Monday
I began the week by heading straight into the mayhem that is Times Square. Not a place you'd want to spent much time but it had to be seen for the gharish combinations of big screen video, endless traffic and countless tourists mixed in with the everyday workers. I walked up 7th Av. to Central Park and had my first NY bagel for breakfast!
It's such a nice place to have slapped right in the centre of one of the world's largest cities. The fact you can leave all the crazyness behind and enter a place of relative tranquility is most welcome.
Walking down 5th Av is an experience. Skyscrapers tower above you, mixing with old churches, the gigantic Rockefeller Centre and countless boutiques and emporiums. About halfway down is the Public Library, a grand building that is even grander inside, and feels more like a cross between a stately home and a museum rather than a library.
I rounded out the day by going to visit the temporary home of one of my favourite artists, Alex Grey. With his Chapel of Sacred Mirrors installation currently undergoing relocation to a permanent facility upstate, the East West gallery is currently hosting a selction of hus most well-known works. Having been a fan since I saw the cover of Tool's Lateralus, it was amazing to see his intricate and affecting works in person and I was really inspired and moved by his dedication and vision.
Tuesday
The following day was thirty degrees and gorgeous so I spent most of the day lying in the sun and exploring the vast lawns and lakes Central Park. You could easily spend a few days there and never visit the same part twice and it is well worth a visit to get away from the noise and bustle of the city.
In the afternoon I went to the best bookshop ever. Strand is on Broadway and is massive. They only sell second-hand books but have the largest range I've ever seen and I picked up some bits I'd been after for a while, Katharine Butler Hathaway's lost classic 'The Little Locksmith' and another of my new favourite author Tim Winton's dazzling books. The guy is seriously amazing.
On the way to the bookstore I walked past a children's memorial to 9/11. There were hundreds of tiny squares painted with their own little message and hung on the fence.
Wednesday
I visited the American Museum of Natural History on Wednesday, especially so I could go to the Hayden Planetarium which is part of the attached Rose Center for the Earth and Space. I love Planetariums! They had a presentation on entitled Cosmic Collisions - it was pretty mindblowing with spectacular, full-on audiovisual special effects showing the formation of the earth, the moon, the sun and how our galaxy relies of the magic of collisions. It was all they could do to stop all the school kids there from ooohing and ahhhing and clapping enthusiastically at every bit!
The museum itself is sprawling and in my four hours there I probably only saw about half of the halls. Those I did see however were pretty impressive, from the world's best collection of dinosaur skeletons and some impressive meteorites.
Thursday
I was staying out of the city for the next few days in a sweet little town called Tarrytown courtesy of the wonderful EF hospitality. Thanks Adam! Its only a short hop into the city by train and I pootled down to the Staten Island Ferry to get a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. It was cool to get out of the sea and get a different view of the city.
After the ferry trip, I wandered around the Financial District and Wall St, the Federal Reserve had the biggest American flag I've ever seen draped over the side. An inevitable trip to Ground Zero yielded nothing but a building site full of cranes and fenced off from public view but it was certainly thought provoking.
Friday
I crammed loads of stuff in today, starting off with a visit to the International Centre for Photography which was really interesting if a little small for the money. An exhibition by the Hungarian photographer Martin Munkasci was fascinating. After that I went over to the Fountain Gallery on 9th Av. They are unique in that they only promote and support artists with mental illess, specifically schizophrenia, bi-polar disorders and severe depression. It was an interesting angle and some of the works on show were great. Check out their site for full pictures and further information.
After that I walked across the famous Brooklyn Bridge which gives great views of the city and down the East River as well as lots of opportunities for messing about with your camera.
Moby's teahouse Teany was next on the agenda, 98 teas on their menu and I was in tea-heaven! Mmmmm Orange Sencha :) Met a lovely French guy here called Nicolas who, aside from being fun to talk with, takes rather amazing photos. Check them out.
Saturday
On Saturday me and Adam ventured down to Brooklyn Botanical Gardens for their Japanese festival Sakura Matsuri celebrating the cherry blossom season. They had Taiko drumming, live J-Pop stars, Manga and Anime stalls as well as cute Bonsai, bizarre Butoh and everything else you can think of to do with Japanese culture. The sun shone eventually and we saw some rather random sights as well as lots of rather attractive... plants!
After this we headed out to find a German beerhouse Nicolas had told me about the day before. The Radegast Hall and Biergarten is an amazing New York take on the traditional German beerhouse and only serves german and Belgian beers of the highest quality. The first drink was all the sweeter for the fact that we got a bit lost and walked for about an hour and a half to get there! The beer was outstanding with the Franzeskaner Heffe Weisse being my particular favourite. It had a great atmosphere and we met some nice americans as well as a bunch of crazy Ukranians who insisted on an enthusiastic 'Nostrovia' every couple of minutes!
All my photos from this week are up now on Flickr. Right, I'm off to Brooklyn!
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