NYC Cont.

I had decided that I couldn't spend another day in the house as there was still a whole list of things I wanted to do before I left. Ian dropped me off at the local train station,Pearl River,I went into Manhattan to the Metropolitan Museum.The museum is huge and there was no way that I could see everything in one day so I had to decide what I wanted to see the most. I've already planned a trip to the British Museum in London when I get back so I didn't bother with going to the Egyptian section and started with the Assyrian art. The museum has set up a hall where all the walls are covered with reliefs and there are two huge statues at the entrance. Think of the two statues in "True Lies" that were used to smuggled rocket weapons. I don't remember having seen anything like this before, simply stunning. It was a long day at the museum but I saw a lot. Definitely worth the day I spent there and even better was that the rain had stopped by the time I left. I took about two hundred photos there, I love being able to take photos in a museum. I mean how else are you supposed to remember what you've seen there if you can't take photos. My last evening at Ian's was spent with his family. His mother, Norma, had cooked an "Irish" dinner of cabbage and corned beef in honour of St. Patricks day later in the week and a Pecan pie for pie day. I had never heard of pie day but then she explained that it was March 14th, Pie day!
Meghan had given me explicit directions on how to get to her and Christophe's apartment in Brooklyn, which I appreciate. I hate bad directions and would much rather people didn't give me directions at all than give me bad ones! I had repacked my rucksack with my Christmas presents but couldn't fit in the stuff I had sent back to Ian's from Houston and so just put the box in a bag and was carrying it separately. I was weighed down to say the least and of course I hit the subway during rush hour, luckily I was going in a different direction to most people. I had another run in with the law when I caught the subway from Penn Station, I went through a gate at the station and a cop stopped me. He asked me a couple of questions and then asked "Are you English?" I said yes and he let me go on with my day. Hurrah for the accent! I was leaving the subway station that Meghan had told me to get off at when someone grabbed me. No, it wasn't another cop but Meghan, she was going in the other direction on her way to work. I was so busy concentrating on where I was going and trying to maneuver my load that I hadn't seen her. She gave me a hug and sent me on my way, but told me to call Christophe before I got any further as he might be awake to let me into the apartment. I called him and I think he was surprised when I told him where I was.
It was good to see Christophe again and to get a look at their apartment, it's really well situated, only a block from the subway station and with lots of shops within an easy walking distance. The apartment is a good size and very light and airy, definitely not a shoebox!He made me coffee and we discussed what I was going to do with my last week. We checked his and Meghans work schedules and we decided that we should go out for dinner that night as it was the only night that they were both free while I was there and that we would go out to eat Ramen on the Friday when Meghan was working. Meghan's not a fan of Ramen. Once we had got established what we were going to do I left Christophe to his devices and got started on my sightseeing day although I was tempted to just curl up on the couch. I walked through Brooklyn, past the museum and library, both of which look imposing and well worth spending time in, to the Brooklyn Bridge. It was on my list to walk across the bridge and although it was raining I enjoyed the walk. Half way across I started to feel absurdly happy, as if there were bubbles of happiness inside of me and they were coming to the surface and bursting. I am sure I was grinning like a lunatic, but no one looks lunatics in the face in New York city so that was OK. The bridge isn't beautiful or especially huge but still...it is iconic and instantly recognisable as a symbol of the city, it's featured in so many films and t.v. series that it is as famous as the Golden Gate in San Francisco.
From the bridge I walked in the direction of midtown and to Katz's deli for lunch. The famous "orgasm" scene from "When Harry met Sally" was filmed here and they have a sign over the table they sat at. The deli was really busy and it took a few minutes to get served but the Pastrami sandwich was worth the wait and I got to use the bathroom. There are so few public bathrooms in this city, it's not funny. I have had to moderate my water intake at times because I know that I am in an area where there are no bathrooms. It's ridiculous, I don't know what the city council expects all the tourists to do, or the locals for that matter. I presume that not everyone is wealthy enough to live on Manhattan Island. I went to Washington Park, here another scene from the movie was filmed, where Harry drops Sally off after they've driven across the country together at the beginning of the film. I was walking up to the park and my heart sank as it was surrounded by fences and the interior filled with earth moving equipment."Oh No" I thought, not another place closed for renovation etc. I get it that it is an odd time of the year to be travelling but still... Luckily it's only half the park that's closed and you can still walk under the arch and up the fountain. The arch was built to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Washington's inauguration. From the park I doubled back on myself and went down to the very bottom of the island and caught the Statten Island ferry. The ferry is free, which is good as I wouldn't have taken it otherwise. I wanted to take it for the views of Manhattan, the rain had stopped and the temperatures weren't too bad so I stood outside. At the other end I ran off, around the entrance to get back on the same ferry I had just gotten off of. I stood at the end again and was on my back to Manhattan within minutes. After the walk into and around lower Manhattan I was tired and caught the subway back to Meghan's, I couldn't face any more walking.
Christophe was in when I got back and we chilled for a couple of hours before going to dinner. That day, March 15th was the start of restaurant week in Brooklyn, a lot of restaurants were offering specially priced set menus and Meghan had already shortlisted a few that she wanted to try. We were able to get a reservation at Rosewater,a restaurant making American dishes with seasonal ingredients. Since we had some time before our reservation we went to a bar down the street for a drink. Dinner was great, the food was amazing, the service good and the wine that they had paired with each course, well chosen. It was a good choice and good value considering that we had three courses for $25 and it usually $23 for an entree alone. I did have to swap my dessert for Meghans as I preferred her buttermilk and lemon panna cotta to my salted chocolate cake. Saying that I am sure I could have eaten the chocolate cake if I had had to!And I have issues with chocolate desserts, I love chocolate fudge brownies but don't like chocolate mousse. Add into this that I am more of a savoury person than a sweet person and desserts can be difficult. I think that's why I liked the panna cotta, it was nice and tart,not really sweet at all.
Tuesday morning I caught the subway with Meghan and planned to go to the Museum of Modern Art or MOMA as it's known. Meghans brother Jim is a member and I was borrowing his card to get me in and save $20. I know I've said this before and will probably say it again but I am not a fan of modern art. You may ask then why go to MOMA, well they currently have a Tim Burton exhibition on and it was free! I got to the museum and it was closed so I went to The Cloisters, this is the medieval section of the Metropolitan museum and is way uptown, around 195th street. The building was purposely built to display the art which takes the form of complete chapels, actual cloisters, windows and doors from various European medieval buildings. It's amazing. I don't think that I've been to a museum where the building is so in tune with the art on display. The whole place has a peaceful vibe, helped along by the lack of crowds I had encountered at the MET on Sunday. It's incredible and made me feel so homesick. I am not trying to rag on how "new" America is and how much "history" Europe has but it did make me realise how much I take for granted the kind of architecture that is commonplace in my hometown. I mean the cinema in Salisbury is in a six hundred year old building, then there's Salisbury Cathedral itself. Before visiting this museum I had never considered all of this art, but it is. How easy is it to take for granted things we see every day and how important it is to look at them with fresh eyes and so appreciate them for the magnificent artworks they are. On the way back down town I stopped off at the Guggenheim museum, I went into the lobby. It is a very unique building, the blurb says that it was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. My guide Justin said that this was not the case, that the plans were actually drawn by Samuel Guggenheim's girlfriend. As she wasn't a registered architect she couldn't present the plans and had to ask a certified architect to do so which is where Wright comes into the picture. I'm inclined to believe him as from what I know of Wright's work the museum doesn't fit into the other buildings that he designed.
I was late meeting Meghan, but she forgave me,mainly I think because she needed a shopping partner. Unfortunately I had started my period, this coupled with the shops being super heated combined to make me feel like shit. I did cheer up when we went into Uniglo. In Japan I had done most of my shopping in this store and it didn't disappoint now. As I was in my last week I felt justified in buying a couple of tops to replace some of the ones I was going to throw away before going home. I was still confident that my passport would arrive in time for me to catch my flight on Saturday. I had checked my credit card account and it had been charged for my passport, it was obviously being processed. When we were done shopping we decided to go home, I just wanted to get out of my boots and sit down. We made the mistake of stopping in a grocery store and bought a whole load of cheese. So if you have cheese you have to have wine, we stopped at an off licence on the walk home from the subway station and proceeded to drink as soon as we set foot back in the apartment. Christophe called to see if we wanted to go out once he got back from work, but it was a big fat no! We were to settled in for the night and I wasn't putting shoes on again.