New York - Day Three

Monday, 31st March

Seriously I did so much today it really isn't possible to have a nice catchy title.

American Museum of Natural History
Central Park
Hockey - New Jersey Devils v Florida Panthers
Empire State Building

American Museum of Natural History

I caught the subway uptown to the AMNH, also known as the museum in Night at the Museum. I knew I'd like it straight away when I saw the subway station at 81st street:

81st St Station

I like it.

American Museum of Natural History

I made the rookie error of starting at the bottom and working my way up-- which is fine, except that I felt obligated to pay attention to the geography and volcanoes and stuff on the first floor when I should have just skipped through it. I said hi to Teddy and read about his passion as a nature loving guy (he's also the only President ever from New York, so they love him extra), and wandered through the marine life exhibits.

Me and Teddy

I like this guy.

Life...

 They have exhibits showing different habitats and the creatures that live there. Oh and a model of the largest known tree.

Giant earthworm

Desert

Trust me, it's huge.

Then there are a lot of rocks. Pretty ones! Also ones from space! There is a story about a meteorite (smaller than the one below) that reads "On October 9, 1992, a brilliant fireball flashed over Peekskill New York, startling fans at a high school football game. Nearby residents heard a terrific crash as a rock the size of a bowling ball dropped from the sky onto a parked Chevy Malibu, piercing the trunk and denting the driveway beneath it. Seconds after the crash, the stone was found near the car's crumpled trunk, still warm and smelling of sulfur". Try explaining that one to your parents.

Minerals are pretty

Meteorite!

Stibnite. I just thought this was awesome.

Then you get to the hall of mammals. Which is super fun because there were ones from North America and Africa that I'd never heard of before, so they were really cool to see!

Alaskan Brown Bear

Alaskan Moose

Bison and Pronghorn

They are marvellous displays. I was very impressed.

Giant whale. Just hanging.

Mountain Nyala

Eastern diamond back rattlesnake:
Hazard to humans: dangerously venomous

I went through the special exhibition on poison, which was really fun-- looking at venomous creatures and plants and the use of poison through human history and literature. For example, going through the list of ingredients in Macbeth's witches' brew and noting how deadly it would have been, or pointing out that Cleopatra was far too knowledgeable about poisons to have an asp bite her to death-- that would have been really painful, violent death. They thought it was more likely she took a more painless poison. Or more fun facts, the fruit of the Manchineel tree are poisonous-- you are advised not to stand beneath the tree when it is raining.

These owls are creepy.

Alas, I had no gumgum.

Would not want a stampede of these guys.

At the very end of the corridor, once you go past information about cultures in Asia and the Middle East, you get to the Pacific, and finally you get to meet the Easter Island Head. He seemed cool :D

On the fourth floor you get to the dinosaurs. Very impressive! What's cooler is that they are for the most part the real bones, which is just super awesome. I mean, dinosaurs!!!

Chart showing which bones are real...

In this big guy here!

Do not get in a boxing match with this guy!

I don't know how long I planned to spend at the Museum. It ended up being about four hours. It was really fantastic, I loved it so much! When I left (which was somewhat difficult because I couldn't find the entrance I'd come in on, problematic because I needed my coat back) the sun was out and it was gorgeous so I rented a bike and headed out into Central Park.

Central Park

I'm so used to my Copenhagen bike I kept forgetting that my main brake was on my handlebars, not via back peddle. It was nice to have a full seven gears again though! As it turns out, bike isn't a terribly practical way to get around the park because you aren't allowed to cycle on the footpaths (which is reasonable), and most of the grassed areas were closed for winter recuperation. But it was useful getting back to the downtown side after I'd wandered uptown!

I got excited at the first squirrels I saw... then saw more and more everywhere! :) Notice the giant hunk of ice there-- it had been snowing the week before and clearly not everything had melted yet! (Oh, yeah, it was about 10 degrees all week. Beautiful weather!!) Who knew that New York actually had green space?


It was nice just enjoying the sunshine, wandering around, seeing people playing basketball, running, rollerblading, running pushing a pram (nice resistance training there. I really didn't realise how huge the park was. But when you have almost no other green space on the island, it makes a lot of sense.

Isn't that sweet?

The Reservoir.
I didn't make it further uptown than this :(

Far more water in the lake than in the fountain!

Alas, the puppets weren't performing. Belvedere's castle was originally built as a look out point over the city. It clearly isn't one of the highest sites any more!

Swedish puppet house

Belvedere Castle

I could spend ages sitting here.

Hockey! New Jersey Devils v Florida Panthers

I made my way to Penn Station, New York, and caught the New Jersey Transit train to Penn Station, Newark. Yes, they are both named Pennsylvania Station. Like seriously who does that? Not to mention that New York could easily be confused with Newark. Anyway, so I successfully made it to Jersey and followed the crowd to the Prudential Centre for some hockey! I chose hockey over basketball because it was way cheaper and an excuse to go to Jersey.

Inside the Prudential Center

Go Devils!

Really cool when they entered the ice!

I was sitting next to two middle aged ladies, 15+ season ticket holders, and after mentioning that it was my first game [not strictly true, but first NHL game!] and I was from Australia ("Oh my, you're from Australia? Fran, it's her first game, she's from Australia! It's so great you chose to come to Jersey! Rangers games are boring, the Devils are so much better!") they helpfully clarified some of the stuff that happened, like why everyone started chanting "kill" (it was a Panthers power play [a Devils player was sinbinned] and the aim is to "kill the penalty". It's more or less the equivalent of parking the bus for the time they are down a player, effectively 'killing' the Panthers' chance of doing anything with their advantage). It was way easier to follow than the handball!

Hockey hockey hockey!

I had a really great time! The atmosphere was one of the best I've ever experienced at a sporting match! I love indoor sports because it feels so much more electric, and the crowd at this one was fantastic! Classic announcer voice, a salute to the armed service personnel in the crowd, and four different sauces with which to eat my fries! New Jersey ended up winning 6-3 (having blown a 3-0 lead to 3-3) and the crowd went crazy every time the home team scored. Greatest goal celebration:

My autobot has red eyes.
Closest I could get to a devil! 

This guy does it better.

Two members kids got to ride the Zamboni :D

The Empire State Building

Madison Square Garden

Guess where I'm going?

Desolate and abandoned and perfect.

I caught the train back to Manhattan and seeing as it was the first clear night and I didn't know if I'd get another, I decided to go to the top of the Empire State Building. (I wanted to go to the Top of the Rock but it closes earlier). The ESB is open every night until 2am, the last elevator goes up at 1am. But even at 11pm it's pretty empty-- it was nice to walk straight through all the velvet ropes I'd imagine are full with people during the day. First, you catch the elevator up to the 80th floor where there is a short exhibit about how they built it, and contains plans and designs and things. The whole building was completed in a little over a year, mainly because they kept employing as many people as they could because it was the Depression, and would work through the night, storms whatever. We were then waiting in the line for the final elevator when a lady said "so you can wait for the elevator, or take the stairs", so myself and a bunch of other people walked up the last six flights of stairs to the 86th floor, the main observation deck.

Simply spectacular.

Yes it was pretty cold up there but with my trusty coat and scarf and ducking inside out of the wind every now and then it was more than bearable. You kind of don't notice the cold when you're standing on top of the world, looking down on humanity and wondering how the hell we managed to build something like this-- this being the ESB but also the city itself. Bravo. Simply beautiful.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how to properly do a Monday.

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