A byootaful Life

We set our alarms nice and early for day two (New Year’s Eve) of our New York trip, since we were pretty sure if left to our own devices, we would sleep until midday due to the fact that we’d essentially missed a whole night’s sleep on the flight over. We decided to catch the ferry over to Staten Island, which would give us a good view of the Statue of Liberty. On the way, we trudged through the watery slush which covered all of New York’s sideways, caused by the slow melting of the piles of snow left over from the blizzard. You could see the cars that hadn’t been moved in weeks – some of them were completely blocked in by a wall of snow!

We passed the Empire State Building on the way. It’s pretty magnificent, especially seeing it at night, all lit up. It’s funny but the thing I thought of when we were standing at the bottom of the building was when we used to mock kids at school who would copy other people: “If Johnny jumped off the Empire State Building, would you jump too?” It was pretty cool to finally be seeing it in person.

We made it to the ferry stop and joined the crowds of people waiting for the doors to open. There was a man there shouting Bible verses at us. We don’t really get that in Australia, so it was a bit weird. Everyone was just ignoring him – it was only the tourists who were staring at him. There were so many people packed in there and for a while we were concerned we wouldn’t all fit on the ferry – then it arrived and we saw how big it was – it was huge! Crazy big! The doors opened and we rushed on, racing outside to snag a good Statue of Liberty-viewing position.

I took so many photos as she slowly turned towards us as the ferry went past. I loved the snow at the base of the statue and the wintery trees in the background – so beautiful. I didn’t realise how big it was until I saw it in person. The tiny people at the base of the statue just reinforce how massive it is.

I can’t decide which photo I like better, so I included both. I guess it comes down to landscape vs. portrait. I don’t mind portrait photos but Phill detests them – he’s a landscape photo guy. I must admit, I’m leaning more towards the landscape photo out of the two above. Which do you prefer?

We got off the ferry at Staten Island (isn’t that where Carrie Bradshaw misses the last ferry and ends up getting a lift back with the senator?) and had a snowball fight. Mature, I know. We got the next ferry back and headed to Wall Street to see the stock exchange building.

It was pretty busy so after taking a few photos, we decided to go to Times Square. We were meeting up with our friends at 3pm in preparation for the new years eve celebrations that night. If we were going to get a good spot, we’d have to be there early – apparently the people wanting spots right up the front got there as early as 6:30am that morning. We weren’t that dedicated! We had a quick dinner near Times Square so we’d be ready at about 5pm to get into the crowd. We could see from our the window that it was steadily getting busier outside. Just before 5, we paid our tab and left.

Looks like New York was prepared for what would come, because we passed a group of police standing on the corner having what looked like a briefing. Some of them grinned at us and posed for photos, while the rest looked serious. It was nice to know there was going to be a big police presence.

We kept walking down 7th Ave until a policeman stopped us. He was just about to close off the block but he let us in just before he closed the barrier. For those of you who don’t know how New Years Eve works in Times Square, this is what happens: the police cordon off sections of blocks on 7th Ave with barriers. Once a section is closed off, nobody else can get in. If anyone inside the closed section leaves, they can’t get back in. No bathroom breaks, no food breaks, nothing. Once you’re in, you’re in. If you leave, it’s all over. The police work their way down 7th Ave, blocking off the sections depending on the amount of people arriving, so obviously the earlier you arrive, the closer to the ball you’ll be.

We ended up at about 7th & 49th St. The ball was due to be dropped on Broadway & 42nd Street, so we were quite a few blocks away but could still see it clearly (apparantly it’s visible all the way back to 59th Street). There were probably about a couple hundred people in our section and some of them had come prepared with camping chairs and snacks. Other people, like us, had only a pack of cards to keep us entertained for the next seven hours…

New Year’s Eve is a whole post in itself, so stay tuned!