Another lovely day, a little cooler. The weather has been perfect really, not hot, not cold, short sleeve shirts and shorts every day. On a recommendation from our guide we walked to MOMA, The Museum of Modern Art. Wherever possible we have walked instead of trains or UBERs, trying to get rid of some of the excess kilos. The walking is pretty easy, you can't get too lost with the street naming system, except for emerging from the subways where it takes a little while to bet your bearings. MOMA was brilliant in sections. One floor was particularly good, with Picasso, Van Gogh, Seurat, Manet featuring, but the entire floor of Frank Lloyd Wright architectural drawings was given a pretty swift "So Long." There was also some highly suspect modern art that had me scratching my head, the goat inside a tyre for example and the off white canvas with seven lines painted on it. It is probably genius, but it was a little lost on me I'm afraid.
After MOMA we skipped down to the New York municipal Library. It is big and full of books. The kids section has nothing on SPC Junior School and I didn't see one single purple pod.
Then it was on to McSorleys. It was Marc and Tracey's local when they lived here in the eighties and it is unique. Opened in 1854, it has kept it's original two beers, light and dark, and apart from soda that's all you can get. When Michele asked did they have any Prosecco he said "not a drop." Sawdust on the floor, ancient ice chest, antiques and sepia pictures everywhere, it was a real experience.
Then all hell broke loose.
Maryanne noticed that the date on our theatre tickets for Book of Mormon was Tuesday. Last night! Ahhhhh!
Michele was immediately on the phone and stayed there for over an hour pleading with them to take pity on us poor Aussies, we got tricked by the International Date Line, we travelled across the entire world just to see the show, we don't want a refund, we just want six seats somewhere in the theatre tonight. Finally, very kindly, they sold us upgraded seats cheap. Burned, but at least we would be seeing the show.
It was fantastic. When they said it would be "confronting" they were right. But hilarious. Funny, funny, funny. Best I've seen in ages.
Day Eight
Everyone went out and I watched Game of Thrones. I had to catch up because Facebook is throwing out spoilers non stop, so I watched the last two episodes almost right through. It was nice to relax in front of some gratuitous violence.
Brunch at Katz's Deli. I have never seen anything like it. It is like Boxing Day Sales in Sydney, a battle just to get in the door. A ginormous establishment with a conga line of carvers making sandwiches with tons of meat, cheese, mustard, fillings and hundreds of people shoulder to shoulder. Michele took on a coloured lady in the queue and I thought to myself "you on y'own honey chile" and pretended I didn't know her. It was a mere misunderstanding.
Ate our Reubens in a dodgy park, then we split - boys off to the baseball and the girls to a show "Kinky Boots."
Our train uptown showed us the seedier side of Manhattan as it goes through Harlem, the crowd is a little darker and things are edgier. We sorted out the tickets, then over to Stan's Bar, the iconic Yankees Bar. It only opens for Yankees Home Games. Everything in the bar is a Yankees item, the beer is cold and the people friendly. We sunk a few, then over to the stadium, found our seats and settled in. It was a pretty good match, but baseball is a little on the static side for the uninitiated. But the hype throughout is unbelievable. Organ music, chants, constant speaker noise appears to be there to keep you awake. There is a limit of two cans of beer per purchase, but the cans are enormous, so it is a very silly rule. Yankees won 6-1, so the crowd was happy. We lost Marty on the way home in the crowds, but, incredibly found him among the millions at Grand Central Station. Yay.
So, to celebrate we decided to sample a local bar's stout, then a late night curry at "Curry in a Hurry" hoping to not run into our Bangladeshi friend. The Aussies have just gone down to them in the first test.
New York has been....need a new adjective, dear reader, any suggestions? How about magilicious? Amazoid?
On the train to Boston right now. Yay.
No comments:
Post a Comment