If you love to observe people in all their variety... the ferry at midnight is a great place to be. After a great party we took a taxi thru the hilly, zigzag streets of Staten Island to the ferry, which we love because it's free and gives you a fantastic view of Manhattan. The waiting area is great, it has this huge aquarium right in the middle of it, which teaches you about different types of fish, while you wait for the ferry to arrive. It also provides a distraction from some of the strange people--drunks, vagrants, and who-knows-what-else that seem to come out at this time of night at the terminal. But, if you like people-watching... it was great fun to see the various weird outfits, hats, makeup, etc, and try to guess where this or that person was going or coming from.
Mercifully we only had to wait for 10 minutes, the ferry came and everyone went to the opposite end from the entrance, so that we all could get the Manhattan skyline view as we traveled along. The night was very steamy and muggy with a haze hanging on everything, and that made the view even better.
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| Shaky view from ferry-- of Manhattan at midnight |
After about 25 minutes we got to the Manhattan terminal. The ship was packed, even though it was midnight, it felt like a weekday rush hour. The terminal has been renovated, which is great, it means that now the subway is easily found just steps from where you disembark. So we headed for the number 1 train, when... surprise! no number 1 train was running. Oh great, the station was extremely hot, we must have lost at least a pound just sweating, anyway, after about an hour the N train finally came and we made it to Times Square. By the looks of it, at 1:30 AM all the strange creatures that live in New York must have decided to hang out there, because the platforms were crowded! Well at least we had plenty of company and believe it or not we felt safe. We made it home at 3 AM, feeling happy to live in a place like New York, where no matter at what time of day or night you venture out--it's always an adventure.
