insights into the world of caffeinated monkeys
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| javamonkey insights into the world of caffeinated monkeys |
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Thursday, March 08, 2007 Another Convert Joins The "I Love NY" Cult I know I'm a bit late in posting this. Ian and I spent a few days in New York City last week, and it was a marvelous time. We were supposed to go to South Beach for some more exploring, beach time, and apartment touring; however, he was behind in his schoolwork and offered me the "surprise trip" option for the weekend. Ever curious, I agreed. Surprise--New York. Ian decided that we were going Greyhound--he could read and do schoolwork on the 5 hour bus ride, plus, when you add up time spent getting to the airport and flight time, Greyhound was quicker. And cheaper. So, we left early Sunday and caught the bus to NYC. The bus takes you directly into Manhattan, and the bus terminal shares space with the subway. We chose to walk to our hotel, which was only 7 blocks away. We were staying in Midtown at the Sheraton New York, which is only a few blocks away from Times Square and Central Park, plus two blocks away from the MoMA, and like 4 away from Rockafeller Plaza, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Macy's, Tiffany's, Saks 5th Avenue...I'm sure there are more places too. So, Sunday, we walked through Times Square, past all of the Broadway theatres (Spamalot anyone?), through the south side of Central Park, had a fabulous dinner, and saw Rockafeller Plaza, NBC studios, Radio City Music Hall, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Macy's, the Crysler Building...all the way to the Empire State Building. It was snowing, and magical and beautiful. We went up to the observatory deck at the Empire State Building, and visibility was zero because of the snow. We could see down to the streets, but not out to the surrounding area/states. However, that high up, the snow just floats--it's not falling down, but the flakes are just moving about, floating in the air. It was beautiful. The next day was jam packed with stuff that we wanted to do. We had initally planned to see the Guggenheim in the morning and the MoMA in the afternoon; however, we skipped out on the Guggenheim in favor of more time at the MoMA. That was the right decision. We spent the whole day at the MoMA, going through 6 floors of modern art. We saw everything--the Reveron exhibit (what is it with dolls being so creepy?), the Jeff Wall exhibit, Picasso, Matisse, Dali (The Persistance of Memory is much smaller than I expected), Pollock, Warhol--we saw all of the cool modern stuff, as well as the dumb modern stuff. There was an exhibit that consisted of a light turning on and off every 5 seconds. That's the kind of shit that makes people hate modern art (because, really, I could do that in my living room). The MoMA is awesome. I think we both wanted to live there. We finished up at the MoMA at about 10 minutes til 4, and then went on the rush to Wall Street--Ian wanted to see the financial district, the NYSE, and wanted to hear the bell ring. We didn't make it in time. We came out of the subway prematurely at Ground Zero. Ian wanted to see that too. I wasn't too interested in seeing it myself (slap me on the wrists, because that makes me a bad American); however, all of the subway lines stop there. If you need to switch trains, you can't. You have to go outside and walk around to find your line a few blocks away to switch trains. Somehow, that fact alone hit me hard--this event still has impact. The simplest thing as the daily commute is still interrupted because of this event. It would be like if someone took out a section of the interstate and it wasn't rebuilt--every day I could go on the interstate like normal, up until where it was interrupted. Then I'd have to find an alternate route, but every day I would see where things changed. I don't know quite how better to describe it than that. Anyway, Ian and I walked around Ground Zero--it was enormous, which I expected. But the subway stopping there was what really hit me hardest. We finally meandered into the heart of the Financial district and saw the NYSE. Ian, of course, expounded upon it's history and importance, which I just kind of smiled and nodded my way through. He then wanted to find the Merrill Lynch bull--a big sculpture in the streets somewhere, but we couldn't find it. I was getting tired and cranky and hungry and my feet were blistering by that point, so we took the subway back to Midtown, grabbed some pizza at one of the Ray's pizza places that claims to be the original one (Ray makes some good pizza), and headed off to Madison Square Garden to catch the Knicks/Heat game. The game was awesome. We managed to get non-counterfeit tickets from a scalper, and got some decent seats--we weren't in the nosebleed section. We were in the 3rd tier seating, close enough to the court to see Spike Lee and Kevin Bacon. It seemed that there were as many Heat fans as Knicks fans, and the Heat started out taking the lead. The Knicks came back, and the game was close at the end. By the end of the game, I think everyone was cheering for the Knicks. Knicks won--99 to 93. It was awesome. We walked back to the hotel, stopping for a street vendor hot dog on the way. The next day, it was back to the bus station for the trip home. Which was probably a good thing. My feet hurt from the blisters (the blisters still aren't completely gone), Ian had more schoolwork to do, and we were exhausted from all that we saw and did. It was a great little weekend trip, though, and it's somewhere we definately have to live for a little bit. Someplace that, while we live there, we don't want to work. There's just too much to see and do. Even if we just stayed in Midtown for a week, we still wouldn't see everything. It's that kind of crazy place, and I understand the appeal of the city. It's one of a kind. I didn't think I'd enjoy it--thought it would be too crazy and too cramped; however, I have been converted. I love NY. posted by jaime | 10:47 AM 0 comments |
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