Saturday, November 27, 2004

Watching The Lights Flash

New York

After escaping the crowds of shoppers I decided to visit the fifth and last city borough, Staten Island. Most people just go there because the ferry ride is free and you get a great view of the Statue of Liberty on the way past, and I was no different. Although the statue looked great all lit up, the best view I got of it was sitting at the dock waiting to leave when you could pick it out against the last of the dark red sky away to the west. Best sight of all though was Manhattan itself on the journey back. It was a freezing cold but clear evening which had the double benefit of forcing all the tourists inside after two minutes leaving the view pretty much to just me, and it meant the whole island was easily visible. Without the World Trade Center the lower Manhattan skyline is free of familiar landmarks now. As you approach from Staten Island you can't really see the big buildings of Midtown like the Chrysler building, and it's tough to pick out the Empire State even though it's lit up in red and yellow for Thanksgiving. But the panorama of all the different lights as you gradually get closer is indescribable. Anyone who says the best sights on the planet come from the natural world is just plain wrong.

Later on I went for a walk around the West Village and the Meatpacking district. I stopped for a drink in the White Horse Tavern, the pub where Dylan Thomas finally drank himself into the grave in 1953. No sign of poets in there last night, although there was a group of guys on a stag party trying to down a yard of ale. None of them got close but then they were trying to do it with Budweiser. Bloody Americans, they'll never learn.

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