First day proper in New York. I manage to wake up around 7am. I decide to have a lie-in and snooze until around 10. I get up and decide what to do today. It's Thanksgiving so I figure Manhattan will be crazy with the Macy's parade and all that, so maybe today is a good day to visit the statue of Liberty. Studying the subway map I can get a train from the station just around the corner on the R line and it'll take me under the river to Manhattan, then it's a short walk to where the boat goes from. I get to walk through Battery park to Castle Clinton - both locations from the 2nd level of Deus Ex. Of course the statue of Liberty is the first level, and this is a recurring thought in my mind throughout the day. As I walk through the park I get a few people come up to try and sell me tickets or scam me in some way - my understanding from reading up on this beforehand is that tickets can only be bought on-line or at Castle Clinton, so I know these are all conmen. There are a lot of them though and this sours the experience somewhat. Just go away, leave me alone.
I get to Castle Clinton, have a look around it and buy my ferry ticket. I have to go through airport-style security to get to the ferry which is a bit annoying. I stand on the top deck of the boat and we cruise over.
Its really cold and the wind is biting into my face. My eyes are running, and all around them my skin is sore from first being baked in the sun then splashed with salty tears. The views however are amazing. We cruise right in the middle of the bay, so you can see the Manhattan skyline, Staten Island, Ellis island, Brooklyn and all sorts of stuff. Helicopters constantly buzz around - there seems to always be three at any one time in the air. They're not flying from point to point either, they fly out into the bay, circle and fly off somewhere else. I definitely imagine I'm being watched at all times.
We dock at liberty island and disembark. This jetty and entrance way does seem to be a fairly faithful recreation of the first level of Deus Ex - I'll give 'em that. I grab the audio tour, which to be fair is fairly poor - I learn a bit about the construction and restoration, but its nothing you couldn't grab from Wikipedia. I walk around the island and the statue, taking a few photos.
I check out the gift shop, which is huge, but nothing takes my fancy - especially as I'm concious about the weight of my back pack. I get on the ferry which next goes to Ellis island. I decide I can't be bothered with that and ride it back to Battery Park. I go back to the hotel using the same route I got here. I stop at a deli on the way and grab some food. I check the fridges and low and behold the holy grail is here - go bananas Snapple. I really thought it wasn't going to happen, but here it is.
Just as an FYI, in that picture you can see the complementary water the hotel put in the room. The Dasani (the infamous Coca-Cola tap water scam product) is free, but if I want to pop open the 'smart' water bottle (it has a white card over it) it'll cost me $3.75. Do people really buy into this bullshit? I have a little snooze, then record a taste-test video of the Snapple. I watch the tested podcast - its an old-crew reunion show - then write this up on the laptop before calling it a night.