The Bronx is up and the Battery's down

Hey all... This will probably be my last post! Bit sad I know but exciting too. Oh, actually I guess I'll post a quick one to let people know if I got home alright so this is only last trip post.

I'm in New York!!! It's a very exciting and kind of crazy city, I'm not sure I'd want to live here but it's certainly full of energy. Drivers swear at each other all the time, everything is in lights and the skyline is very impressive.

I arrived Wednesday afternoon and headed for my hostel on the upper west side near Central Park. Couldn't check in until 3pm so I dumped bags and went out to explore. Walked to Times Square - way too many bright signs. Even the police station and the subway signs were lit up.
Checked out the Broadway ticket sales place where you can get last minute half price tickets, lots of tempting options! Decided to a) wait a couple nights and b) try to see Hedda Gabler, reviewed in New Yorker and the magazine on my train.

I kept going south and found Macy's and the Empire State Building. I did not go up the latter because it cost $20 - they didn't show that bit in Sleepless in Seattle! It was only 5 euro to climb St Peter's dome so I don't know what New York thinks it's got that's better than Rome. I got a few good pictures and a postcard of NY from above to make up for not seeing it myself.

Thursday I headed to the Metropoliton Museum of Art for about 4 hours - it was great! A really eclectic mix from ancient Egyptian (Temple of Dandur - rescued from yearly flooding) to Modern (I saw Andy Warhol's Mao) it was a lot of fun. Decided to head toward the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) with stops along the way at Tiffany & co. (it looks much as it did when Audrey ate a pastry in front of it) and FAO Schwartz which was pretty impressive, I'd have bought a full size light saber if it would fit in my bag!

MoMA was amazing! Reminded of me of the Peggy Guggenheim in Venice and the Centre Pompidou in Paris - not surprising I guess since they're also modern art meccas. A whole room of Pollock, very overwhelming. Warhol, Jackson Jones, Rothko... it was very fun. And really weird, I ran into a friend from Christchurch who went to high school with me! Hamish and I did debating together and he's touring the US with his sister to look at potential physics programmes. And we ran into each other on an escalator in New York! Crazy world.An old friend, or really the daughter of an old friend of Mum's, lives in NY and I got in touch with her, unfortunately she is out of town for the week. She did however set me up with one of her friends, Jocelyn, who kindly agreed to meet me for coffee and a chat. We met at a cafe on 57th and Lexington and talked about our lives for two hours. It was fun, felt like I actually belonged a a little to the city. Dinner was pizza and then I wandered around Midtown until heading back to the hostel.

Yesterday was Friday and it was freezing cold - a guy in Italy told me that New York is warm but he lied. I went to the Guggenheim in the morning and did a tour that talked about the beginnings of modernism. Very interesting! That was until about 12 and I went backto MoMA because I accidentally kept the audioguide and decided I better take it back! There's a store there full of awesomeness so I browsed for ages and bought a little journal before heading towards Times Sq for cheap tickets. They didn't open until 3pm so I walked through the Virgin Megastore, which is totally insane. Huge! And it was really really cool to see a whole display of Flight of the Concords merchandise, including a t-shirt which said "New Zealand's Greatest Export." I got a ticket to Hedda Gabler and headed downtown to look at Wall St and the World Trade Centre sight. It was interesting to walk around the area, I remembered seeing the news etc. on the day.

The play was absolutely stunning! Mary Louise Parker was beautiful and captivating, the characters were fascinating. I really enjoyed the show, and the cheap seats were pretty darn good. So I've seen a show on the West End and one on Broadway now, two lifetime goals done. Of course there were SO many options at the ticket place, so much on Broadway and off that now I want to live in Toronto just so I can attend shows three times a year :)

Today is Saturday and I decided to explore the neighbourhoods I hadn't seen. Actually I spent a couple of hours on the subway having taken it the wrong way before finally arriving at the Staten Island Ferry for a close up with the Statue of Liberty. It was a fun round trip with lots of classic views, and free! Then I walked along the Brooklyn Bridge and walked around Brooklyn and Dumbo for a while, it was great! I found a little vintage market and then ate lunch looking over the harbour. A subway to Chinatown and I walked all the way through Soho and Greenwich Village up to Grand Central Station, the Chrysler Building and the Library. Dinner on Broadway and back here to pack!

It has not been enough time here in New York but I'm also really excited to get home. Tomorrow I start the long commute home, but in less that 48 hours I'll be there!

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch.