Day 2 New York December 31

In the morning, we got up early. We went to the 7eleven (supermarket) where the door was kindly held open by a few homeless people. We then walked through a park by the old town hall to Brooklyn Bridge. We had already walked through the oculus. Along the way, we bought freshly prepared fruit from a stand. The bridge is impressively large and striking. After the photoshoot, we went back and took the ferry to Staten Island, or at least that was the plan. Johnny, a smooth-talking salesman, insisted that we should take his ferry instead. After a bus ride to the ferry, Michael was the fantastic guide on the boat who shared interesting stories about Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty in a very entertaining way. It was wonderful to join him on his last working day. After that, we took a look at Times Square. Unfortunately, this was hermetically sealed off by the police. Even salt trucks were deployed to block the roads... and thousands of officers. We decided to walk around it. We shopped at Macy's (like a much larger version of Bijenkorf) and stood in front of the Empire State Building. We made our way back to the hotel in Lower Manhattan from the center, taking a moment to digest all the impressions. One million people are expected at Times Square, and we decided to avoid that crowd at night. Brooklyn Bridge seemed better, but it was also packed with people. So we went to the point where the ferry to Staten Island departs and watched fireworks next to the Statue of Liberty from a park.