Day 44 - Art and Artifacts!

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So as today was our last day in New York, we didn't have much else to do other than using the last voucher that was included with our CityPass - The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We knew from experience in other similar museums that it wouldn't take us all day to view it, so decided that we'd have a lie-in and not set an alarm. As it turns out, our body clocks awoke us at about 9:30am anyway, so up we got.

We didn't rush, however, pretty much having breakfast in bed and a very slow/leisurely approach to getting washed and dressed, and finally made it out of our room at just about 12:00pm. At this point, we were already feeling hungry again (just about), so got a bite to eat prior to getting to the museum, to avoid paying the extortionate prices at their own cafe. After eating, we headed to the subway stop a little further down the street and waited for the number 1 train that would take us part way there. Emma had done a little route-mapping and had found out that the number 1 stops just before Central Park on the west side, and that the museum was on the opposite side of Central Park on the east. As luck would have it, she saw that the M86 bus has a stop on both sides, and takes a road straight through the middle, so we hopped on that once we got out of the subway. It took about 10 minutes via bus to get through Central Park, but the first thing we saw once emerging from the foliage was the museum we were here to see, so we got off and walked towards the gigantic building.

Initially, on the inside, it looked very similar to the Natural History Museum we had visited earlier in the week, but rather than a big skeleton of a dinosaur to greet us, we stepped in to see a massive ancient-Egyptian statue. We looked around the reception area (which was very busy - apparently this is one of New York's biggest attractions) to find a desk to exchange our vouchers for tickets. We headed for the first one we saw, where the man told us that we should see the lady at the 'Groups' desk who would sort it out for us at the other end of the room. We walked over, and sure enough the lady was very kind and exchanged our vouchers promptly. The "tickets" that we were handed, however, we not really what we had expected - they were small metal brooches that you had to bend the end of to actually fit them to your clothing! Anyway, we got our tickets and then headed towards the main entrance. As we walked by, a staff member told us that we could not take Craig's backpack inside, or that if we did, he would have to wear it on his front (a... frontpack?). Rather than wear a fairly heavy bag backwards, we walked to the 'Coat Room' to check the bag into storage there, first removing the camera of course.

Finally, we were ready to begin looking around the museum, which after looking at a map we picked up, turned out to be absolutely massive. Although there were only 2 proper floors, the actual floor-space was huge. We didn't really have a 'plan-of-action' as to how to tackle it, so walked to the nearest exhibition 'wing', which turned out to be Ancient Egypt. As we have, of course, already been to Egypt, we didn't spend too much time in this area. We did browse most things, a bit quicker than most people would I guess, but it was interesting nontheless. There were the usual; statues, monuments, paintings, tombs and some very intricate (and tiny) figurines. Once we were done, we took the exit up the stairs to the next area.

This 'wing' was dedicated to Asian Art - basically very old chinese artifacts - so we started having a look around. In a way, it was very similar to some of the Egyptian things we had seen; thousand year old paintings, statues and figurines, and a lot of scripts/scrolls. Where the Chinese artifacts differed, was their elegance and design. As you know, modern Chinese art is so detailed and complex, and the ancient designs were no different! We also saw some very old furniture, such as wardrobes and tables that were all hand-carved in the traditional Chinese patterns. After spending a while looking through the area - and taking some photos - we had a look on the map to see what else was near-by/worth seeing.

We settled on the section labelled 'Musical Instruments', and so off we went. It took us about 5-10 minutes to actually get to the entrance (this place is every bit as big as we said it is!), and started exploring. For us, as people who enjoy playing our keyboards and guitars, it was really interesting to see all of the classic (and sometimes bizarre) instruments. There were literally hundreds of them, from the small violin-like string intruments, all the way through to incredibly large (bigger than Craig!), ancient Chinese drums. Along the way, we also saw some great examples of very distinctive harpischords (they must have cost a fortune even in those days), ivory horns, show-piece violins made of ebony & ivory, brazz instruments with more tubes than you would know what to do with and much, much more!

Once we were done looking at the instruments, we decided, as we were in an art gallery, that we would go and find some paintings of some of the more well-known artists, seeing a section called 'European Art from the 19th and 20th Century', under which certain names such as van Gogh, Picasso and Monet were listed. We found our bearings, using the map as reference, and set off in what we hoped was the right direction in this maze of a building. Eventually we reached the gallery that housed most of the Pablo Picasso pieces, and took some pictures of some of nicer paintings, before moving through to the next area, which was home to paintings by Claude Monet - as with most of Monet's art, the majority of his paintings were of lillies in a pond. After we had snapped a few more photos we went looking for some Vincent van Gogh - along the way finding some more Picasso paintings that were more his usual, 'unusual' self! - and finally chanced up a gallery-full. You can really spot a van Gogh from a mile away, his thick paint and heavy textures are a dead giveaway, but also add real depth to his paintings (don't we sound like we know what we're on about, eh!? :D). During the course of our exploration of the galleries, we also chanced upon paintings and art by Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol, so took those as opportunies for a few more photos.

After spending a good couple of hours on our feet, we decided to take a small break and sit down on a bench, which happened to be in an African-themed area. Whilst we were resting, we had another look at the map and decided that the 'Armour and Weapons' area sounded good, so made our way there - again, taking at least 10 minutes to actually get there!

This section was really fascinating, and the pure amount of detail and exemplary craftsmanship that went into some of the things in this exhibit was outstanding. There was everything from full suits of armour to guns, knives, swords, spears, axes, arrows and crossbows - you name it, it was there! Each of the above having a whole section dedicated to that individual weapon, with examples from all ages it was used in - some even having a 'presentation pieces' from the era - studded with diamonds & emeralds and encrusted in gold & silver. Words can't really describe some of the things in there, so hopefully the pictures (when we finally upload them) will do them justice!

By now, we had seen pretty much everything that we wanted to see based on the information from the map, and were ready to head back to the hostel. Before we left, we made a quick (...again, about 10 minutes) detour to the toilet, and to also make use of the drinking fountain. Once we were ready, we made our way back to the entrance hall - which was also the exit. This was our last chance to do some more shopping before our time in New York came to an end, and Craig needed to grab a postcard for his auntie, so we made the choice to find our way to Times Square. We walked a little further up the street - to catch the bus we had arrived on - and were back on the other side of Central Park within 10 minutes, where we got off at a stop that had a connecting subway link. It took no more than a minute or two to reach the platform, where we caught catch the 'C' train to 42nd street (Times Square). 10 minutes later, we emerged once again into times Square (well, actually we took the exit stairs to 40th street - just around the corner), and noticed a Duane Reade pharmacy behind us. From past experience, these types of pharmacy/supermarket combos almost always have postcards, so we popped in.

Once we'd left the store, since it was pretty much 5:15pm, we walked back down the stairs to the subway to get the number 2 express train back towards the hostel. Since we had a fair amount of washing (and packing) to do, we thought it best to have a night in and sort everything out before leaving early in the morning. We got off the number 2 train at 96th street where the number 1 train connects, and would also take us the rest of the way. After waiting for a minute or two, the train turned up and we rode it for a further 2 stops before getting off at 110th street. We did our usual nightly shop from the supermarket right near the subway exit; buying food for tea, breakfast and something to drink. We paid for our things and within 5 minutes were back at the hostel. For tea, we had decided to try some T.G.I Friday's 'Buffalo Wings' with a side of chicken-roasted savoury rice. We cooked them in the microwave in the kitchen and took them back to our room to eat. The wings - although delicious - were very, very spicy (to Craig at least!), but with a bit of ketchup, went down a treat! We'd also bought a 6 pack of diet 7-Up, reasoning that we would have a can each for tea, a can each in the morning and take the remaining 2 on the coach to Philadelphia.

We took a 10 minute rest to let our tea go down, then started gathering the clothes that needed to be washed and went down to the basement where the utility room is situated. We wont bore you with the details of washing - although this place is only a dollar per machine, the cheapest we've used yet! After finishing washin our clothes, we went back to the room to pack them away in our cases along with everything else we had used during our stay here, ready to check out tomorrow. We plan on having a fairly early night, as we have another 'moving' day to look forward to, which are almost always exhausting!

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