Dingopups: Blue

We didn’t leave our hotel room until 10am and then we found ourselves trapped in the Deli next door as the NYC Fire Department attended to something in Times Square that needed the whole block isolated and people off the streets. Thankfully we were not stuck for long. Never did find out what it was.

Blue (cold) - It was minus 1 degrees C in NYC today and we found it a little uncomfortable. A young Australian we chatted with in the elevator told us that he had experienced enough of the cold and was desperate to find a warmer climate. We rugged up as best we could and braved the elements. At least the day was sunny.

Brrrr - minus 1 C

Blue (sorrowful) – It being Christmas day the options for tourism were limited and so we decided to head to Ground Zero. There was a queue into the site and the obligatory security checkpoint where you are expected to strip to virtually nothing and leave your guns, knives and explosives behind. Considering the reason for the security experiences we have had at the airports and tourist attractions followed 9/11 the location in which we were experiencing yet another one was quite poignant. It didn’t take us long to file through the ticket checkpoints. The only cost of entry was making a donation. If you donated $10 or more you were given a wrist band.

Ground Zero remains a site under construction with an area fenced off that looked like they are building a very large sculpture. There was a glass building in the centre of the square that contained the remains of steel framework from a collapsed building. The two reflection pools representing the footprints of the twin towers were beautiful and each was surrounded by the names of each person that died in all the events surrounding the terrorism events of 9/11 and 1993 when one of the buildings was originally bombed. On the plaques every now and then a white rose is stuck in a name and this represents that persons birthday. We walked around each pool touching as many names as we could. It was all very sad but it got sadder when you read a women’s name followed by “and her unborn child”.

As I looked around the site I could see a building that I recongnised from the original news reports. I remembered it as the report was about body parts raining down on the balconies. As I looked closer I began to see the scars of the event on the remaining buildings surrounding the site. However, it is hard to imagine that this small area of city was the site of such devastation. Apparently the suburb which suffered from the toxicity of the buildings’ destructions’ had people leaving, never to return to live, in droves. It is only just now beginning to recover.

We both agreed that we were pleased to have visited the site even though it was so sad.