Tales from my wanderings around Manhattan

As mentioned, I took a day off... I did grocery shopping and laundry and got properly rested (well slightly rested anyway). I have only two unusual things to report from that day:
1) Apparently I look Polish. An old lady in a shop started talking to me in Polish, then when I seemed confused, looked dismayed and asked if I spoke Polish... at least thats what I think she said... because it ended "Polski" and she said 'oh sorry' when I said no. Lingual fun and games.
2) I had a conversation about the vision of Mary appearing in an English village with the man in the Laundromat. Or rather, he talked at me and I smiled politely.

Yesterday I set off for Manhattan once again, this time to Central Park. There isn't much to tell about Central Park other than it's a big park, in the middle of Manhattan, that features lakes, woods and greens. It's very pretty as city parks go.

I lay in the sun and walked about for a few hours before deciding to give the American Museum of Natural History a go; I'd already visited the Smithsonian in D.C. so I may as well complete the 'Night at the Museum' film set!
I was starting to think every natural history museum the world over is the same... a few taxidermy lions, tigers and bears (oh my!), a display about the evolution of humans and the obligatory dinosaur skeletons... but in the subtle differences between museums are where the most interesting displays can be found.

I've witnessed the giant Redwood trees of California first hand, but when in Yosemite the Sequoia groves were closed... however... AMaNH to the rescue! It may not be a live tree, but this section of a Sequoia really puts into reality how huuuuge these plants are...

There was a brilliant display on the Big Bang, with a scaled walk showing how the Universe developed over time, as well as some really interesting displays on meteorites, gemstones and rocks.

Then came my favourite part of the museum, right on the top floor, was the display of the South Pacific island cultures. Some of you may or may not know that I desperately want to see an Easter Island head. Well, on that day in sunny NYC I finally saw one. Ok so it wasn't in situe on a beautiful tropical island, but it was an ancient carved head all the same.

How awesome is that?? It was as tall as the room and incredibly intimidating, truth be told. But I believe that was the intention of them, so job well done Polynesians.

Having spent around 5 hours wandering the museum I called it a day (it closing also had something to do with it!) and headed back into Central Park on the walk over to Fifth Avenue.

That part of Fifth Avenue, between 82nd to 104th Street, is known as the Museum Mile, and on Tuesday night it held the annual Museum Mile Festival. Catchy title.
The festival consisted of street performers, children drawing with chalk on the street, and 9 of the museums being open for free to the public. I managed to check out part of the Smithsonian Design Museum and the Museum of New York before I decided it was far too crowded for actually looking at things and made the choice to view the museums properly another day. The line for the Guggenheim Museum was so long I couldn't even see the end of it!
All the same, the festival was really cool; 5thAv was closed off to traffic, there were kids and adults drawing everywhere and music was coming from all directions.

After a couple of hours on 5thAv I called it a day and headed back to Brooklyn for the night.

Today I decided that the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) was on the cards. I took a subway ride up to Midtown and spent again about 5 hours wandering the museum. The MoMA is home to a vast amount of work by well known artists, as well as those less well known...

Picasso^

Andy Warhol^

Francis Bacon^

Rene Magritte^

Salvador Dali^

Vincent van Gogh^

There were also a lot of Matisse, Cezanne and Jackson Pollock paintings, but I either didn't enjoy those a lot or I'm choosing to bore you with them at a later date :p

From MoMA I walked, in the rain, to Times Square. If the weather hadn't been so miserable I probably would have sat out for longer, but as it was, I just took a few photos and ducked down underground into the Subway.

Even the Subway and NYPD signs in Times Square light up and flash... it's absolutely everything you imagine it to be!

The rain is still hammering down outside, but hopefully it should have stopped by tomorrow morning.

Hopefully I'll get another blog in when I'm in Pennsylvania, if not, when I'm back in Brooklyn once again, until then, love you all lots


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