Friday, June 18th

Since I have also an English speaking reader of my blog now, I have to write this in English. Btw, a big hug from NY to Cleveland! :)
Today we had a really relaxed program. Yessica and I went to Staten Island. Although I already went there with Meryem I hadn't seen anything. We had only taken the free ferry to enjoy the view on the Manhatten skyline and to see the Statue of Liberty, so we only stayed on the island to wait for the next ferry going back to Manhatten. But today we wanted to take the bus to Richmond Historical Village, an open-air museum with some houses which were originally built on the site and some that were moved there from all over the island. Unfortunaly there was only a guided tour. I guess they only dress up like 200 years ago on weekends. And despite the town seemed like a ghost town, the tour was still informative and interesting. But what was even more interesting in a kind of disturbing way was our busride back to the ferry, which takes around 40 minutes. Staten Island appears like a village compared to Manhatten. You can find some really beautiful mansions on Staten Island but most of the people here are black or hispanics and quite poor. It showed us a totally different side of New York and we experienced why it is called „the forgotten borrough“.
After our little escape from the big city we decided to first get back to the hostel to freshen up a bit and to find a good and affordable sushi restaurant. When we came back we met two Belgian girls who had also planned to have sushi for dinner, so we hit the road together. I had sushi for the first time in my life and it was excellent as far as I can judge ;) After dinner we decided to go to Time's Square and do some shopping at American Eagle Outfitters. I just looove this store. Only the fact that I wasn't aloud to try on some panties (even not with still wearing my own underwear) left a bitter aftertaste to this time's visit. But I will definitly go shopping there again, at least once till I have to leave.