Boris met me at the Newark Airport at 3:00am. Then we took a cab to Manhattan and then rode the subway to his place in Brooklyn.

The subway system in New York is like its own city. During the day this main station is bustling with people, but early in the morning it was deserted and spooky.

Sheepshead Bay is a Russian community located one hour away from Manhattan by subway. The area is like walking in a different country, with signs that are in Russian, and stores selling Russian food like sour cabbage, eggplant spread, dense black bread, and pickles.

The next day we took the train into Manhattan and walked around Times Square. Tall buildings, flashy signs, and lots of people.

There were lots of signs advertising the many Broadway shows happening that week. And a wide variety of people walking about who were very fashionable. And of course lots of taxis (almost every second car is a taxi).

The subway station at Wall Street is quite a sight to behold, and was totally unexpected since most of the stations are dirty and plain.

In the Wall Street area the buildings are older and have imposing architecture with lots of pillars. There was high security around the New York Stock exchange including some police with massive machine guns. New Yorkers take their security very seriously nowadays.

The stock exchange is no longer open to the public for viewing, but we imagined all the frantic goings-on happening inside.

A black fence keeps pedestrians a good distance away from the NY stock exchange. Various security people are milling about.