To start off our Friday, we had reserved passes at Ground Zero, to go and see the 9/11 memorial at 11.30. To collect our passes we had to go to a special visitor centre type thing and print them out. We then had to walk a couple of blocks down to the actual memorial, passing the building site of the new World Trade Center. As we were walking, the heavens opened and it began to rain. At first it wasn't too bad, but by the time we got through security it was bordering torrential.
We continued on regardless. It actually made Ground Zero very atmospheric. I'm not sure we looked so atmospheric; Kitty was sensible and had an umbrella but Lauren and I were sporting the Russian immigrant look of jackets over our heads. The memorial was pretty impressive, consisting of two huge pools in the place of what would have been each of the two towers. Water runs down each of the four sides and into a pool in the centre. I suppose this is metaphorical of the collapse of the towers? It's very ominous anyway. The names of the people that died are carved into the edges of each respective fountain. Rain aside, it was a strange experience to be there as its almost too terrible to ever comprehend what really happened.
After that somber start to the day, we wanted to get out of the rain as quickly as possible. This resulted in us finding a seedy diner and having some lunch. Kitty and I had jacket potatoes which we were very excited about, although they weren't quite as good as English ones.
In defeat of the rain, we decided to head back to our hostel for an hour, before hitting up the Museum of Modern Art which is free on Fridays 4-8. We got talking to two girls in our room called Marcella and Iris who are Dutch and were also planning on heading to MoMA. Lauren had made friends with a girl in her room called Paula, who was Mexican and doing a fashion internship who also joined the party. So, with quite the crew, we got the subway into Manhattan and headed to MoMA. By this time it had finally stopped raining and was back to being steamy.
When we arrived, the queue was immense and stretched back all the way around the block. People obviously appreciated some free art! We thought we would have to wait forever, but we only had to queue for about ten minutes! After deciding on a place to meet at 8, we all went off to investigate some serious art.
It's definitely hard to take art seriously when there are so many people. Kitty and I started on the top floor, where there was a cool exhibition about children through the twentieth century. We attempted the next floor down, but soon admitted defeat and decided to head to the cafe for a coffee to wake up. An excellent latte and a piece of cake (gluten free in Kitty's case obvs) later, we were full of energy and whizzed round the rest of the gallery. Our favourite exhibition was a photographic one called A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters, where the artist had photographed bloodlines, i.e. entire extended families. Each one had its own story, for example there was a guy from Kenya who had six wives and dozens of children, and a family affected by the Bosnian genocide so certain family members were represented by a photograph of a tooth or a bone that had been DNA identified as theirs from a mass grave. There was also one that focused in the first female plane hijacker. It was really interesting.
Due to the consumption of coffee, we finally got some energy, and were highly amused by the cheesy poses that Chinese tourists were adopting in front of paintings. Poses consisted of over excited smiles and hand gestures. We thus entertained ourselves for a good hour doing cheesy poses around the museum. We found Marcella and Iris in the garden and they also gladly joined in!
At 8, we all met up and wandered to Times Square as it was beginning to get dark. It really is a sight by night, a very strange one and there are so many people everywhere. Once again we entertained ourselves by me standing still amongst the ever moving crowds of people. Photographic evidence is of course provided!
The six of us all got the subway back to the hostel together and sat around for ages eating and talking. It's nice to be able to chill out with a good group of people.
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