New York day 1

Today I decided to walk around Manhattan instead of using the subway, saved me a bit of cash but also allowed me to actually see the normal neighbourhoods and areas of downtown Manhattan.

I started at Penn station and made my way to the Empire State building where I bought a ticket to go up to the top.

The inside of the tower is very fancy, glossy and well strange but I liked it, the views from the top of the tower presented 360 degree views of New York city, the sky was spectacularly clear too so I could see far out into the ocean and even get a glimpse of lady liberty, but she was too far off.

After that I wandered the streets until I found the Ground Zero 911 memorial.  It was a very strange experience for me because one of my first memories (unfortunately) was watching the telly and seeing the towers fall down, actually standing on the spot where that awful terrorist attack took place made my hairs stand on their ends, the atmosphere at the memorial was very eerie but I couldnt help notice the amount of people having happy smiley pictures in front of it as if it was some huge tourist attraction.  

To me it is a national monument, commemerating the lives of 3000 innocent people murdered by Islamic extreemists, making out like its some big tacky tourist attraction seems disrespectful to me, but maybe im being a bit too serious.  Nevermind.

After that I chilled at battery park until I decided to walk up the east side of Manhattan to see the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges before going to see the United Nations building.