AFTERNOON AT THE FINANCIAL DISTRICT

My plan after getting off the Staten Island Ferry was to make my way north, check out the sights in the Financial District before heading off to watch Matilda. There's actually quite a lot to see, so let's get on with this super simple and easy to navigate Downtown Manhattan itinerary, shall we? :)

From South Ferry, I followed State Road going up and was greeted by a bright red tourist kiosk. I walked on over to take a map (I like collecting them for DIY stuff) and met the friendliest lady, Carrie. Even though I more or less knew what I wanted to see, I asked her what she recommends in the area. Smart move because after some thought, she pointed behind me and said it was way underrated. I thanked her for her help and for being so nice and carried on.

What Carrie pointed out to me was the National Museum of the American Indian. It wasn't originally in my itinerary so I'm glad she suggested it. It's housed in a such a BEAUTIFUL building with marble floors, high ceilings, and intricate details. Admission is free so if you're in the area, it doesn't hurt to pop by and check it out. 

 

After the museum, I crossed over to the Bowling Green where I saw the most gorgeous plot of dazzling red tulips. Why, New York!? Why must you be so beautiful!? It's one of the oldest parks in the city and there even used to be a monument at the center. I find that it's still pretty without it, though.

Less than 10 steps ahead was the Wall Street Bull. It was pretty hard to take a decent shot, let alone a selfie, because of the crowd gathered around it. But it's not all bad because crowd = people who can help you take a picture. I sought for a fellow solo tourist and offered to take each others' photo. So yay! Let's hope its aggressiveness rubs of on me a bit.

I continued walking along Broadway and saw the Trinity Church before finally turning right to the heart of the Financial District: Wall Street where I was greeted by the New York Stock Exchange and the Federal Hall National Memorial.

I continued walking up to the 9/11 National Memorial where I planned on taking advantage of the admission free Tuesday. I was rather early so I made a detour to Century 21. Bad idea! Tip: don't wait for it to be 5pm, you can get your ticket earlier so you can make it to the 5pm time slot. Seeing that the next admission was at 6pm and my show was at 7pm, I had to forego entering. Instead, I sat in one of the benches, gazed at the memorial, and said a prayer for all the World Trade Center victims. It was such an emotional moment for me because seeing all the names made it 100000x more real. These were actual people with actual families and actual lives ahead of them. How can such evil exist in the world?! Why the fuck do terrorists exist?! How can people be so heartless!? I would've stayed longer, pondered on good and evil, and depress the crap out of me but good thing Ia called to say she was on her way to Schubert Theatre. I left the memorial 10x heavier and way determined that something should be done, that I should do something. (Which I still haven't quite figured out but I'm hoping calling out on its shit and opening this topic for dialogue is a start.)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that walking tour of New York's financial district! It just goes to show you that there's so much places of interest in the city that no matter what it is you like, you're sure to find something that caters to your taste.

For your easy reference, I plotted out my walking itinerary on the map below.

What about you? Do you have any tips or comments? Places you like, don't like? What I should've done? Let me know by writing your thoughts below!