Young World Travellers: Day Twenty-Three and Twenty-Four

We woke up quite late again yesterday as our bodies still hadn't quite adjusted to the time difference from Western USA, but we headed for Grand Central Station after breakfast to get the subway down to Brooklyn. It was straightforward enough and in less than ten minutes we were downtown by Brooklyn Bridge and the 9/11 memorial. The Freedom Tower was an impressive structure and the memorial pools where the twin towers once stood are a poignant tribute to those that lost their lives in the atrocity.

After a few moments of reflection, we queued for the museum and ended up spending all afternoon there. It was fascinating, but extremely emotional at the same time and listening to voice messages left on the phones of deceased loved ones was particularly difficult. It was definitely worth doing and the whole experience was something that will stay with us. After a quick dinner stop on the way back to the hotel we had a chilled evening watching a couple of films before going to bed.

This morning we checked out of our hotel but left our bags and walked uptown towards Central Park. We walked past the ridiculously priced designer brands that line Fifth Avenue and it was really busy and hard to not walk into people. Central Park was pretty busy too but it was refreshing to see some greenery - something we've both missed and the air certainly felt a lot fresher by the lakes and open areas within the park.

We encountered many different characters throughout the park and New York is full of some very odd people on the whole. We had a lovely time through the park though and a good bit of exercise walking everywhere rather than using taxis - a welcome break for our wallets too. On the way back we saw an exceptionally tall man who ended up being a basketball star of the past, David Robinson, net worth $90 million - we don't think we've ever seen someone so tall. Plenty of people were shaking his hand and taking pictures with him and he was very patient and pleasant with them all.

Once we'd collected our bags we made the journey to tonight's accommodation in Queens, five miles from JFK. Tomorrow our thirty-three hour journey to the other side of the planet begins with a thirteen hour flight to Dubai before getting a connecting twenty hour flight to Christchurch with a fuel stop in Sydney along the way. We take off Sunday morning US time and land on Tuesday afternoon NZ time - can't imagine how we'll be feeling by the end of that. We've enjoyed New York but both agree we aren't city people at heart; we've definitely missed the fresh countryside air and the peace and quiet!

Day Twenty-Three Highlight - 9/11 Memorial
Day Twenty-Four Highlight - Central Park