Days 8/9/10 - MoMA, Empire State Building, DBLCAM, Seinfeld diner

So our time in New York had this far been characterised by extreme weather, which started with Monday morning, aka The Great New York Flood of 2013. Or something like that... Anyway, we thought it would be a good idea to walk about 20 minutes in the teeming rain to find a place for breakfast. I had no umbrella, and after about 2 minutes my clothes had become a saturated second skin. The breakfast was good though...

After a change of clothes at the hostel, we headed to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), full of cynicism and contempt for 'art', but we left converted (maybe). In all seriousness I really enjoyed it - the museum was dedicated to multi-sensory forms of art, which included clips from 'The Sims 2000', a video of an elephant unable to get up again (having been pushed to the ground) and some original Warhol pop-art.

The plan for the evening was to head to 'the best club in New York' (according to the impartial hostel activity planner - no incentives on his part I'm sure). However I had shrimp for dinner, was repeatedly ill when we got back and remained bed-bound and feeling sorry for myself for the remainder of the evening. Boo.

 

The next morning brought relief in the form of coffee and a giant pretzel, which remarkably stayed down, so on we went to the Natural History Museum. This brought out the inner child in me, and although I won't go into detail on the exhibitions, there were two space attractions narrated by Liam Neeson and Whoopie Goldberg (!). This, and really cool dinosaurs (yes I have now actually regressed back to childhood) were highlights.

We used the evening to take in some of the more well-known areas of New York, like Times Square, which is completely insane but great. Half-naked street performers, billboards as far as the eye can see, bat-shit crazy taxi drivers and... Well more naked people. We ate dinner at Planet Hollywood (got a picture of a costume from 'The Termintor' that was stored there) and then, when it got really dark, we made our way up to the top floor observatory of the Empire State Building. 

We were recommended the night viewing slot and it really was incredible - views of thousands of lit-up buildings for miles, Central Park and the Brooklyn bridge. Oh, and the GE Tower (for 30 Rock fans). Whilst the view was impressive, the conditions definitely were not; the beginning of a storm brought what felt like gale force winds, threatening all iPhone owners with heartbreak (sidebar - there were loads of people with iPads and tablets, taking pictures from 100s of feet up. I think it's odd). 

We spent the rest of the evening getting back to the hostel. I spent most of it nervously looking over my shoulder and trying to 'blend in' as we rode unaware into the depths of Harlem, having taken the wrong train...

Today has been fun too. We checked out/got horribly lost in Central Park, and visited another museum (Museum of Metropolitan Art). Although jack a I agree it was our least favourite, it gave us ample opportunity to show off our immaturity and maximise the use of 'DBLCAM' (double cam). It's an app I have on my iPhone which allows you to take a picture using both front and back cameras simultaneously. So you can take a photo of an object, and your reaction. For any sensible person, this is a handy app. For us, it has been an amusing tool to be as childish as possible, pulling either stupid or serious faces, alongside an amusing artefact, and then unilaterally deciding it must be funny (regardless of whether it is or not), based solely on the fact it was taken with double cam. Slideshow to follow soon.

This evening we ate at Teds Restaurant, which is where many scenes of the show 'Seinfeld' were shot. I must confess I have only watched handful of episodes, but figured it would be a fun, stereotypical American diner experience. And it was. Eventually... As we took the wrong subway, and then realised we should never have taken the subway at all. But then we got Pinkberry after, and it was great.

Tomorrow a boat tour of the Statue of Liberty awaits, as does the inevitable sea-sickness that will undoubtedly accompany it...