The Buildings of New York

St Patrick's Cathedral

If there is one thing New York really has over every other city, it's awesome buildings. I always feel like I'm in a Batman movie when I'm there. The architecture is just so great, with this weird fascist undertone. We went up the Rockefeller centre, which is right in midtown, and has a great view over the Empire State building. That is definitely worth a trip, and it's so set up for tourists that it's a total breeze getting up there. Though you do have to sit through a cheesy photo shoot before they let you get into the elevator.

We also went across the Brooklyn bridge, this is another must-do on the tourist list. It is a great view back to the city, but they don't tell you that the speeding cars are only a metre or so away, and since everyone else has the same idea, it is completely packed. I wonder if you lived in New York, whether you would ever use this bridge to commute as a cyclist, it looks like an exercise in frustration. We didn't go all the way along, it is surprisingly long, but you can get to halfway pretty easily. The construction is pretty cool, with the big pillars and suspension wires.

View from Brooklyn bridge

Inside Grand Central

You also can't miss central station, this is another great building, it was actually surprisingly empty for the main train station. There is a lot of room to wander around and at night, it really does look good. We did a lot of wandering around New York in the evenings, I was getting a bit smashed at work whilst I was there, so we didn't have a lot of time during the week. But just wandering around for 40 minutes or so after work was a really nice way to destress.

I was surprised the Chrysler building wasn't open for visits, it has to be my favourite building, and has got to be super iconic. You could take a look in the lobby, which was different from what I expected, but that was it. There were no trips to the top or anything like that. I think I was expecting chrome and maybe a soaring atrium, instead it was super low ceilinged with this dark red marble everywhere. It made it feel a bit claustrophic inside, which is not the feeling I get from the outside.

The unexpected lobby of the Chrysler

The 70s stylings in the UN

We also got along to the UN, this was a bit of an adventure to get inside. First you have to go across the road to get visitor badges, they take a photocopy of your id before you get the badge. But the guards doing it are super nice, very friendly and joking, which I wasn't expecting. I was thinking this was going to be high security, very suspicious, and if you weren't the "right" nationality they would give you the third degree.  I suppose that isn't really the feeling the UN is going for, so they must really train these guards well, to do their job without slipping into the authoritarian role that happens to so many of them.

The UN wasn't sitting, so there were no flags flying, and it was actually really quiet. I'm not sure what it's like when all the delegates are hanging around. It must be pandemonium. It's a very 70's building, what with the decor inside, there wasn't a lot to see inside. There was some exhibition around what the UN is doing around sustainable farming and the like, but that was kind of it.

Unusual statue

There are a bunch of cool churches in New York as well, mainly full of homeless people, I guess it's somewhere free, out of the weather. The main St Patrick's Cathedral was quite impressive, but I actually preferred the Cathedral Church of St John the Divine, weird name I know. It's close to Columbia University, and is massive. But it's got this different vibe to it as well. There was this super weird statue in the gardens next to it, and some unusual art exhibition going on inside at the same time. It felt like this church was trying hard to remain relevant to the community. It's not often that there are weird bird statues on the altar, it was almost pagan.

Pagan altar