The trouble with New York is that you remember all these movies and songs everywhere you go - one moment you are are Audrey Hepburn outside Tiffanys on 5th Ave and then you are Marilyn Monroe standing over a subway grate on Lexington Ave and then you are in a Seinfeld episode or even a Woody Allen movie on the Upper West Side. It is amazing just to walk the familiar sounding streets. New Haven is the last stop on the metro so you can get in fairly cheaply and quickly and we stayed in a nice hotel on the Upper West Side, not far from the American Museum of Natural History where Hugh's conference is. It is also close to Central Park which I have never really explored before. I just love it - all the fountains and statues but also the wild woods and lakes. It is sad to see where John Lennon was killed and to see his Imagine memorial and the strawberry fields area, where fans gather to remember him (some unfortunately choose to sing!). Full of John Lennon thoughts, I am pretty sure I saw Yoko Ono walking in the Park one morning - she was wearing a funny blue hat like a rock star's wife and had a friend or assistant beside her and what looked like a security guard behind her, who glared at me when I looked around in disbelief, so I chose not to take a photograph but you will just have to believe me!
We are lucky to have neighbors in our street in Brisbane, who are American and live half of their time in New York, so I meet up with John, who kindly offers to show me his favorite parts of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is fascinating to see his favourite artworks and have another perspective. It is an amazing museum full of antiquities and masterpieces and better laid out than the Louvre but still quite overwhelming. It is another museum where you need to choose a section for the morning and come back frequently - unlike the Louvre, however, it is up to you how much you pay! My favorite museum though is the Frick collection, also opposite Central Park on the East Side, which was a wealthy industrialist's home and his collection of art and furniture is very eclectic and personal - he has Vermeer's next to Renoir's and it is gorgeous! He even had whole French wall panels by Fragonard and Boucher transported from French Chateaux and Hotels as you did I suppose in the good old days! It got me to thinking about what pictures and furniture I would have in my fantasy museum - all my favorites in one place - oh to be a wealthy 21st century Woman of Industry! Like the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, the museum has a lovely central courtyard with an indoor fountain like a roman villa - I would definitely have that in my museum. I also like the size and scale of the collection - a couple of restful hours and no museum fatigue, perhaps in part due to the carpets on the floors instead of marble and no stairs! Also, it is not terribly crowded and you have space and time to enjoy each picture.
Like Paris, New York is a city where people walk and the food is very good - I have a breakfast to die for - lemon and ricotta pancakes with fresh raspberries - divine! In place of the French yummy bread, New Yorkers tolerate vegetarians better so it is easier for me to eat here. For the conference we go out to a great Mexican restaurant and I have fun with the waiter like in a movie when I ask for a Margarita. He asks me what kind - a classic or some other sort and I answer classic, then he asks "On the rocks or blended?" So I say on the rocks of course and still not finished with me, he shoots back "Do you want salt or no salt?" It is hilarious and so New York - instantly I am Meg Ryan in When Harry meets Sally and very decisive about what I want! I haven't ordered a sandwich yet as I need to build up to what bread, cheese etc I want and everyone gets impatient with you - time is money you know!
Back in New Haven, Hugh and I decided to walk to the nearby Long Island Sound shore line in search of birds. Somewhat nervously we walk past railway tracks, boarded up car-lots, underneath free-ways and are among the few pedestrians in this car-dominated world. It is almost like being in a post-apocalyptic world. Very odd so close to genteel ivy-league Yale. From the above pictured jetty we learn that a boat load of kidnapped African slaves finally returned to their home in Sierra Leone after a two year legal battle which helped kick start the abolition of slavery movement in 1839. A Yale Professor of Ancient Languages learned enough of their language to find an interpreter for them - see how useful ancient languages can be!
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