Thursday 8 August 2013
Today was a very emotional day. Anne and I went on tour to
9/11 site and we went on the official tour that involves your guide being involved in some way with the World Trade Centre. Our guide was Howie who is a New York resident who lives 2 blocks away. He has lived there for many years thus was affected by
9/11. He is now retired and volunteers to do the World Trade Centre site tours. He was joined by Mark who is a retired New York firefighter and this is where the tour became quite personal. Mark was working
on 9/11 and he and his station were called to the World Trade Centre when the planes hit hence he was there when they collapsed and also worked there for the recovery. I won't go in to the details but it became quite emotional for him as he talked about that day, his missing "brothers" and the recovery and his life since. He does the tours as it is therapy for him to talk about it and he was so humbled and grateful that we were interested and wanted to hear his story. He did break down a few times which was so sad and it is quite obvious that he is suffering from post traumatic stress but he just wanted to talk. He is a fabulous person and I wish him well as I think every day for him is a struggle and we have no idea of what he and others live with.
We then headed down to the Staten Island Ferry and caught the ferry to / from Staten Island so we could see and take lots of photos of the Statue of Liberty.
After that we headed to Wall Street and the heavens opened i.e. it bucketed down. Once we could move around it was amazing to see the security in place around Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange. Barricades, police check points at every street corner, sniffer dogs are just some of it. Because of the GFC and the financial situation in the USA and the banks, etc., they are on guard 24 hours every day.
We then hit the subway and headed back to the hotel. We were exhausted, we hadn't had lunch and it was
4.30pm... We found a fab Italian restaurant and the owner personally looked after Anne and I. Wouldn't have been surprised if there was a mafia connection cos it sure felt like something out of the Godfather. Food was good (lasagne of course) and was good fun. Couldn't believe we had lunch
at 5.00pm!!!!! By the time we got back to hotel and just chilled out we couldn't be bothered leaving again so just plonked on our beds and relaxed. First time we have done that since London!
