....there's moreNYC as I said before is a place of extremes and nothing is more extreme than the prices for car parking and kamikaze driving of the taxi drivers. Come to think of it, London is the only place I have been where I feel comfortable in a cab. Although I'd curse them when I lived there for not 'gahn sowrf of the warter' (crossing the Thames to South London) after midnight and other such transgressions, they are in fact Gods amongst taxistas. They don't take you to drive in robberies like they do in Colombia (don't take one alone Joe!), you can wear a seatbelt unlike Costa Rica where they remove them, they know where they're going unlike Costa Rica, they speak a recognized language, unlike Canada and they don't rip you off unlike Costa Rica, Spain, the Czech Republic and most of the rest of the world. Gibraltarian taxis are also good, but only having about 7 small roads to drive on, they have little excuse.
I managed to get to see the England (47) v. Wales (13) game of the 2006 Six Nations Rugby Tournament in a Irish pub called Baker Street which inexplicably has a Sherlock Holmes motif. A man known for his love of coke but not of craic and not Irish in the slightest. Still, they sell an Irish breakfast (the same as an English breakfast) and I needed to eat some real bacon after going into withdrawal about two months ago.
The Museum of Modern Art is a wondrous place and I was overjoyed to reaquaint myself with Magritte, Seurat, Gauguin, Klimt and Miro. As with many such places, it is really too big to walk around in one visit. If you are nearby, you really must go.
Depressingly, both the Flatiron Building and the Guggenheim were covered in scaffolding, I am passionate about architecture and would love to have seen them naked. I did however manage to catch the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building which are deservedly famous icons. An unexpected joy was Time Square at night, it reminded me very much of the movie Blade Runner, such over the top consumerist decadence, beautiful yet somehow sordid and distasteful.
6 comments:
Doesn't sound as great as I thought...did you purchase any tacky souvenirs? A photo wearing an I Love NY t-shirt, perhaps?
For personal reasons, I bought an Ellis Island hoodie (I'll publish a photo soon enough and was given a tacky fridge magnet, which I may also include if I do a collage of superkitch. Watch this space!
Did you notice the sneaker on the statue of liberty?
j
The statue of libery wears reeboks?
Great pics - I like the black & white ones in particular.
I've had a few Irish roommates over the past few years and the first time one asked "How's the craic?" I had absolutely no idea what he meant. Now I do...mostly.
Jase;
I didn't see the sneaker, but it doesn't surprise me...I am in fast forward this week, and am missing the details.
The Canadian equivalent to Ellis Island (if you can really call it an equivalent, because it's not an island, but a warehouse...) is Pier 21. You can look at their web site...my father came through there and it holds special meaning to me. You should visit it sometime.
Shocking, the commercialisation of everything.
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