OMFG

My trip to NYC consisted of playing pretend all over the city:

1) make-believing I'm hipster in Brooklyn.
2) make-believing I'm cultured in art museums.
3) make-believing I speak Italian to Italian tourists.
4) make-believing I'm Gossip Girl on the Upper East Side.
5) make-believing I'm not a tourist.

Here are some highlights.

Tuesday
I was interviewed while riding the Bolt Bus for a newspaper doing a comparison between the Bolt Bus and Grayhound. So now I've been on TV and in the paper in a span of three days. I think that's the East Coast's way of telling me I should live there. I saw the NYC skyline from a distance and got a little thrill--it's so strange to see a sight as familiar as New York's skyline and realize that it's simultaneously totally unknown. I was dropped off in Midtown and my cousin, C, picked me up for our ride back to Brooklyn. She lives in Sunset Heights, a largely Dominican neighborhood, and we feasted on spicey treats for dinner and drank home-made Sangria while catching up on life.

Wednesday
The walking day around NYC. C took me on a ferry ride to see Lady Liberty, and then we got bagels in a deli off Wall St. Then we tooled around Lower Manhattan and walked across the Brooklyn bridge and back.



After that we did Chinatown/Little Italy, and crossed over to the Village, SoHo, Chelsea, Meatpacking dist., etc., and went to C's restaurant, . We walked for hours, and in one day made it from the tip of Lower Manhattan to Rockefeller Center--exhausting but amazing! Then we went to Sephora to freshen ourselves up with sample makeup and went to this very mod, but surprisingly inexpensive, Thai restaurant for dinner and drinks in Union Square before seeing a movie.

Thursday
C had to work, so I hit the museums. I went to the UES and wandered around until I found a little place for breakfast, and then went to the Met to look at art. I think I could spend a week in the Met, but I limited myself to four hours. The self-imposed time limit made me streamline my visit, and instead of wandering through yet another room full of antique silver from the Edwardian era, I focused on Western art, arms and armor, the rooms decorated in period furniture, and the Egyptian artifacts.



It was an ambitious task, but I managed to get through it all. Some of my favorite art pieces included J.S. Sargent's Madame X, Monet's La Grenouillere, actually, all of the Monet, and all of the Matisse, several Caravaggios, Goya, Ghirlandaio...actually, let's face it, everything is an awe-inspiring canonical work. Then I took a cab to MoMA, which is a super sexy building, architecturally speaking. I didn't realize how claustrophobic the Met is until I went into MoMA. Also, MoMA is better laid out and you can't get lost in it, unlike the Met (I wanted to cry at one point, after circling through two galleries at least 4 times). I can't really compare the Met and MoMA, because they are intended for totally different purposes, but MoMA is pretty hot shiz. At MoMA I got to talk to designer-clad Italiani about Giacomo Balla's The Streetlight, a painting a just wrote a final paper on.



Highlights: Picasso's Les Damoiselles d'Avignon, one of Monet's room-sized Waterlilies, Duchamp's Bicycle Wheel, Oppenheim's Fur Breakfast, Warhol's Marilyn, Johns' America...OMFG. Good stuff. It was raining a little once I got outside, but I couldn't find my stupid subway station, so I had to wander 5th ave for a little while in the rain. It turned into a downpour, and I was very happy to get back to Brooklyn. It was my first day alone in the city and I was very proud of myself for not getting lost on the subway or, really, getting lost in the city at all. New York's layed out so well once you get into Midtown that it's hard to get lost. After my long day of art we had good food and drinks in Brooklyn.

Friday



I went to the Empire State Building; it took 3 hours. I don't want to talk about it.
After that...experience...I met up with C and her friend S in Columbus circle to buy food at Whole Foods for a Central Park lunch!



I spent most of Friday afternoon in Central Park and wandering the Upper West Side, which is where I would live in my dream-life. It's way less quiet and boring than the Upper East Side, but it is still super gorgeous and has awesome buildings. I then booked it to FAO Schwartz and played with all the HUGE stuffed animals, pretended I was Hermoine in the Flourish & Blott's store, and flipped out over all the giant Lego constructions. I felt like I was 5 again.



The best part of Friday was meeting up with my oldest friend, B, in Grand Central. She came all the way from CT to spend the night in NYC with me! What a good friend. We went to dinner with her boyfriend's younger brother and did the tourist thing in Times Square. We got a little tipsy before going to the Toys R Us store, which is on par with FAO Schwartz, and we played for at least an hour. We're horrible when we're together, we act like total children. The Barbie doll section was a big draw for us, as was the Brio section, and the Lego-made NYC skyline.



Then we ran around Times Square some more before heading home, as she had to leave fairly early the next morning. It was so wonderful to see B, one of my favorite people in the whole world!

Saturday
B and I went to breakfast and C went to work. B and I went to the American Girl Doll Store, where I learned that they retired Samantha, my AG doll--WTF! Major failure, Pleasant Company, major failure! Then we went to Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick's Cathedral, which we happened to stumple upon, but was way worth the visit. Gorgeous. Then I dropped B off at Grand Central, which is the most opulent train station I've ever been in, and I went to the NYC library. It's very pretty inside, and I'm so glad I went! Bryant Park is right behind the library, so I went there, and then I took the subway to C's work for free lunch!
Sadly, my days in the city were over, and I had to to to the airport at 4.

Recap
New York blew my mind. I want it, I need it, oh baby, oh baby.