New York. Impressions. Part 3
So the third day. According to the plan, Downtown is also Lower Manhattan. In this part of the city there is a port as well as Battery Park, Brooklyn Bridge, City Hall, and most importantly, the same Wall Street area that everyone has heard of and which not everyone has seen. On this day, our friends were driving to the city by car, so they gave us a lift. However, as in probably any metropolis with parking in NY, there is a problem. Cars are free on the street, but it’s unrealistic to find places, you have to drive for a long time along the streets adjacent to the right place in an attempt to stick the car to the sidewalk. There are parking lots, but they are expensive (50 bucks a day) and they are always full too. Therefore, cunning or smart people leave their car in parking lots in Jersey City, the capital of New Jersey, which is located on the other side of the Hudson River. (Parking is 60 bucks a month, which is much nicer than 50 a day. ) Then there are two ways to cross the Hudson. Either a river bus -5 dollars, or an electric train (pass train in their language) 1.75 for a round-trip ticket, or more correctly, for two trips. We chose the pass train. He goes through a tunnel under the river and comes just to the place where the infamous twin towers used to stand. Now there is a huge construction site. The memorial that was promised to be built on this site will be built elsewhere. And here, I think, there will be skyscrapers again. Well, even such an expensive land will walk free. No, it's not American.
And here we are in a crowd of assorted employees (the beginning of the working day) we go towards Wall Street. Separately, I would like to tell a funny observation that amused us that day until the evening, until our friends explained to us what was happening. The fact is that when we walked in a crowd of all kinds of clerks, it was striking that many of them were in business suits - shirts, ties and all that, strict blouses, skirts and on their feet..... sneakers, sneakers, slippers, flip flops ( the flip flops with a white shirt and a tie in combination were especially amused) It turns out that they have strict high-heeled shoes either in a bag or in offices. In them, you don’t really jump on escalators and asphalt. So they put them on already at the workplace. And they go to and from work in sneakers. And they don’t bother at all whether their shoes are in harmony with the suit - the main thing is COMFORTABLE !!!
Wall Street itself turned out to be a rather small street with huge houses so tall and densely packed together that on a bright sunny morning, the camera insistently recommended that I turn on the flash. The most interesting object on Wall Street is, of course, the New York Stock Exchange. Yes, the same footage with which they show in the news when it comes to business and finance. Previously, it was possible to get inside with a tour - not now. So we looked outside and moved on. And then a solid wall of skyscrapers - banks, offices, in general, nothing too special. The street ends with an exit to the East River embankment, which offers a beautiful view of Brooklyn. Slightly in the distance to the left is the Brooklyn Bridge. After sitting on the benches admiring the panorama of Brooklyn and having a smoke, we decided to go to the Brooklyn bridge. Yes, that's what. We liked the fact that as soon as there is a place in the city, from where you can see a view or some kind of public garden, where you just want to sit down to relax, there are definitely enough benches. And two words about smoking. Smoking in the city and not only is possible on the street, or it’s right to say, it’s impossible under the roof. On the street, even smoke a cigarette - no one will say a word. Americans themselves also smoke normally. The myth that they all run and lead a healthy lifestyle is not entirely true. The price of cigarettes makes you think about whether or not to smoke. Marlborough 8-50 Parliament 9-00.
On the way to the bridge we found a port. In fact, berths and terminals are all around Lower Manhattan. And here is its old part (17th pier). Here it was decided to keep part of the old New York. At the pier, there are old sailboats around low houses, warehouses, the Fish Market, in general, as the city looked before the dominance of modern skyscrapers. Beautiful and interesting. Various pleasure boats depart from the pier. On one of them we decided to ride. A tour around Manhattan with a passage under the bridges with a visit to the island on which the Statue of Liberty stands (without disembarkation) costs $ 25. It lasts about two hours. All this time, the guide is live with an expression like a real storyteller, telling about everything you swim past. The culmination of everything was a drive with a stop past the Statue of Liberty. With a solemn "ladies and gentlemen and now the Liberty monument !!!! " Well, just like an Oscar award. The ship stands for about 5 minutes with one side to the statue, everyone who clicks there like crazy cameras. Then it turns to the other side - the picture repeats. At this time, one of the crew members walks among the tourists and offers to take a picture of you with your camera against the background of the statue. A trifle, but nice. However, the tourists themselves, too, seeing, for example, that I am photographing my wife, and she takes me in turn, come up and offer to take a picture of us together. After that, the guide asks if everything was filmed and, having received an affirmative answer, gives the go-ahead to the captain and the ship sets off on its return journey. The tour is worth the money. The views of the city from the water are the most beautiful, the sensations are pleasant. After that, we returned to the port and continued our journey around the city.
The famous Brooklyn Bridge. A lot has been written about it - you can read it, so I won’t dwell on it. I’ll say that it offers a beautiful panorama of the Wall Street area. Bridge on two levels. cars drive on the lower floor - pedestrians and cyclists go along the top floor. For them, half of the track is allocated, by the way, not very wide. Our daring attempt to cross the bridge ended somewhere in the middle of the bridge. We were already quite tired, it was hot, and the bridge was long, so it was decided to return, and go to Brooklyn later. Therefore, we returned to Downtown. We walked in Battery Park, stared at the figure of a bull that stands at the very beginning of Broadway and symbolizes prosperity. But it was not possible to take a picture of it. The bull was all covered with Chinese tourists, like flies. They all dreamed of being photographed while saddling the animal, there were many of them, and we had no desire to wait until they all satisfied their cowboy ambitions. Thus ended the third day of our acquaintance with the city.
