Feast of San Gennaro

19th September, 2011

Today I left New Jersey in the morning. I arrived in Penn Station around 12.30pm. I had the day to spend in Manhetten. I decided to explore the downtown area. I walked everywhere and glad I did as I came across neighbourhoods and sights that I wouldn't have if I took the subway. I went through East Village (which is a cool neighbourhood) and continued down south towards Little Italy and Chinatown. While I was in Little Italy, the Feast of San Gennaro was taking place. A few days earlier, Sal told me that this Feast is only celebrated in America (they don't celebrate in Italy at all). Like St. Patrick's Day celebrations, it was started by immigrants. Th town was nicely decorated and there were lots of stalls. It didn't seem all that Italian. They had a lot of carnival games, hot dogs and beer stands. There was some gelato but it definately wasn't the gelato of Italy. There was lots of canoli, which I have never tried in Italy.

Afterwards, I made my way down to Ground Zero 8 days after the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. I saw the museum about the museum that they will be building for next year. I didn't have a ticket for the memorial. I walked towards Wall St. and I saw a protest on a square. people were chanting "Every day, every week, occupy Wall St". Since I was going there anyway, I followed them to Wall St. Then I realised the time and I had to walk 4.5 miles back to Penn Station in just over an hour. I got the train and got back to Hampton Bays at 10.45pm.