New York in 66 Hours & 10 Minutes (#3)

Day 3:

Everything that we’ve done so far was completed in a mere 35 hours and 40 Minutes. Now we’re down to the last 31 and a half hours before our planes leaves. We managed to make our way to the 9/11 memorial and made the conscious decision to shop up a storm on 5^th Avenue. With shopping bags and all, we decided to settle down in Central Park to rest our aching feet whilst still emerging ourselves in this gem situated within the concrete jungle. Taking into consideration everything that we have done the previous two days this third days itinerary seems to pale in comparison– but; there’s quite a story to this.

You see, we just visited the memorial and made our way to the subway. It was around noon when we squished into the cart with no space to spare; quite literally. I thought the packed subways in movies were just an exaggeration, but no, we were compressed into this cart with no room to spare. As you enter my best friend was standing in the corner with this absolutely huge human being blocking her in. Had it not been for me holding her hand I would have panicked for there was no way of spotting her. And so we stood, each stop adding a few or losing some until eventually this gigantic man stepped out and I could finally see her again. We huddled close to those poles in the middle and that was when it started. You see even in such a cramped cart everyone minds their own business, except this time. There was a child screaming at the top of his lungs and the mother didn’t even seem bother in the slightest. Until she saw someone shaking her head at her in disparagement. And then all hell broke loose, words were being thrown around threats thick in the air. I did not dare move, I didn’t even want to blink. Because if she found me the slightest bit of offending I was within her reach and there was nowhere for me to move to- thus our delay of over an hour because we stayed on the subway trapped first of all and too distracted to realize we had missed our stop. This was not the first angry passengers that I have encountered and most definitely wasn’t the last.

So after our time in Central Park we made our way back to Brooklyn for a quick nap and to get ourselves ready for dinner. The excitement about going to Madiba’s in Brooklyn for a South African meal was almost as great as our excitement for being in New York. You see, we’ve been abroad now for just under a year and the taste of home is just what we needed. Needless to say, we loved our meal and everything from ambiance to beverages had us smiling!

Third-day itinerary:

• 9/11 Memorial
• 5^th Avenue
• Central Park
• Madiba’s

9/11 Memorial Sight

Central Park

Belvedere Castle, Central Park