big apple day 2 - liberty

this fiesty lady... took me alot of time! but it's all worth it cuz it's one of the modern wonders of the world ya? hehe~

so it all started with Castle Clinton first thing in the morning, where we bought our tickets to Liberty Island. liberty island is just a small island off manhattan, and i think it's sole purpose is to house THE lady. haha~

that's us (circled in yellow) queueing up for the ferry tickets. yeah, alot of fellow tourists.

as u can see, Circleline is earning big greenbacks from all the liberty-visiting tourists.

if u dont wanna go onto liberty island, a very much cheaper alternative is to take the free staten island ferry and see the statue from afar when the ferry passes by liberty island.

but be warned, the statue is really small from afar!

i always thought the statue is big, but seems like that's just a misconception i've gotten from the x-men movie. anyways, that's why i was quite surprised that the statue is so much smaller than i imagined it to be. hmm~

that's the ferry we took.

on board the ferry. again, lots of tourists.

liberty trivia: why is the statue green?
the statue is built out of copper. copper turns green after it oxidises. hence the statue turned green over the years. =)

after about 15min, we arrived at liberty island!

look how many tourists there are on the island. probably cuz it's summer, tourism peak.

we went to the souvenir shop first, and had quite alot of fun fooling around with the merchandise..

we'r all prettier than the real liberty lady! LOL~

that's modern-day liberty, ipod nano is a must-have accessory. hahaha~

there's this shady garden for tourists to rest their feet on liberty island..

i like the chairs, felt like i was in europe (especially with the supposedly french-looking renato). hehe~

oh, that's one of the few places in the big apple where u can actually find trees by the way. serious!

and then we took standard photos with the famed statue of liberty..

and then we took wacky photos with the lady..

cute~

and then there's liberty from the back..

okay there's a funny story behind this photo:
i was sitting right beside renato while he was testing the self-portrait ability of his new camera. then this nice lady came along and offered to help him take the photo, cuz she thought he's alone and thus needed help.
renato couldnt bear to reject her nice offer even though he didnt really need it (i was just beside him, could have taken the photo for him), and so that's how the above photo came along. haha~

view of manhattan skyscrapers from liberty island.

group photo! i have no idea what's that bridge in the background though, but it's definitely not brooklyn bridge.

liberty island and its lady... nice nice!~

more on day 2 coming up!~