The day after arriving in Manhattan, I ventured to Central Park which was only a 30 minute walk away.
Before I left for NYC I'd been scouring the internet and had seen some amazing videos of sunset over the city and I set myself a mini project of capturing the sunset over Central Park.
The sun set at around 6.30 and I got there an hour earlier and set up my cameras.
I was over looking Sheep Meadow, on the south end of the park. I set my cameras rolling and people watched for the next hour. The office workers taking time to enjoy the park after a long day in the office, the kids playing, dog walkers and those just strolling and taking in the evening. I stayed there until the sun had set and a park warden came along, he walked into Sheep Meadow and shouted out that the gates were closing and everyone had to leave. I had secured my cameras to the actual gate that need to be locked so it was time to move on.
I stayed in the park a little longer and took a seat nearby two New York old timers and eavesdropped on the conversation. They were talking about how times have changed, old friends, their failing health, and good times too. Thank you to those two gentleman who let a tourist have an insight into their lives.
Coincidentally, on the morning I decided to visit the 9/11 site it was in the local news that a generous benefactor had made a big cash donation to the Memorial Preview Site.
I caught a bus down town, taking in all the streets scenes that passed me by, and got off at the World Financial Centre. This distracted me somewhat from my route to the 911 site and I decided to explore the area a little.
There were lots of business-type people and office workers and stepping inside I was greeted by an array of restaurants. I walked through the lobby and out the other side which brought me to an open area which over looks the North Cove Marina.
It seemed like a tourist free area, apart from myself, and the tourist helicopter passing by periodically, which broke the peace and quiet.
I gathered my bearings on my map and back tracked out of the World Financial Centre, took a right and walked over a bridge that led the the 9/11 building site. I stopped at a gateway of the construction site and got chatting to a construction worker. He told me he had his own business, but had put that on hold to work on the new site. He seemed genuinely happy to be working there and excited about the plans. Telling me that the new tower he was working on was going up at the rate of one floor a week (at least), he compared the building work to a jigsaw puzzle; once you have the initial pieces in place, it's easy to just slot in the rest.
There was some police presence around the site, but having said that, Manhattan seems to be pretty well policed all over. There had recently been some furore about the 'Ground Zero Mosque' and community centre, with opposers creating quite an ugly scene about it. I'm with Mayor Bloomberg on this one.
