My first whole day in New York (17th of January) started early. I woke up around 7am, and dressed up properly, as the weather was incredible cold outside. It was still a bit dark, but I could not wait to see everything. I got myself ready and left the hotel, with the map in hand. 

I headed towards Brooklyn Bridge, because that was the closest thing I wanted to see. As I heard from the receptionist, the bridge was around 15 minutes walk. Well, it was more.

I walked 20 minutes through the south-west of Chinatown, watching people opening their small shops. It was like in a movie, the whole street was still half a sleep, some old chinese men was selling newspaper, vedgetables, etc. There was steam coming out of the sewers. I heard sirens in every 3 minutes from police and fire engines. 

After 20 minutes of walk I have reached the beginning of Brooklyn Bridge. As I was walking on the bridge, 1-2 runners passed by, the weather was so cold, my face got red and frozen, I felt very bad pain on my cheeks like they were burning. The sun was rising up over Brooklyn and made the buildings of Manhattan glow in dark yellow color. It was beautiful, probably the best image of New York. The pavement on the bridge was white because of the frozen stone. I only saw this back in Hungary when the winter was so cold that the concrete pavements looked white. 

I walked up until the middle of the bridge, made many pictures of the buildings, and of the Statue of Liberty at the distance on Liberty Island.

After that I walked back to Manhattan side, and went down to the subway. I bought a Fun Card, which gave me free travel on every public transport vehicle for a day. It was $7.50. The Subway looked like in the movies too, tincan coaches of the metro looked funny. The people. The people looked also the same like in the movies. I have seen homeless people dragging their cardboard boxes, people travelled to work etc. Everything was dirty and poorly maintained. It was quite disappointing.

As I told to Mrs. Smith later on, New York did not suprize me as much as I expected, and I knew the reason why. Because I had this constant deja vu feeling, which followed me throughout my trip. I saw many movies over the last decade, which most of them were shot in New York or in LA, and I memorized the look of the city, and it was not a big thing for me to be there. Stupid thing to say, I am struggling to express my feelings, because I really loved being there, however it was not a brand new thing for me like it was London for the first time. It felt I was there for the second time. Weird.

I went to Wall Street with the subway. When I got to the surface and I found myself at the Trinity Church. I crossed the road, and walked through the Wall Street down to the river. I passed the New York Stock Exchange, and I said some swearwords as a "thank you" for the credit crunch. (Even if they are not directly responsible for it)

I saw the Trump Building, then I was heading towards Ground Zero. I had to ask for direction of course, and the people I met were extremely helpful. Everybody was smiling, and very nice with me. They started to chat, not just giving directions. They were very friendly indeed. 

The city was waking up, more and more yellow cabs fled the streets, however the traffic was still light. I got to Ground Zero then as I did not feel my hands and my face because of the cold, I got into a small cafe to have a capucchino. The thing I could not get used to was the taxing system and the prices. Almost every price was net price, and you have to add the tax for it. So on every price list did not include taxes. At the beginning I was suprised as the bill were always bigger, after that I accepted it, but could not get used to. 

I had my capucchino where the staff was also very friendly. They told me to took it easy and sit down for a while to melt and warm up. I sat down at the seating area, where I was surrounded by the workers of the Ground Zero having coffee, and some policemen who had they morning doughnut and coffe. It was so funny to see them in the "real life" eating cop's food :-)

After seeing the remains of the World Trade Center, I continued my journey down south on the Broadway, where I met the Bull of Wall street :-). I took some pictures, and it was later on when I realized being early was a big luck, as in about two hours later I could not make such a good pictures as the place was flooded by tourists. 

I got myself at the south of Manhattan, where the ferries were departing towards the Liberty and the Ellis Island. I bough my ticket $12 for the trip, and off I went. Before stepping on the ferry, I had to go through security check, like at the airports. There were temporary tents set at the site, and queueing people waiting for the inspection. The procedure was the same, remove belts, jackets, hats/gloves, coins, keys, etc, then walk through the gate. When it was done I had my access to the ferry. I got upstairs in the ship, and could look around. In the distance there was the Statue of Liberty, behind me was Manhattan with its skyscrapers. The river had huge icefloats everywhere, birds were using them as gathering places. Just in about a couple days ago, a plane had to land on the icy cold Hudson. I could not imagine how cold it was for those people to have their plane filled with that. 

After ten minutes wait, the ferry departed. Destination was the Liberty Island. As I was standing on the top with many fellow passenger, we got the icy cold wind to our face. My fingers were frozen, and felt burning pain, I almost could not make any pictures. Believe me, it was terrible. As the ship arrived to the Liberty Island it became a bit better. Of course before you wanted to go up to the Observation Level of the Statue, you had to have the same security check (tents, gates, etc), than in the mainland. 

Anyway, passing through the security check, I had a very interesting conversation with one of the guard at the "real - torch". He was a black guy in his fifties, but had remarkable knowledge of history. He told me many good stories about freedom and the statue itself. He believed that the fact the crown part had been closed to the public, shows that America is in fear, and this is a very bad message to our children. When I told him, that people in the US. should not live in fear, he was saying with raised voice:

- Thank you, thank you. That is exactly what I mean!

He also admired Hungary's history, and quickly mentioned, how many old and beautiful things we have in Budapest. Roman age ruins, turkish baths, etc. I was AMAZED.

After the chat with him, I went up on the stairs (felt my legs jelly after that) to the Observation Level. Unfortunately the "crown" part of the statue was closed after 911, so only the bottom was accessable. I made many pictures as usual, then went down. At the bottom, I walked around the statue, and got some present in the local gift shop for Mrs. Smith. 

Then Getting back on the next ferry towards Ellis Island. As it was incredible cold, I decided not to leave the ferry at Ellis Island, but go back to Manhattan. 

Arriving back to Manhattan, I still had many things to see, and it was only around 1pm. 

to be continued