The first thing on our to-do on Sunday was the Met. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the most famous museums in the world! In retrospect, I wonder how I agreed to go to an art museum (I'm quite aesthetically challenged) but it was a good decision. It is impossible to cover the Met in a day, or even a week. There are so many exhibits that Tai and I spent ten minutes figuring out which we could and should cover in 3 hours. The Roman and Greek exhibit was out (Tai just went to Italy in June) and the Egyptian exhibit is sort of a blackhole, so we saw the Photography section, along with the Frans Hals exhibit. I have very little knowledge of artists and art in general, but you could make out that Frans Hals was exceptional. As was the entire Impressionism section. A little harder to understand was the modern art. I think I have come to accept the fact that I will never truly appreciate modern art, but there were a few pieces that appealed to me, in ways unknown. David Smith in particular. Also, the Andrew Caro exhibit on the roof. All his work was made from scrap metal and what seemed to be industrial parts, but it was striking to say the least.
After 3 hours of walking non-stop, we just wanted to plop, so we went to Central Park, found a shady spot, and took a power nap. Relax happened, now refuel was necessary. So just off Madison Avenue, we found a great tiny coffee shop called Via Quadronno. Authentic Italian, it served us great coffee, an outstanding panini and delicious tiramisu. The best meal of the trip for me, even with the Malaysian fare at gobo the previous day.
Refreshed, we went to Empire State Building. I've technically been to the Building before, but I was still very excited. It's 1250 feet high, and took only a year to build. Seriously! From the 86th floor, all of New York city was in front of us (actually, it was around us) and man, was it magnificent! Something about being so high in the air, atop a feat of engineering genius, in the midst of all the lights and the skyscrapers gets your adrenaline pumping. Something very Fountainhead-isque about it!
Technically we did take it easy. Just the Met, Central Park and Empire State. Still my Achilles tendons were making their painful presence felt. We went to a relative's place for the night, where Tai had two bowls of shrikhand and I had one along with three scoops of ice cream ( eh, I'm on vacation, and the relatives are very good at the aggrah part!). It was 12 30 by the time we reached our beds, and crash is what we did, again :D
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