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Published: January 5th 2011
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Photo with Santa
At South Street Seaport We arrived in New York tired and hungry, and didn't really do anything that first night.
The first full day was filled with some things i'd done before (but the other I was travelling with hadn't): this included walking around Wall St, ground zero and battery park (which looks onto the statue of liberty). Then the boys went to check out the empire state building, but I refused to spend money doing something I'd already done (and thought was relatively mediocre compared to Top of the Rock), so I hung around Macys and checked out their famous Santa village, which is apparently one of the most popular places in New York (and probably the world) to get a photo with Santa. I was there at a time that most children should have been getting ready for bed, but there was still an estimated 2.5 hour wait. I didn't really see why, it wasn't exactly the magical world as promised by the reviews. I think its just one of those mindless 'must-do' things if you happen to have kids in New York.
That night we went to see Chicago on Broadway. At first I kept comparing it to the film,
and was a bit put off by the fact that a huge jazz band took up most of the stage, not allowing any sets; but I warmed to it very quickly and definitely enjoyed the show. There was some great audience interaction, and the songs were fantastic as you'd expect.
The next day was the beginning of an alarming trend where sightseeing wasn't beginning until 2pm onwards. In that day all we managed to fit in was the Rockefeller Center. The others went to Top of the Rock, but I having seen it before spent my time checking out the ice-skating, NBC store, Met Museum gift shop and a phenomenal Lego store around Rockefeller. I also got some errands done, so it was a pretty productive day. Then we met up and raced to the get the wharf for a cruise around the Statue of Liberty. It was alright, and we got a good view of the statue and Manhattan as it slowly turned into night, but the cruise went for 2 hours and I feel 45 minutes would have been more than sufficient.
That night we went to a bar near the apartment- called Abbey's- and had
a How I Met Your Mother type night. I tried mulled cidar which was OK but $10. All beers, once your included tax and tip, were about $7, which I found to be a pretty standard New York experience in most areas. On the third Tuesday of every month, Abbey's holds pub trivia. We were expecting it to be like it is back home, but it was just questions put up on a TV screen in a powerpoint show type way, and answers are marked by your own team. A bit disappointing. We did manage to come equal 2nd though (out of, like, 5 teams) despite a large portion of questions on capital cities of US states.
A few days into our stay, the boys decided they wanted to go to the Metropolitan Museum. I had already gone there, and found it to be a (great but) exhausting day that i wasn't eager to repeat. However the Guggenheim, which I really wanted to check out, was nearby. We walked through Central Park to get there (which looked beautiful as always), and I really enjoyed the exhibition they had at the Guggenheim- Neoclassicism in Modern Art- totally my sort of
thing. I particularly like the Nazi propaganda at the end, the Surrealist films and room of Kandinskys.
The next day Steve and Georg wanted a day to go shopping and then watch a basketball game, so Jonathan and I went to Chelsea to check out the commercial galleries. I was expecting a whole bunch of contemporary artists I had never heard a la the gallery scene in Beijing and Shanghai. Instead, the first gallery I went to was full of Rauschenberg's work from the 1970s and 80s. I loved it! Then there were other galleries full of Warhols and Indianas (all the kind of stuff I was studying in my 'American Art since 1960' class at UT). It was really interesting to see how much they cost, though I can't remember now what the price range was. Some other galleries were filled with contemporary artists like I expected, and I enjoyed most of them a lot. My favourite was probably an artist that collaged images onto children's building blocks which were then arranged in a sculpture which from a distance made a coherent image. Very clever stuff! We got to about 8 or so galleries throughout the day. And
also managed to get to Chelsea Market which was full of gourmet food and ingredients. While everything was a bit out of our price range, it was a great way to get inspired for Christmas dinner.
Probably the weirdest thing to happen to me in NYC was when Jonathan and I walked into a weird graffitied cave-like building that we thought was a gallery. The woman who greeted us at the door was wearing a dress that looked like it was covered in a multitude of black balloons. There were huge what-appeared-to-be gestalt sculptures all around the room creating a maze. On closer inspection they held clothes. For a simple cardigan you could probably buy at H&M for $10 was going at this store for almost $2000. It was insane! And a lot of the clothing was really strange- interesting, yes- but strange. Like really feminine coats made out the fabric you'd use to make a duffel bag. I sprayed some perfume on me and smelled like lollies all day. Jonathan and I pretended to be browsing while trying to navigate our way out of the maze and get out of there as soon as possible. Once outside we
both immediately burst into laughter.
The next day we met up with one of our friends from back in Austin and went to the MOMA. While I had already seen it in summer, it was the one thing I was really eager to see again. And actually, a lot of the exhibitions had changed. I loved everything, but probably the most noteworthy artwork was a grand piano in the middle of a large room which every now and then a performer would get into (through a hole cut in the bottom) and wheel around the audience while playing classical music upside down. It was certainly a spectacle. That night we met one of Steve's friends who was staying in Brooklyn (who coincidentally enough was good friends with my cousin Millie). We went out to a Brooklyn bar and had a great sushi dinner. Most of the people in the group wanted to walk back across the Brooklyn Bridge to get pictures of the view of Manhattan. I protested because it would be freezing (and it was). Not sure the view was quite worth it with all the scaffolding on the bridge. We topped off the night by going to jazz club which that night was playing Hip Hop/ Jazz (better than it sounds) then checking out the college bars around Columbia University.
The next day was Christmas Eve and Jonathan and I spent the whole day cooking up a Christmas feast (we were a well oiled machine after the Thanksgiving practice). My job was to make pumpkin pie, trifle and mulled wine. Jono cooked all the meat and veggies, including of course candied yams. It was delicious and a great night, including a friendly game of scrabble.
Christmas wasn't quite as christmassy as Christmas Eve, despite our attempts. We went all the way to South St Seaport because Time Out magazine said that at 4pm an a capella group would be singing christmas carols while arranging themselves as ornaments in a christmas tree. It never happened. We figured while we were down there that we'd buy tickets to a Broadway play, and went to see West Side Story that night. It was pretty good, but a bit dancey for me. Also, half of every song (and a lot of dialogue) was in Spanish, which is great unless you want to sing along with 'I Feel Pretty'.
To Be Continued...
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