Battery Park

It was around one in the afternoon when we reached Battery Park. Lunch time. I ate a trail mix bar, dry fruits and a banana. My wife had brought some stuff packed from home. Children found a Sub Way outlet nearby, thought that they were very hungry and bought foot long sandwiches.They ate about three inches of the foot long sandwiches and Bhanu and Vishwa had to finish the remaining.



Battery Park was full of activity. There were hawkers, entertainers, vagabonds, homeless, loiterers etc etc. There were also a large number of tourists on their way to the statue of Liberty.

There was a group of street entertainers, performing Gymnastics and dancing to the tune of music from their tape recorder.



A fellow had painted himself in silver and sat like a statue. Nothing moved him but a quarter or a dollar put in his box. If you made an offering, he would tip his cap and also pose with you for a picture if you so wished. Reminded me of the silver painted Gandhi who stood on a pedestal at the Congress Exhibition in Bangalore.



This gentleman stood next to the queue waiting to board the ferry and played a tune from the country of every visitor who passed in front of him. He hit the sides of the steel drum with something like a drumstick and produced the tunes. He played “mera joota hai japani” for us and got a dollar.



And there were many willing visitors ready to part with a dollar or two for getting their pictures taken with these people dressed like the Statue of Liberty.



We could have spent some time there but since we had planned to return to Plainsboro and proceed to Washington DC after visiting the statue and Ellis island, we hurried towards the ticket counter, to get the tickets for the ferry.