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Today's exciting - it's all about the big boys -Statue of Liberty, Empire State and Chrysler.
We head first towards the Empire State building, it's not far from our hostel - but the queues are ridiculous it's at least 90 mins long, we kind of prefer the Chrysler so decide to wait and see which we want to do.
We can see the Chrysler from the road, it's a classic Art Deco style beast of a building. We head on towards the mayhem of Wall Street and then towards the 911 memorial - this is so sad. In place of one of the towers is a giant hollow square with fountains of water, it gives you real perspective of the sheer size of the building and amount of lives that were affected. It's so so sad. There is a museum but we can't face it - a new trade centre has been built and opened this week, it's huge - we think as its newly opened we may come back and do this building rather than the others originally planned given the significance.
We walk on heading towards the water and find that the boat trip that takes you up inside the Statue of Liberty is sold out until November - imagine!! So, we settle for our basic cruise view - it's so impressive, we get some great snaps of the Lady, such an important and inspiring symbol for immigrants heading to America - we pass Ellis Island too and decide to come back to visit it and search for relatives of Jacqs, if any, from Donegal.
We've had a great day and head home via Madison Square Gardens - although the actual area isn't open, outside there's a bar and stage for bands to perform for free during the day. Low and behold a renowned young BBKing like act by the name of King Solomon is up there with his band and everyone's loving it, dancing away and singing along - we stop and decide to sit at the bar and it's not long of course until Jacq gets involved in a boogie. This group dancing - is really anyone and everyone - tramps from the street, business men in suits, tourists and the odd old crazy lady performing quite inappropriate ballet stunts will the grace of a drunk dinner lady.
One young man is amazing - he is singing and playing guitar, dressed like a young Jerry Lee Lewis, he must be about 15 and is hailed the next up and coming artist.
We buy a cd and head home shattered - we're loving New York - it's just so much fun! We decide to head out again and go for a drink so Jacq finds a bar called Paddy Reilly's and it's open mic night and we meet a lovely couple - Matt gets up and plays a few songs and we have a great night we'll regret this in the morning!
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