We transferred through Grand Central Terminal, so we took the opportunity to grab a few snaps – sadly, most subway stops in New York are hot, humid, smelly affairs, but Grand Central’s main hall makes up for it.
Vilo in Grand Central.
We eventually got to the Guggenheim, which was well worth the price of admission. Being able to look at original works by artists like Picasso, Monet, Pollock, Manet, Kandinsky and so many more was amazing. It’s an incredibly feeling to look at an original Renaissance masterwork, a piece of art so revolutionary and powerful it defined an entire era of human creativity. Unfortunately, due to the high amount of original (and priceless) work on display, there’s no cameras permitted and there’s a security guard every five feet. It was still amazing.
The Guggenheim - not my best shot, as you can't see the Rotunda nicely. Stupid tree.
After a couple of hours there we headed outside, where much to our surprise, the skies had cleared completely. Seeing as we were right opposite Central Park, and that our trip on Wednesday was rained out, we hopped across the street and made our way to the park.
We entered right at the Jacqueline Onassis reservoir (which is like the size of a small lake) and headed south.
Vilo lurks in the shadows at the reservoir, looking to prey on an unsuspecting jogger. The most scenic spots tend to have lots of joggers, and there was a steady stream of them on the paths here.
I think a substantial part of the appeal of living in New York is the park – it’s simply majestic. To live in the busiest, noisiest and most trendy city in the world is great – having 24/7 access to this enormous expanse of unspoilt greenery is stupendous. It’s so soothing, so beautiful, one cannot help but admire the foresight of the city’s founders to partition off this enormous expanse of land at the heart of the city and turn it into this amazing sea of green.
The massive Great Lawn in the center of Central Park.
We walked from the reservoir all the way to the south end of the park, meandering as we did so. We saw the Great Lawn (enormous), the turtle pond (cute), the Delecorte Theatre and the Belvedere castle (very nice), the boathouse (cheesy) and the strawberry fields (pretty). We walked through The Ramble (amazing, but suffocatingly humid) and just generally had a good time.
We ate lunch in one of the alcoves (BLT and iced tea) overlooking Belvedere Lake and generally chilled out, enjoying the sunny weather.
That's a $7 BLT right there, but well worth it.
If it holds, the plan is to go back on Sunday and spend the day on the Great Lawn throwing a football around.
One of the many beautiful walkways. This one reminded me of Irene.
Tonight we’re headed out somewhere – I’m not too sure where, but I’ve come to realise that to go out and get drunk at a bar in New York is way too expensive for my tastes. Dropping R400 on Heinekens to get a bit of a beer buzz (that’s four beers folks) is simply exorbitant.
I promised myself that I wasn’t going to jew it up when I came here, and I certainly haven’t, but my alcohol tolerance and $10 beers don’t get along particularly well. Anyway, there’s so much to see and do here, nursing a hangover isn’t a particularly judicious use of time.
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