New York, New York

Getting through customs at Toronto airport was appauling, apparently they were on a 'work to rule' or 'go slow' or whatever but hundreds of travellers delayed. i arrived at the airport two and a half hours before the plane was due to leave and I walked on the plane with five minutes to spare before the scheduled takeoff time. It was then delayed another hour to allow the rest of the passengers to actually get through customs and get on the plane.

Arriving in New York City the energy and hustle and bustle was apparent from the moment I arrived.

The shuttle dropped me off at the Pennsylvania Hotel on 7th Avenue and almost ended up with a taxi up it's bum as it stopped to let me out just after the traffic lights.

The first thing on my agenda was to pick up my New York City Pass I ordered over the net. I had to get it from Planet Hollywood on 42nd St in Times Square and was very surreal to see all these places that have featured in movies and television for real.

The Hotel was on 33rd St and Times Square was on 42nd St, I walked the who way ... what was I thinking, but that was only the beginning of the walking for the day.

Came back to the Hotel and got a bit of a 'plan' together. Dropped into Macy's (which was only one block from the Hotel Penn) just to have a bit of a look. Decided to catch the subway up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art as I thought it was the one that would be least interesting to me.

Subway was absolutely packed and in my panic not to stay on so long that I would end up somewhere I didn't know I ended up getting off at 42nd St and walking all the way to the Metropolitan Museum (near 86th St!!) It was great to see the city by foot and also walking along the edges of Central Park.

Noticed one of Hamish and Andy's Police cars ... so they weren't making that up after all!!

Now ... walking into the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), just the foyer was incredible in the amount of people, the architecture, the Ancient Egyptian statue!


 



The Met just blew me away with the depth of their collection. The first room I walked into was the Ancient Greek section where dozens of clay pots, urns and artifacts were on display.



 






















The next room I think was even better, many kouros figure sculptures. From reading and studying them at school to now seeing one in the flesh, far from disappointing, surreal and the detail gained in light of the tools they had at their disposal was breathtaking.

So many highlights! Boccioni's "Unique Forms of Continuity in Space" was much larger than I had pictured it.

Matisse's "The Young Sailor", can remember it as being in the first "blockbuster" exhibition in AGNSW, must have been in the 70's!

The Inca art was incredible, I've never seen a collection of this art before but it was absolutely amazing. (especially since most of it is gold!)

And the rest of the works! Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, Cezanne, Degas just mindblowingly brilliant!

 

An if that wasn't enough there was an Ancient Egyptian section that even had a temple from Egypt reconstructed in the museum and countless other sculptures, paintings, artifacts, and more, only problem was, I arrived at 4pm, I knew the museum was supposed to close at 5.30pm and from what I knew about it previously I thought (wrongly) that this one wouldn't hold much interest (comparatively) for me and they started shooing everyone out at 5.10pm!! so really had to rush ... will need to make another trip another day before I leave.

I walked back from the Museum (Museum was on 86th St, my Hotel was on 33rd St (what was I thinking!) and came across an old friend. A nice young woman saw me looking stupid trying to take a photo of myself in front of it so she took pity and took it for me. This one's for you Jenn!

Finally I got back to the hotel and rested my very weary feet for a couple of hours. I wanted to go to the Empire State Building at night - Shades of "Sleepless in Seattle" and "Affair to Remember" - So there I was on the top of the Empire State at 12pm, not waiting for, but thinking about my love. The view was breathtaking, the city lights dazzling and exciting to look down on this city that never sleeps. (I was beginning to think I'd never sleep as well!)