building... I need to put on them what can be seen..... later) which I need to sort through a bit.
What a great but exhausting day though, culminating in a beer out on 3rd Avenue.
Tuesday ... today we visited the Statue of Liberty (actually her real name is Liberty and Enlightenment) and Ellis Island (the immigration centre from 1892 to 195?). We took a ferry from Battery Park and again took far too many photos which I will have to sort out later when I have more time. We learnt some amazing things about the statue but I won't tell you about them all because you can go and look them up if you are 'that' interested... so here are the ones that we found the most fascinating.
1. The statue is hollow and its walls are only as thick as 2 pennies.
2. As you know it is a symbol of freedom and equality for all... yet no women were allowed to attend the opening ceremony so the suffragettes swarmed around the island in boats and tried to splash all the visitors.
3. Liberty's finger nails are as long as your forearm.
Then we went on to Ellis Island in another ferry, again masses of facts but I'll just tell you our favourites.
1. The island was considered too small so it was made larger and since that time (nearly 100 years) New Jersey and New York have been fighting over who it belongs to. Recently the Supreme Court made a judgement that the building and the original land of the island belong to New York but that the man-made bit of the island belongs to New Jersey. Now New York have put in an appeal because the man-made bit was made with soil excavated from the NY subway system, they are saying they want their soil back!
2. The largest number of people that were processed in one day was over 100,000.
3. As immigrants arrived they were made to walk up some stairs, doctors watched them as they climbed to spot anyone who was lame or suffered from respiratory diseases!
4. Anyone who appeared confused (who wouldn't be after 2 weeks in steerage class, foreign languages and customs etc) was marked with an X and had to go for IQ testing which consisted of doing a puzzle.
5. Woman were not allowed to immigrate unaccompanied, they either had to come with a male family member, be met by a male family member, or be a photo bride; they had their passage paid for by a man with whom they had exchanged a photo and he paid the fare and she agreed to marry him on arrival; the weddings took place in the chapel on Ellis Island!
On our return to Battery Park we were lucky to see a 7 man busking troop (1 drummer and 6 dancers) doing break dancing and rapping in the park; they were in Spandex Union Jack costume and were fab and funny.
Then we wandered along to the World Trade Centre Site and spent time in the Visitor Centre were there were all the tributes and lots of recordings of peoples memories of the day... a really gut wrenching and emotional experience. 2981.
As we walked back to Marios' new flat (which was now ready for us to stay in) we passed his local fire station and even there they had plaques for 7 of their team that had died. The photo of the fire engine shows their names on the front of the engine and a pair of boots with trousers round its ankles ready for a quick put on.
We spent the evening putting together some of Marios' new furniture and eating a packet meal of Chicken Teryaki with rice left over from out trip to Algonquin.. very nice!
Wednesday.. we had a bit of a lie in and then finished making Marios' sofa bed. We couldn't do it last night because it needed hammering and we didn't want to alienate Marios' new neighbours. Then we headed up to the posh bit of town; 5th and Madison Avenues; to see how the other half live. We started at the Rockefeller Centre and passed all sorts of posh shops Gucci, Tiffany's etc, all with intricate carvings or paintings around the entrances. We also went to sit in a beautiful church ... will have to write about it later though because again I'm too tired and I have to pack ready for our train ride up to Rochester tomorrow.