New York days 2-3

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The next day my body clock had adjusted slightly but it took me most of the morning to get rid of my hangover. I decided to have a wander round lower mid town and visited Grand Central terminal and the Chrysler building.

After that I got the subway to Queens to take some pics from across the river, whilst I was in New York the sky was crystal clear and the temperature never got above -3. My next stop was upper midtown where I visited the Museum of modern art (MOMA) which was cool as you could take pictures of the paintings which I’ve never been able to do in other museums. I then strolled through the Rockefeller centre before heading back to the hostel.

As usual my vampire roomie was sleeping, he slept all day and was up all night (usually on his laptop) he wasn’t very sociable and I never saw him leave the room!!

I had heard that there was a global music festival (Globalfest) on at Webster hall which was only a couple of blocks from the hostel so I decided to pay it at a visit. I was glad I did because there was some great bands on, it was a festival for up and coming bands that hadn’t yet signed to a label. My favourites were:
(to quote from the flyer).

Caravan Palace - Gypsy jazz echoing through the electro, house, dub and hip-hop grooves of this Parisian ensemble

Nightlosers - performing harmonica style licks on a tree leaf (yes the guy played a leaf) as the cembalo and violin provide a Transylvanian timbre over bluesy guitar riffs.

Namgar - Over a blend of ancient Asian string instruments and contemporary cinematic electro-rock, the lush, reverberant, yet delicate vocals of singer Namgar Lhasaranova soar like the white clouds over Tibet from which she and the group take their names. Front woman Namgar was born into a Buryat family line of shamans in a tiny village where the borders of Russia, Mongolia and China meet.

The next day I walked from east Village down through Lower East Side and China town over the Brooklyn bridge and round Brooklyn and then back over the bridge. Carried on through Seaport and Wall Street ending up at the best falafel stand in NY - Sam’s next to ground zero. It was there I ate my favourite word this nice to say - Baba Ghanoush - go on say it, you know you want to. For those of you who are not familar with it, it's a middle eastern aubergine dish.

I decided to have a quiet night on Monday so joined the millions watching Avatar in 3D - woohoo.

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Photos

Cooper Union
Opposite the hostel

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