We have finally been to NYC. My wife had a conference to go to and so I tagged along because – well, why not use that not-any-more double occupancy on the hotel room? And why not take the opportunity of someone paying for a flight for one of us to go see a city that both of us thought it would be interesting to see. She, perhaps unsurprisingly, had been once before, but not for a looong time. And I’d never been.
We had a few days of together time during which we managed to meet up just very briefly with one of my friends during the few hours of overlap at the end of her trip to NY and the start of ours (brunch! yay!), see the Amy Sherald exhibit at the Whitney (and a fascinating exhibit by Christine Sum Kim), hit up the MoMA for a bunch of really interesting exhibits (a huge and also fascinating textile work exhibit, a very unusual Swedish artist – Hilma af Klint who did botanical drawings but also added her own I suppose – interpretations of the characteristics of the plants in these diagrams that…yeah, very complicated. Someone I’d never encountered. We also saw an exhibit of Jack Whitten’s work who I’d also never heard of and really should have (Kathryn had, though)) checked out flea markets in Chelsea, and saw both the (relatively) new production of Caberet, and Hadestown. We walked a chunk of the Highline (I’d like to do more of that) saw a corner of Central Park, ate Georgian food (soup dumplings! Yummy), drank cocktails, visited the Transit Museum, and we finally tried NY Pizza (which was…from Midtown which is apparently not the best place to get it and it was fine, but not a patch on Bristol’s old Flour and Ash. Yes, I’m saying it. Y’all can come at me).
The next day I met up with one of my online friends, because I wildly disregard the advice about meeting friends off the internet. I had a great time with her – we got a nice lunch and coffee, chatted, checked out the Brooklyn museum, went to a bar (where Kathryn met up with us), then out for Italian food at one of her favoured local Italian places, then Kathryn headed back what with her actually being in NY to do work, and I went and drank far too much at another bar, then sang on stage.
Yes, that’s right, I am now a woman who’s performed on stage in New York (yeah, yeah, it was just karaoke, but with a live piano so…it counts).
The next day was kinda odd – but nice. I spent it basically finding places to sit, chill and do a bit of writing. The friend we met up with the first day reminded me that NY has a bunch of “public spaces” that are not always well known, and some of which are inside buildings. Most of them are just big patio/park affairs outside buildings, but I was intrigued by the indoor ones. They’re a tax benefit and/or a planning benefit (build taller, take up more of the block, something like that) and so it seems like we ought to be using them. A lot. So I hung out in the one at the Ford Foundation (nicest) and read for a chunk of time (it really needs chairs, the wall’s fine, but not hugely comfortable) the IBM building (less nice, but has coffee and chairs). I also just had a bit of a wander round looking at architecture. Oh I also tried an NY bagel which was much better than my local bakery (but I will say the NY style bakery across town does here actually I think does a pretty solid job), and I unintentionally got to give Arsehole Tower the finger. We met up with some of Kathryn’s colleagues for dinner and then headed out to our third show of the trip – Gypsy (which we scored tickets to a whole 15 minutes before show time and then dashed to the theatre to get in).
And then finally in my whirlwind tour of NY I…left.
Yeah, I went to see another of my friends, but she lives in New Jersey, so on my final day in New York I headed out of town for the majority of the day, wandered around her nearest medium size town (apparently she lives properly out in the boonies), and just chilled and got to meet another of my lovely online friends in person. And then when I got back into town (after one of the most miserably overheated train journeys I’ve been on. NJ? Put some f’kin money into public transit will you?), I managed to make it back in time to meet up with Kathryn and a colleague to briefly visit the Poster House – which is a lovely Poster Museum.
And then today we flew back…
…and it’s nice to be home.
But I’m honestly stunned how much I enjoyed New York. I’d happily go back and spend more time there (although since I walked ~9 miles a day (well, including my elliptical workouts) I need to be more prepared next time lol).
When I get done uploading images (which y’know should be like 10 minutes) they’ll be here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/49965961@N00/albums/72177720326546033
