An Accidental Pilgrimage

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I was last here with university friends 26 years ago and remember spending most of my time in grey concrete canyons (Maybe that's because I bought my one and only roll ever of black and white film for that trip). This time, it is a beautiful colourful neighbourhood.

Rather than try to write captions for all the photos I posted from our first day, I'll just put them up as a slideshow and write a few comments about our day.

Spring has arrived and the cherry trees and tulips are in full bloom. Everyone seems to be in a good mood. You get the feelings that New Yorkers accept the tourists around them as a feature, like the squirrels. They behave as if it is their duty to be good to tourists and have walked up to us to offer directions while we stood staring quizzically at our map.

The subway is far more complex than in Toronto which is how, on our way back to the hotel, I managed to get us on to the right track but the wrong train. We hopped on and were riding along, fine. As we got up just before our stop, Barb swears she saw someone watch us with mild amusement. Sure enough, we flew past our stop (and five more) on a rush hour express.

Luckily it was no big deal, we got out, crossed over to the track running in the other direction and watched carefully for the local train. Apparently in NYC, you have to watch for the correct name on the side of your car. On the positive side I got some beautiful pictures of the
Museum of Natural History in the setting sun.

Earlier in the day, we took the Staten Island ferry past the statue of liberty and for views of the city. I remember seriously disliking the World Trade Center buildings when I saw them
yeas ago: ugly black slabs surrounded by buildings with beauty and character. Looking back at New York from the ferry, I saw the skyline without their ugly forms but it didn't look right. It seemed like family photos after the loss of a relative, when no one is smiling like they used
too.

While the plan had been to do the historical walking tour that started in Battery Park, we decided to go to the WTC site.

We landed back at battery park and walked north. On the way we passed Wall Street and the Stock Exchange. The security was shocking. Cops in full body armor and blast helmets, the one car being allowed through with the trunk open and a bomb sniffing dog hopping in to check it out. When it was deemed safe, a 20 foot circle of street pavement rotated 90 degrees, so that the solid metal slabs that had blocked all vehicles were aligned to let the car pass.

Inside the security perimeter were at least a dozen more police. There, American flags on the NYSE competed with the Hermes banners on their flagship store across the street.

At the trade centre site, work is progressing on the new building (about 5 stories of girders right now). Beside it is a fire hall with locked doors and security, I think mostly to keep us tourists from asking them insensitive questions. Seeing a poster in the window of the 140 or so firemen lost in one day, I can empathize.

We weren't planning to do any 9/11 sightseeing, we just kept bumping into the signs and reminders. Being in Canada when it happened, I mostly think of that as the turning point when America went to a strange place and for a while, I couldn't identify with the mindset. In NYC, 9/11 is about one day and its aftermath on the people who were there. The museum walls are covered with posters of the missing made by family members in the days immediately after. Many objects from the buildings look strangely ancient, like dinosaur bones still embedded in rock: Two guns melted together, glass fused with other objects from the heat.

There is no call for patriotism in this place, none of the fierce eagles and tough talk that flooded the rest of the country, no pictures of the President standing in the ruins (Cameras aimed from below to add a heroic look). There's just a feeling of pain and loss and a call for peace in the world.

The confused subway ride home, the good Cuban-Chinese dinner that night with our friends, and the deep sleep after hours of walking and I'm still thinking about that skyline.