Day 33: NYC- Pompeii, the Park & the Phantom

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I'm now back to Newark Airport waiting for my flight back to Toronto so will catch up on my blog! So yesterday was all about culture after the previous day of shopping. After adding up all the shopping receipts I needed to have a much cheaper day! I'm pretty much on track with the travel budget but being back in Toronto & then Vegas I'm likely to go slightly over budget in the last week.

After a lazy start & having the traditional breakfast in Starbucks of tea & yoghurt granola I decided the plan for today would be to hit the museums. I hadn't done these in my last visit & yet NYC is full of them. In addition, it's another big day in the trip as I'm going to see Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway at 8pm so considering I only left Starbucks gone 11am I had alot of walking & stuff to fit into the day!

The first stop would be the Discovery Museum in Times Square where i noticed there was a exhibition on Pompeii which I always loved at school & at some point would like to visit. On heading around the corner of 44th Street I was surprised to see such a queue - a half hour wait just for tickets! It became aparant with the number of kids (yuck!) that it was so popular due to the other exhibition of Harry Potter! I was surprisingly tolerant of the kids & decided just to wait as the other museum I wanted to visit was at the other end of town.
It was a half hour wait before getting into the exhibition & maybe I was a bit naive in thinking that the exhibition would have all the actual real things from Pompeii. Don't get me wrong it was really interesting but a lot of displays were just replica's or plaster copies so was a bit disappointing. For the first 5 minutes of the tour you could hear everyone saying how amazing it had lasted so well for 1700 years but you then started to think.."hang on, if this is real why do they have it just hanging on a wall where people could touch or damage it!". People then started to click on it couldn't be real. Don't get me wrong there was some original stuff in glass cabinets but I would much prefer to visit Italy & see it first hand. Buy hey, I was being cultured & learnt something from the tour!

From here I wanted to go & see The Metropolitan Museum of Art which is on 104th Street so it was going to be a long walk...pretty much 60 blocks & around 1.5hours walk! I could have got a cab but needed to save money after yesterday & it would give me a chance to walk through Central Park and obviously help burn off some calories! (I'm getting to a point now where I'm sick of eating out & junk food). I bought some new trainers before coming over here & have to say they've hardly ever come off my feet for the last 5 weeks so have definately got my money's worth! Even still, my feet were starting to hurt & are most definately going to treat myself to a luxury pedicure when I get back! Walking although good exercise, does give you an appetite so grabbed a quick hot dog off a street seller to eat through Central Park.

Central Park is pretty huge - (sorry can't give you any dimensions) but full of nooks & crannies...from a zoo, to grass lands, to lakes, to sports areas etc. Although there is a roadway through the park for traffic, it was nice just for 20 minutes to get away from the main stream of people, traffic & honking of horns. NYC is a busy & noisy city so the Park gives at least a small area to get away from it all.

The Met is about half way up Central Park & is a MASSIVE museum. By the time I got there it was near on 3pm so really had to leave by 4.30pm to have any chance to get back to the hotel, changed & back up to Times Square for the theatre at 7.30pm! This was assuming that I wouldn't be eating dinner to! A fly by, whistle stop tour is what was needed!

Now being honest, I'm not one of these museum people who reads about every article or piece of art. I'm more like the person who when reading a magazine just skims through & looks at the pictures! I'm more into the visuals should we say which makes it easier when you have to rush around. I'll say it again but the museum is massive & even if you just look at the pictures it could easily take you a day to get through everything. It is split up into different areas and rooms which has articles / pictures from all around the world so you can pick & choose which bits to look at as not everything interested me.

So what did I see on my power walk around the museum? For starters there is an AMAZING section on Eygpt with some fascinating Mummies, manuscripts & artifacts! I actually had another one of those "wow, wow, oh wow" moments. Now these must have been real, unlike Pompeii, as they were in glass display cabinets & you weren't allowed to do flash photography. (I only know this as a security guard came after me on my power walk to ask me to stop using my flash!). I do want to visit Egypt so this only re-affirms my desire to go & see how the Egyptians lived all those years ago.

From here I saw some other "stuff" but nothing I can really remember or call out as memorable. Apologies, but I'm not doing the museum any justice here but the speed I was going around & without the guide to hand nothing really comes to mind. The upstairs part of the museum is dedicated to art with pieces from artists all around the world. Now don't get me wrong I do like art & good art but I was only really interested in seeing the famous artists...Rembrant, Monet, Van Gogh, Andy Warhol etc.... I do remember there was alot of art based on religion & thinking Jesus must be the most painted person of all time! There were also a lot of portraits of random people - you know like the one's you see in Stately Homes in the UK? Once again, if the're not famous then I don't really care for that type of art & aren't the type of person who can appreciate painting techinques, brush strokes etc!!

Anyway, I eventually found my way to what I call the famous artists & paintings you might actually of heard of. Saying that I now need to dig my camera out to remember what they were ....2 secs! Ah yes....Claude Monet & his "Camille Monet in the Garden at Argenteuil" Yes I can here you all going "oh yes, I remember that one!". Van Gogh self portait, Van Gogh "irises" painted in 1890. These are probably the one two I really did recognise but can say I've seen some pictures by some famous artists.

While I was in the area, I thought I might as well drop into the Modern art section as it might be something I can appreciate a bit more. Well, some of the pieces you just look at & think "I could do that!". It was anything from a few sploges on a canves to some rope wrapped in a circle. Now come on, I'm sure some of you who have children have seen them bring home just as good pictures from their art lesson! Everyone sees art in different ways, but for me I'm not sure I'd use the word "talented", maybe "creative & expressive" but I'm sure most of use could replicate some of the work. I know for sure I couldn't draw Van Gogh's "irises"!. Anyway, I saw something from Andy Warhol & then it had to be quick dash out of the museum for the 1.5 hour walk back to the hotel.

Oh my feet are hurting! I can't feel sorry for myself as i made the choice to walk but I can honestly feel a blister on my right foot. I'm having to walk with a limp now and if I'm not careful people will be giving me money thinking I'm one of the people who you see begging on the street. Don't take this the wrong way as I'm not making fun of these people, but will take this opportunity to share the number of homeless & begging on the streets of NYC, something we don't always see in our own towns.

Probably on every street corner you'll see somone, from all walks of life & cultures with a cup in hand and a piece of cardboard with their story on why they need money. Stories I've seen are, a middle aged woman who has been widowed & has lost everything to quite a few young girls who are pregnant, been abandoned by their boyfriends & have no where to go or to a girl whose father has died & she needs money to get a flight for the funeral. Quite often you see people in wheel chairs, mostly men I noticed with either lost limbs or severe disfigurements who need money for treatment. Probably the most disturbing I saw was a young girl, probably no older than 20 who was simply slumped across the pavement, either asleep or out of in on drugs with a cup next to her begging. People just walked past or over her it was so upsetting how one's life can just end up like this.

Anyway I eventually got back to the hotel for a quick change & then off to the Majestic Theatre on Broadway! Phantom is the longest running show, something like 20 years+ and I have always wanted to see it after seeing the original film many, many years ago. I just love the music! It was just amazing and again one of those times when I had to just pinch myself. To actually do & live your dreams is one of the best feelings in the world and makes me realise if you put your mind to something, they really can come true. Now going to the theatre in New York isn't exactly hard to achieve I can hear you say but has probably taken me near on 20 years to do! I was originally going to do it on my first visit to NYC but hit the writers strike at the time so all shows were cancelled! I was just a truely wonderful show & cried through it (I didn't feel alone as I could hear other people snuffling their way through too!) It totally lived up to my expectations and would go & see it again. I came out on such a high. The theatre is up at Times Square & even at 1030pm the streets are still so busy, it's mad!!

So tomorrow I head back over to Toronto in Canada, which I still need to write up!! I leave NYC mid morning so will just take it easy as I don't think my feet can cope with the walking, my purse can cope with any more shopping & my bag can cope with cramming anything in. Can I just say I've come away for a 4 day visit with just hand luggage, a small sports bag & have still managed to cram in all my shopping!!

So day 33 is going to be a day of travelling so won't be much to report! I've attached some photos from the last few days of NYC

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Photos

St Pauls Chapel
Moving tributes so those who died on 9/11.

Times Square
Me, Mel & Jason on a night out. They'd just got engaged!

NYC Sky line
View of NYC from the hop on hop off bus tour from Brooklyn

Afternoon Tea at the Plaza
The New Yorker Afternoon tea - if you squint closely you might just see the TINY sandwiches. Makes Bettys look cheap!

Sunset in NYC
View from the Top of the Rockefeller Centre.

View of Central Pack
Another view from Top of the Rock

Dusk over NYC
Another view from Top of the Rock

Mummies at the Met
Amazing Egyptian displays at The Met!

Van Gogh
I did do other stuff than shop! Arty stuff at The Met!