2013 Nervous Breakdown Tour: Commemorating, eating, walking and boozing....

New York: Thursday 17 October, 2013

A train ride accompanied by gospel singers led us to the 9/11 Memorial. The last time I was in New York, the WTC site was a pit of construction. I remember Mum and I going into the Burger King across the road to get views into the construction site. Well, that has all changed now!!

A different view these day, hey Mum??!!

As we were a little early, we walked down to St. Patrick's Church which was relatively untouched by the attack and served as a haven for emergency service workers. Another place Mum and I had been to, but it too had changed. On my first visit, the pews were still all set out in rows. But due to the popularity of the church, there has been more space created by removing the pews. However, you can find some around the edges of the room with the scratches made by exhausted emergency workers.

Momentos are everywhere in the church and Willy was a familiar figure to see so far from home.

Police badges from around the world were sent in to the church.

Liberty Tower from the church.....

The 9/11 Memorial is really moving. The two pools that have been created as footprints of the towers have ware flowing down into a void. The noise of the water cancels out the sounds of the city and provides a great place for reflection. The footprints seems rather small when you think about the presence to towers formerly made. But the names listed around the towers put things into perspective.

Panorama shot......

The names are outlines enabling people to leave flowers as remembrance. I would assume also that you could take rubbings of the names as well.

We found a Melbourne girl who died in the attack......

This one was also sad.....there were a few like this.....

The Survivors' Tree was the only tree that wasn't destroyed in the attacks. It was transplanted to allow it to grow and then replanted back at the memorial site. Pretty hardy bugger!!!

We then occupied Wall Street.....

Next on the agenda was Sylvia'sReataurant in Harlem. Amber has raved about the corn bread, so our expectations were high!! Why would we ever doubt her?? The cornbread is complementary and it's worth going just for it!!!! We had three baskets......the third being a doggy bag......

We gave the grape jelly a miss!

Rick had the lunch combination of pork ribs, fried chicken and he chose mac and cheese and collard greens as his sides.

Before:

After:

I had the beef ribs and had garlic mashed potato and black eyed peas as my two sides.

Before:

After:

Needless to say it was food that we'd planned to walk through the Park after lunch!!

Rick told the wait staff that it was my birthday and they sang a very harmonious happy birthday to me. We made a new friend, Deedy, who was with her girlfriends celebrating her birthday as well. She and her friends had a five day itinerary with various activities planned. She'd even created postcards with the deets.

A walk through Harlem provided some entertaining sights and some great music.....

A quick stop at the Apollo....

After our mega lunch, Central Park beckoned. I hadn't done the top end of the park, so it was great to see some different areas.

Unfortunately, there was not enough time on this trip,to do the museums. Hopefully Ivan come back someday and be more edumacated.....

The Jewish Museum....

Guggenheim Museum....

Sitting on the steps of MOMA....

After our diversion along 'Museum Avenue', it was back into the park.

Strawberry Fields was our last stop as the light was fading....as were my poor feet. Who knew my comfy shoes would give me such blisters?? But I guess when you are walking over 10km, anything can happen!!

The Dakota Buliding......

Thanks to Rick, I have become a massive fan of the show 'Community' if you haven't seen it, get on it!!!! It makes me laugh out loud and is just brilliant. So I needed to buy a tshirt and also a Troy and Abed in the morning coffee cup!!!

Rick needed to be on the Voice.....

By this stage, my feet were dying so we attempted to catch a cab back to the hotel. After calling a woman a very bad word and punching a taxi when she stole out ride, we made it back to the hotel to have a break before dinner.

We wandered around and found a delightful Italian place with very hot waiters and had a beetroot and mozzarella salad, beef carpaccio with apple, celery and Parmesan and spaghetti wth regains and pepper. All of this was washed down with a basil vodka gimlet or two.....Then it was red wines in a park at Shake Shack.....

The back to the hotel and to the sports bar next door to meet Rick's friend from Japan, Serena. By this stage I was exhausted and a little drunk, so it seemed a perfect opportunity to drink more!!!