I am home but still must write about New York
So then I took the slowest bumpiest train ride ever to get from Montreal to New York. The scenery through the Adirondack mountains and down the Hudson river was very pleasing to the eye and I did manage to sleep plenty, so the eleven hours passed quite well (the border police asked me a lot of difficult questions but let me in eventually).
So the problem was that Polina and Dan could not have me to stay as their cat was dying, so they fixed me up with their friend Anna, who lives in Queens, which is a lot nearer to the action than Princeton, New Jersey. I was very glad of the substitute accommodation, but disappointed not to be with Polina and Dan, especially when I phoned and Polina said they probably wouldn't be able to see me at all. With that unhappy change of circumstances I decided to stay just four nights rather than the six originally planned and then head to Washington DC for my final two nights, to stay with George and Kate who invited me when we were together in Montréal, and to visit monuments and free museums. So anyway, I met Anna and her flatmate John and they were very nice, although the short sofa I had to sleep on was a bit difficult.
Friday was September 11th so I headed to Downtown Manhattan to pay my respects at the Ground Zero site. First I had a quick look at the City Hall, which was a bit fenced off, and then went in the St Paul's chapel, which was built in the 1760's and where George Washington used to do things. It was quite an impressively old church, and was quite busy with people thinking about 9/11, and had some rather touching displays on the event (many firemen and other rescue workers were resting here and there was a wall with people asking for information about missing loved ones). The Ground Zero itself was mostly fenced off with plastic sheets so nothing much to see, but there was a bit round the side with a bronze plaque and flowers, and a small fire station where firemen were in their best uniforms speaking to the public. So if I'd been a little disrespectful on the subject in the past, mainly due to George W and the old War on Terror, I felt quite moved by the tragedy this time.
Then I went to midtown Manhattan and looked at the large St Patrick's cathedral and then had a massive deli sandwich with loads of crazy things of my choosing. This was needed for the long queue for the free evening at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), but I did get in in less than half an hour. It was very busy and loads of people were taking photos, which I think is wrong in art galleries, but it was one of the best I've ever seen and the amount of pieces I'd seen previously in books was quite striking. I especially enjoyed works by some of the great abstract expressionists. Afterwards I met Anna to go to an electro party in the Lower East Side, which Dan had recommended, but it was only $1 if you had a flyer, and $25 without, so we just went to a Scottish pub round the corner for a couple of pints. Then we got details about an industrial night in Queens, but when we got there, there was nothing happening, so the night was a failure.
Saturday I wandered around Central Park in the rain and felt quite miserable about my life (other than having an ace holiday, obviously), but was slightly cheered by Polina phoning and inviting me to Princeton the next day. I saw some large ponds, a sheep field with no sheep and the John Lennon tranquil garden, which wasn't very tranquil. I also rambled about a section called the Rambles, but it wasn't so rambly. I was surprised by all the large rocks, given how Manhattan is generally quite flat. Then I went into the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a massive neo-classical edifice, and concentrating on the modern section I was put in a very calm and satisfied sort of mood. They especially had loads of cubist stuff like Picasso, Braque and Leger, and then upstairs some really amazing abstract expressionist works by the likes of Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still and Franz Kline, plus I was also surprised to bump into Damien Hirst's shark. The rest of the museum was a bit too much to take in, but I found a few things I liked in the nineteenth century area (Van Gogh and Monet well represented) but things got duller earlier than that, apart from some Medieval works. Then there was the excessive Egyptian area, more like a history museum than an art one, where they have a whole temple sitting in a pond, as well as the American area, with an early nineteenth century house full of posh furniture. In the evening I went to a party with Anna and John in Queens, at the house of another Anna and a bloke whose name I forgot. I drank most of a crate of Flying Dog ales, which have artwork by Ralph Steadman, and had quite a fun time.
Quite early on Sunday Dan phoned and announced that he and Polina would come to New York and meet me, so that was great news. We met up in Union Square in Manhattan and then went straight to Williamsburg, a hip and cool area of Brooklyn, where we ate not very good falafels and kebabs and then met up with Dan's interesting friends, Kendall (a girl!) and Brett. They told us about an event down the waterfront at Red Hook (still in Brooklyn), where Dutch people were celebrating the 400th anniversary of New York. This took a long bus ride (Brooklyn is large), but I'm glad we went. Before going on the Dutch boats we went on a nearby larger Victorian style sailing ship, which was interesting, but scary when we took a leaflet and discovered they were some kind of odd Christian cult who sail around and want to do something odd in Israel. The Dutch were much more fun and had a funny old guy in a tiny musical boat who made speeches in English and sang silly songs in Dutch, then we got chatting with some Dutch boatmen who were very friendly and gave us drink. Then we ate in a bar with many interesting ales, but didn't stay too long, and on the way back to Williamsburg lost half our party, so it ended up with just me, Bret and Kendal in this place called Barcade, where they have many interesting ales and many interesting old arcade machines. (On the way we met some men in a park with a half husky/half wolf dog, which was fluffy and friendly, but also an ugly black thing who tried to rape my leg!).
Next DC and then finished!