Staten Island Sort of Sucks

I went for a little NYC stroll today after work, enjoying the slightly chilly, yet sunny weather.

While walking around lower Manhattan, I decided to take the Staten Island Ferry and get a glimpse of that mysterious land. I stopped to see a few interesting places along the way:

First I went along to the Trinity Church Graveyard, where such notables as Alexander Hamilton and Robert Fulton are buried. The grounds are beautiful, and even standing atop so many corpses, there is something truly soothing about the place. Some of the gravestones are crazy--I guess it was an 18th / early 19th Century American custom to make gravestones as creepy as possible. Tons of them had some crazy poems that basically said, "I'm dead, and you're coming soon," or some other similar sentiment.



I kept on moving South toward the Ferry, and stopped to step into Bowling Green. I was very interested to learn that Bowling Green is called Bowling Green because it was a Bowling Green back in the 1700's. Very curious.

Even more curious was the price paid for the use of the green. Apparently, those of the neighborhood were forced to tender the exorbitant price of "One Peppercorn" in order to bowl on The Green. Extremely curious.



Soon after leaving the Green, I arrived at the Ferry and waited along with the other passengers for the 2:30 boat. The ride is 25 minutes long, free, and quite nice, with views of the Lower Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty, the New Jersey Ports (gorgeous!), and Governor's Island.

In my 35 total minutes in Staten Island, I saw the following things:

- Two Heavy Metal fans (one Caucasian / one African American) discussing Jazz/Metal Fusion. One was wearing Anthrax apparel.

- One definite drug addict

- One possible drug addict

- A lot of delicatessens and pizza places

I also took some time to visit the Staten Island Museum, where I had the "pleasure" to see:

- some arrowheads

- A mastodon molar

- Some glassware (undated) that looked like it came from my Mother's china hutch in New Jersey

- Drawings of baseball players

- "The Wall of Insects"



And so, perhaps I'm just uninitiated, but all in all, my little foray onto the Island of Staten left me quite unimpressed. Nonetheless, seeing as I only visited from 2:55 until 3:30, I will withold confident judgement (for the moment) on the entire Island. I can say, however, with complete confidence, that if you ever find yourself near the Staten Island Museum, you would do well to save your two dollar entry fee.

Buy a slice of pizza instead.