Day 13

We woke up very, very early this morning and where right back on the bus over the Verrazno Bridge to the WTC Memorial at Ground Zero. Mark dropped us off there and then continued on his way into work. We decided not to have a close look at Ground Zero or take any pictures as it didn't feel appropriate and unfortunately it is still nothing more than a big hole in the ground.

We got a map from a nearby hotel and then stopped into Jambo Juice for a NY style smoothie in an effort to get the proverbial juices flowin'.

We then got the subway to Christopher Street and set off walking down Bleecker Street. We stopped in a cool little cafe called the Bus Stop Cafe for breakfast and then resumed our walk down Bleecker. We went all the way down to Bowery, taking in the sites and sounds.

Unfortunately none of the shops were open yet but we made a note of the ones that we would come back to.

Turning right on to Bowery we passed all of the shops selling industrial kitchen equipment - there must have been about a dozen or more.

During our walk we saw The Bitter End pub, numerous coffee stands and the Corner Deli.







Next we turned on to Spring Street and entered Soho. We had a peek in a few shops and then decided it was time for a quick boost so we called into Balthazer Cafe. My $3.30 cappaccino and Paulo's $3.00 lemonade were a bit prizy but they both hit the spot and the atmosphere inside the cafe was OK. Except for the fact that there were 2 or 3 staff members for every customer. After a while of the OTT service we started feeling a bit edgy and decided to leave.





We headed back to Bleecker Street to visit two legendary shops - Bleecker Street Records and Rebel Rebel. I bought Al Green's second album Gets Next To You mostly for his killer cover of The Doors 'Light My Fire' but also because it was pretty cheap and is so damn funky.



After spending far too much time in Rebel Rebel (mostly due to Paulo's endless searching), we had to leg it to the subway station in an effort to get the 1:30 ferry back to Staten Island. We made it with about five minutes to spare.





Once again the views of the city and of the Statue of Liberty were amazing.







We then hopped on another train and had a fifteen minute walk back to Mark's gaff to collect our stuff and begin our drive to Allentown to see my aunt and uncle.

We arrived to their house at about 7:30 and had a lovely steak dinner along with several of the local Yeungling's finest bottles of lager. We chatted for hours about our trip and got caught up on all the gos. It was a really relaxing evening and we thoroughly enjoyed their company.