Still in America

Breakfast was just as large today as it was yesterday in the same diner. Which was a good job, because last night's dinner wasn't all that great. Max's is a charming Italian eatery and the starters were generous and lovely. Unfortunately the pasta, although it tasted good and there was plenty of it - was congealed into a compacted lump - it wasn't freshly made, that's for sure. However, washed down with good wine it filled a hole. Breakfast, however, was much better value.

We wandered further downtown today, paying a visit to the Twin Towers memorial. It's very moving - the two footprints of the towers, combined with the names lost, gave a sense of scale. The water features were an artform, simple and apt, the tears of a nation falling into infinite black holes.

We learned later how some of the remains of the towers have been used to build new structures nearby, as well as other things - some of the steel has been used to build a boat for the fire department memorialising the fire fighters that lost their lives.

*****

When in New York, one has to shop, and Century 21 was our store of choice.

I was looking for evening dresses, and there were many, of all sorts of shapes and sizes and colours. There were some beautiful dresses heavily discounted to the $40 range, but none in my size. I did fall in love with one and it was in my size - but after a lot of thought, I decided that the discounted price of $1559 was a little steep for my pocket. I could get my house recarpeted for that price.

It didn't stop me from trying dresses on, however. Left my scarf in the fitting room though. Moo.

One shop spotted was 'Shoegasm' - I really don't have anything else to say about that, it sort of speaks for itself.

We took a boat tour around the downtown area, Brooklyn, Liberty and Ellis Island. The tour guide was knowledgable, entertaining and Jamaican. It was sunny with a cold breeze - perfect for taking pictures.

Probably the most entertaining part was playing musical chairs as we all had differing strategies to try and get a seat, the best view, and be in the sun, which wasn't actually achievable at the same time for most of the tour.

Discovered that my scarf had chosen not to get forgotten and was hanging on for dear life inside the bottom of my coat and hanging out the bottom. This being New York people didn't bat an eye, assuming that I'd simply decided to wear a tail today.

Next to the pier where we docked, we discovered among the steel and concrete a small patch of wild countryside - a memorial to the Irish Hunger, which you can walk through and find the rocks each with a county name on.

A hot drink was essential after the boat tour, and it was then that we discovered that American places such as Starbucks don't offer tea. Mint tea and Earl Grey, yes. But not normal tea. Except McDonalds. Who also put squirty cream and chocolate sauce on their hot chocolates.

To round off our cultural experience, we decided to visit a small museum - the Mmuseumm, which
turned out to be a hole in the wall. Literally. With beautifully assembled and laid out items of, well. rubbish, I suppose. Such as the Cornflake Collection, each flake lovingly enclosed in its very own plastic case. And a range of items removed from, erm, peoples bodyparts - such as small pencils, construction nails and fishooks.

Back at the hotel just now for a pitstop before heading out to The Village for dinner. Considered a quick snack from the mini bar, but at $4 for a small bag, decided that the pure gold crisps that must surely be inside  weren't to our taste.