New York! New York!
I spent three days in New York.
I had three great days.
Though New York reminds me a lot of Hong Kong - same gigantic buildings and wonderful skyline.
There's even the same hole-in-the-wall camera/electronics shops and scaffolding blocking the pavements.
However, the streets of New York are lined with gold... well, not really, but they are very nice and wide :)
Even I can't get lost in New York, with the grid-like network of streets and avenues. Though I think the best part of New York is Central Park; where one can, and I did, get lost!
I left for NY early Wednesday morning, got to the train station near Jade's place just as the train came in and then got the bus in central Philly for New York.
It dropped me off in downtown Manhattan and I descended into the subway - on my way to the first target, The Natural History Museum.
The subway is a lot smellier and stuffier than the London underground. The underground is fun, the subway is a necessity.
The Nat.Hist.Mus. has it's own subway station, you don't even have to go outside, there's a rear entrance from the subway station.
A couple of notes about the museum:
* I got lost in it. A lot. I spent a lot of my time navigating through large stone faced corridors trying to get to where I wanted to go.
* It's depressing going to a museum like this, with lots of stuffed animals, the day after being in a zoo.
* The Hayden planetarium is immense and very impressive.
* There are a lot of people walking around with Digital SLR cameras these days ;)
* The Darwin exhibition was very well done, the first half was a biography of his, more along the lines of something in a historical museum. The second half was, of course, explaining evolution.
* One of the last exhibits was a video of a number of scientists and religious figures rebutting Intelligent Design.
* The butterfly conservatory was perhaps the best part of the museum. yes, even better than the astronomy sections :)
* The sheer number and variety of the beautiful critters was incredible - and their beauty was awe inspiring.
Leaving the museum I went down Central Park a little, got lost in the "rambles" (a maze like network of paths) and headed to the center of town.
When you're in the middle of Central Park, you can forget you're in the largest metropolis in the world - you can't see the skyscrapers because of the trees and there is no sound of cars or any city like noise.
Many places in the park are "quiet" zones, where you must use earphones if you listen to musics and you can't play group ball games!
I went down the avenues, enjoyed the sights of the BIG CITY.
No need to elaborate, you've all seen them on TV ;)
Dinner at Macy's - just for the fun of it, and then headed to a friend of mine called Danny for bed.
For some reason, call me naive, I had expected to be sleeping in a spare room - not on a mattress beside his bed. I guess I don't really know what Manhattan rental prices are ;)
Anyway, I slept on a King-sized mattress - so I didn't suffer.
We talked a bit, and watched TV till I fell asleep.
The next day was a victory for laziness!
I was later than I planned getting to the Museum I wanted to go to, BUT... it also opened later than I expected it to. So if I HAD arrived on time, I would have just waited longer for it to open!
I went to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum. It's an aircraft carried-turned-floating-museum. Very big, very impressive.
Apparently, had I come with my military ID, I would have gotten free entry!
I also had a tour of a nuclear submarine there - though the extremely rude guide hinted that he thought we were quite strange to be touring a museum while there was a World Cup game going on... and I thought I had escaped "Mondial Madness"!
After that I headed to Bryant park where I hoped to meet Moran (and old friend of mine from 15 years ago whose staying in NY for a while)
Bryant park is the one where people play chess against all comers.
Unfortunately, Moran had an unplanned appointment and even more unfortunately, my #$*&! cellphone doesn't work properly, so she couldn't contact me.
Anyway, I had a pleasant and unplanned time in the park, and then I found an Internet cafe where I found her message. I'll be seeing her in Israel instead, oh well.
After lunch, I headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
* It's MUCH nicer getting lost here than the Nat.Hist.Mus, because there are no empty corridors, each gallery leads directly into the next.
* I got lost a lot, but found interesting things along the way.
* Of course, the later Grecian and all the Roman exhibits were closed for renovations ;)
* One of the best exhibits, from my point of view, was that of Grecian stele, which are ancient funerary markers -which I studied in one of my first university courses. It was fun to see "in real life" what I studied.
* They were much stricter than other museums about pictures...
Then I walked down all of Central park and Manhattan till I got back to Danny's.
The next day, I met Melly and we went to Liberty and Ellis Islands. The New York weather is much improved with the breeze of a ferry.
The islands were not that impressive, but It was nice seeing them.
Of course, some time was spent in bookshops...
We then headed back to Philly... Tired but satisfied.
There's a lot more to do in NY, but I'm not sure how I'd spend another hectic few days there.
I'd like to really relax in the sun in the parks for example.
It seems to me to be a better place lo live in, than just to visit...
This is just a sampling of the pictures, I guess I'll sort them all out more when I get home.
Till next time,
Robert.