USA – Visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

Tim and I purchased the New York City Pass for only $100 each and managed to visit a lot of touristic attractions and one of them included the Statue of Liberty and the Ellis Island.

Now that was the highlight of our trip. I personally enjoyed it and learned a lot from it. So we started our tour by getting on a cruise to be dropped off to the lady herself. As we were approaching the statue, we took out our cameras and got ready to head to the island. The view of the city was spectacular and seeing the statue up close was surreal. You could purchase an extra ticket on the island to climb the statue and have access to the museum however Tim and I just had lunch there before heading to Ellis Island. I personally was more interested to visit that island and check out the Ellis museum.

Here’s why I was keen to visit Ellis Island. Have you ever watched the movie Hitch by Will Smith? Well, there was this scene where Will Smith wanted to impress Eva Mendes so he took her to Ellis Island to find her great grandfathers name on the list of immigrants and she burst into tears. I told myself that hopefully someday I get to visit the island and search for my great grandfather’s name.

Here is the scene from the movie ‘Hitch’.

*Burp* We finished our lunch and got on the cruise to be dropped off to Ellis Island. Tim and I purchased the head set to learn about the history in detail. As we walked in the museum, I got Goosebumps by looking at the immigrant’s luggage’s and cases. As a child, I knew how America was built with violence and blood but I did not expect this much heartless treatment was given to immigrants and having them as slaves. The worst facts I read at the museum is how they treated the Native Americans. It is not a topic I would like to blog about because of many reasons and mainly because it’s displeasing. So Ellis Island is where the immigrants arrived to America and were given areas on where they would settle. They had the old telephones displayed in the middle of each room where you can listen to the interview of the immigrants and how nervous and unhappy they sounded.

As I approach the list of names, my heart pounded while going through it. I found lots of names that could be my great grandfather from Austria-Hungary and found Tim’s surname from France. I merely felt distressed but I managed to learn a lot about the history of America and I hope this racism does not continue there or anywhere in this world. It hurts my heart just typing this.

Nevertheless, at the end of our tour, we stopped at a souvenir shop and bought some items and in addition bought a Palestinian and British flags to have in our house.

Although the end of our trip was upsetting, we did learn a lot more about the history of immigrants in America. I hope you visit the Island too.

Hint: If you book the tour from New York City the tour will be packed with people however if you book it from New Jersey then you will have a peaceful tour with not a lot tourists.

Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island