New York Museums

El Greco - new favourite

New York really does have a lot of museums, and we were there long enough to visit quite a few. The other cool thing is that a lot of them have pay-what-you-wish times. They are really expensive otherwise, the Met is $25/person. But actually that is meant to be a suggested payment, since it doesn't pay rent, and is taking up a significant amount of Central Park. Just before we arrived the museum had settled one of the lawsuits against it, around these ticket prices. So we felt a lot more comfortable not paying the "suggested" ticket price.

The trick with this museum is definitely to get there early, and choose what you want to see, it is massive. To see everything in a day would be incredibly tiring. We focused on a few things, like the American and more contemporary art, and I quite enjoyed that. Though even in the older paintings I discovered a new favourite, El Greco, I had never heard of this guy before, but he was painting at the end of the 1500's and yet his art looked incredibly modern. It was so different from everything else of the same time, if you are looking for evidence of time travel, this definitely has to be included.

Performance art at MoMa

We also went to MoMa as well, that is another great museum. I'd been there before, but it's definitely one you can go back to. They always seem to be in the process of installing art in their rooms, I've never seen it completely full. Perhaps it never is. But it is always a good day, for what is open, and the sculpture garden is always great.

The waterfall at the 9/11 memorial

The new World Trade Centre

There is a new museum, or rather a memorial, where the World Trade centre towers used to be. They have built massive fountains where the towers used to stand, or rather waterfalls, in that the water is just flowing down into deep holes, with the names of everyone who died inscribed around it. It's quite effective. The museum is interesting, it's a massive area, which is quite empty. There are some of the original metal foundations, and twisted fire trucks that were damaged when the towers collapsed. Then there is a separate section going through the day of the attack, and the response immediately afterwards, as well as a little bit about aftermath. It feels this section could be a bit larger, since it's completely rammed, and there is nobody else in the area outside it.

It's definitely worth a visit, it was quite moving and such a pivotal moment in recent history. It has a different feel to Hiroshima, which is very sorrowful and more about never letting this happen again. The 9/11 memorial has a different feel at the moment, perhaps that will change over the decades to come. It also costs an awful lot to visit, $24 versus about a pound to visit the Peace museum in Hiroshima. It does give the place a strange feeling, apparently they don't get any federal funds to run the place, so I suppose they have to charge a lot. There was a bit of an out-cry over the gift shop too. So yeah, definitely a different feel.

Sculpture at MoMa

On a lighter note, we also went to the Frick Collection, which had another of those pay-as-you-wish times, I love those museums. This place was really great, it's this old house that was turned into a museum. It was owned by one of those American robber barons, who loved art, and spent a fortune collecting, but he collected things that he liked, rather than a fully curated collection. The house is pretty cool too, right on 5th avenue opposite Central Park. It's not often that you get to go inside one of these grand, old American houses. It may not be on most tourists radars, since it was a lot quieter than the Met or MoMa. It meant that you could really get close to the art works.

One of the last museums we visited was the museum of American finance. I surprisingly enjoyed this, perhaps it's because of my job. But they went over the history of the stock market and the commodities markets. Basically finance has been a constant series of bubbles and crashes. Over and over, and after each one they brought in all these regulations to address that one flaw, and then something else went bust next time. It was quite a cool building to visit, right next to Wall street, and they had some interesting stuff in it; gold bars, commodities, jewellery, any thing you could attach value to.

Gold-plated monopoly at the Finance museum - of course

We also went to the Whitney museum, this is just for American art, it was originally the collection of another rich American, one of the Vanderbilt's. It's in this fantastic new building, on the Hudson river and the start of the Highline park. It is a massive collection, with a couple of rotating exhibitions. I would definitely recommend the audio guide, and they also had almost constant tours in some of the rooms. That was a great idea, it was only short, maybe 30 mins, but quite frequently, a guide would start talking about some of the works, and you could just follow if you wanted. I'm surprised more museums don't do this, it makes the art so much more accessible.

We then finished with a stroll along the Highline, I can see why people rave about it, this is a great park. I wasn't expecting much, but they have done it really well, it's not particularly wide, being the old railway line. But in New York, where there is hardly any greenery to speak of, it's a nice break. And being able to cruise for kilometres without waiting at traffic lights is a real pleasure. I imagine in summer it is completely jammed, there are sculptures all along, and lots of seats, and a few lawn areas. I can see why people are keen for something similar in London.

An exhausting beginning

View from the Top of the Rock

The first couple of months of this year have been fairly insane. In the first four months of this year we have only been at home for six weekends. I think it's time for an extensive home consolidation period. This was partly due to me having the chance to work from New York for a month. I couldn't say no to that after all! New York was an interesting experience. I know it's one of the great cities of the world, I just really don't think I could live there long-term. It was a bit overwhelming. Sooo many homeless people, and so much trash, it's a crazy city. You would think living in London would prepare you for living in New York, but I don't think anything can really prepare you. There are just so many people and very few green spaces. I mean sure you have Central Park, but that's really kind of it, if you were further south on the island, there really wasn't much else in the way of greenery. Not even just random sidewalk trees. That I think was one of the big differences for me, not having green spaces to escape to. And don't get me started on their public transport.

Very tall

Grand Central at night

You would think Manhattan would be made for public transport, and sure it's cheap on a per-ride basis, but you can easily spend $10 a day if you go out to 2 places. I know New Yorkers go on about how great their metro is, but it's really not. I feel a bit sorry for them, not realising how much better it could be. Do they realise there are metros in other cities where there aren't rats frolicking in the disgusting, stagnant tunnel water, that it is possible to convey information to travellers at the stations and on the trains. I thought subway design was a solved problem, but in New York it's this weird dystopian joke. They are providing this service to you, but kicking you at the same time. I suppose public transport is bordering on socialism, that must make them very uncomfortable. And when there are lines down over the weekend it very quickly degenerates into chaos, with tourists wandering the stations trying to find any sort of information as to how to get where they want to go. I feel the way the MTA staff treats you is symptomatic of the US society as a whole, where if everything is working it's great, nothing to worry about. But as soon as you fall, forget it, you are on your own. You want to get uptown, figure it out yourself loser. It's your fault for not working it out.

Central Park - most weekends the weather was wonderful

But the food was amazing, there is no comparison there. London really has to pull up its socks in that regard. We really got into Yelp, it's so good in New York, if you chose any place with at least 4 stars and a few hundred reviews, you knew it was going to be good. And there were so many of those places around. I have to say, I did eat a lot of burgers whilst I was there.

The buildings are a little fascist

We were staying right in midtown, just a few blocks from Time Square, which I think certainly coloured our view of the city. Most people do not live mid-town, but then I did get to walk to work, and we were only 9 blocks from Central Park, which was awesome. But the noise really got to me, before going to New York I thought I lived on a bit of a noisy street, we'll get one or two cars going past in the evening. But oh man, mid-town is a different level. We were on the 15th floor, and it was still sirens all night long and the traffic never stopped. It was quite incredible. When I got back to London I thought my ears had stopped working, it was so quiet, you almost had this ringing in my ears because they were so used to noise. After New York we spent 6 nights in the bush, with nobody else around, and even camping I had a better night sleep. I think people actually buy noise machines, to try and cancel out the sirens. I just can't imagine that.

Pretty street in Harlem

The first weekend we were there we did a walking tour in Harlem, this I think was our only really organised tour the whole time we were there. It was quite interesting, I'd never been to Harlem before, and it's completely different from mid-town. It's a bit strange, you get on the subway in mid-town and it's all white people, then you go a few stops north and come out, and there are no white people around, and the buildings are all much shorter. I needed to go to the bathroom, but there didn't seem to be a place to go, but there was a hospital across the road, and hospitals normally have bathrooms somewhere. So we go in, and for a moment I thought I was in a prison, it was all weird dirty green tiles, no reception, just a security guard, and bars everywhere. No bathroom, one of the strangest hospitals I've ever been in.

The walking tour was pretty good, the buildings in Harlem are surprisingly decorative, and you get whole streets of the same houses, with the same decorative facade. I wonder how long Harlem will remain as it is, and whether it is in the process of gentrification. It is quite close to the city after all, and it seems still quite medium density.