October 21: Staten Island Ferry & Roosevelt Island

The last 2 days have been quite intense; besides the regular working hours, we had ‘manager beers’ on Thursday evening at a place called Keria (strange thing however is that manager beers are actually not meant for managers but for the consultants; only 2 managers were there…) and yesterday night, I met with Wouter & his girlfriend Yannick in a roof bar on Fifth Avenue. Wouter is working with Fortis and has been here since August so he knows where to go…

My plan for today was to be a real tourist and to go and visit the Statue of Liberty. Wouter & Yannick however recommended not to take the paying ferry that drops you at the statue [you can’t enter the statue anymore anyway] but to take the free Staten Island ferry that passes the statue & Ellis Island (which is the small island where all the immigrants were dropped in the previoyus centuries before they could enter the city). Besides; I already saw the statue before I even entered the ferry (see below)


On Staten Island, the city of New York has erected an monument that honors the death of 9/11. The monument itself is not overwhelming, but the view on Manhattan is great.



Afterwards I took the metro to see the only gondola in New York. The gondola connects Manhattan with Roosevelt Island, which is a small island in the East River next to Manhattan that contains basically only residential buildings.



When I got back I accidentally visited Brooklyn also, something which I only found out when the subway that was supposed to go downtown came above the ground and onto Manhattan bridge...