Well, this was the day that I was really waiting for in this trip because it was the day of the Hostel's all day NYC walking tour. Since this was my first trip to New York and I really didn't know what to expect, I especially wanted to do this tour since it was supposed to cover a fair amount of space and give me a nice taste for the city. In my opinion, it did not disappoint.

I got up early and after showering and so forth, went down to the lobby area where we were meeting. I picked up a MetroCard at the hostel's gift shop as well as a few postcards that I was going to send out, grabbed a muffin and drink from the little cafe and then proceeded to wait for everyone to show up. The tour's guide, Jerry, was already there and was making conversation while we waited. Once everyone had arrived and Jerry briefly went over the itinerary for the day, we left for our first destination: Brooklyn.

Times Square - busy with foot traffic into all hours of the night.

Now, since the hostel is all the way up on the upper west side the easiest and most logical way to get to Brooklyn is, of course, via the infamous New York City subway. The subway terminal was about 2 blocks from the hostel so didn't take long to get to. The subway ride was nice. It was a Saturday morning so it wasn't overly crowded and before long we had arrived in Brooklyn Heights. It was a nice neighborhood, very expensive from what Jerry explained. I didn't get any photos (not sure why) but the streets were lined with brownstones and were clean and quiet. We then went down to the walkway (sidewalk area) overlooking the pier for some great views of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty a bit in the distance and a great view of lower Manhattan.

A quick shot of us crossing over the Brooklyn Bridge.

From there we went to the Brooklyn Bridge itself and proceeded across. With the walkway being exposed the wind can whip through there pretty strongly and since it was February anyway, it was pretty chilly while we crossed. Arriving back in Manhattan we walked down through the area where the Mayor's office is and made our way down to the former World Trade Center site, Ground Zero. That was interesting because it was kind of overwhelming actually being there and knowing what had happened not too long ago. Especially after seeing so much of on tv when it had happened. I really can't imagine what it must have been like to actually be near and see the aftermath while it was still not cleared. I only took two photos of the site, one of the American flag and one of the girder cross, and even doing that I felt weird about it.

After leaving the Trade Center site we walked to Wall Street. For me it was one of those things that seems partly anticlimactic because I guess I had an image in my mind of the Wall St. area being large and busy. The buildings were certainly large but a lot of the streets were really quite narrow and it seemed to be mostly occupied by construction workers and tourists at the time, which was about 11:30a - 12:00p when we were walking through.

The Statue of Liberty as seen from the Staten Island Ferry.

After the Wall St. area we went to the National Museum of the American Indian and walked around a little bit. We stopped in their gift shop and had a bathroom break, but the thing that I really remember is the skylight in the main rotunda. A flute player was warming up for a performance while we were walking through too. From there we went down to the Staten Island Ferry terminal to go out over the water and got a nice view of the Statue of Liberty. I was so used to seeing it on TV that its size didn't impress me as much as it could have, but it was cool to see. Arriving back on land we walked down the waterfront a bit and proceeded to the Winter Gardens where we took a little break and spent some time looking at the proposed plans for the Trade Center site. After that we made our way to the courthouse area and finally into Chinatown where we would stop to eat at Big Wing Wong Restaurant.

The statue of Atlas in Rockefeller Center.

It was about 4:45p when we sat down to eat so we were all hungry and the food did not disappoint. They presented us with a number of dishes and rice and I had a Tsing Tao with one of the guys in our group who was from Australia. We finished eating at about 6:00p and it was already dark since it was winter. Now we were starting on the closing part of the journey and headed toward downtown (closing in the sense that it was dark now and we had eaten).

We walked through Washington Square Park with the Arch, approached and passed the Empire State Building and went to Grand Central Terminal where we eventually took another bathroom break at about 11:00p. We finally made it to Times Square at about 11:45a and it was jumping and busy as if it were 11:45p. Of course, with all the lights, it was pretty well lit up and I was very surprised and glad to see the amount of police coverage. It seemed like every block had at least one police car or mounted unit and you would see officers walking on the sidewalk areas too. So I really felt pretty safe. One of the things I liked was the vendors on the sidewalks with digital SLRs and photo printers who would take "instant" photos of tourists on the street with Times Square as their backdrop. I imagine they charge a pretty high fee and that the final product is certainly not worth whatever they charge but I guess if the tourists will pay then more power to them. After a stop in a hotel and a bit of walking we made it Rockefeller Plaza and our evening was about to come to an end. Of the initial group less than half of us made the full trek. We bid our goodbyes to Jerry, got back on the subway to take us closer to Central Park and made it back to the hostel at about 1:30a Sunday morning.

It was a good day, I must say. Tiring but very fun. For my first trip to New York City this was definitely the way to go to get a feel for the city. It was a great experience to go with so many other people from other countries too. I can't wait to go back and do it again as I'm sure it'll be a slightly different experience with a new group of travelers. Once we got back to the hostel I pretty much hit the sack and was ready for my walk through Central Park and the drive home the next day.