observations from new york

Going over the Williamsburg Bridge (complete with yellow taxi, hell yeah!) from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Anyway, BACK. Hello, hi, how are you? I see some comments have built up that I'll attend too and need to get back on with reading etc, but I think I'll prioritise washing and getting back to the right time zone first if that's cool. In the meantime here's a few photos and some of my observations from New York.

VISITING THE MoMA WAS BOTH INCREDIBLY INSPIRING AND SCARY AS FUCK

Seeing extremely famous works of art in real life is always incredibly surreal, Gogh's Dolce Vita, Rosseau's the dream, Friday Kahlo, Mondrian, Picasso, Matisse... You see where I'm going. And then we came to the work on the cover of the MoMA's current programme, The Scream by Edward Munch. Now this to me was incredible, to see this close up and real. Every fucking stroke of the pastel. But instead when we got there, the painting itself was illuminated by a thousand flashes and lights from cameras and phones and the crowd of people around it were stood back, not because of an enforced fence, but to get a better picture. The irony and absurdity of travelling all the way to New York, fighting your way through the crowds to the exhibition and then to simply stare at it through another screen just, well, I was speechless. So after standing in front of their flashes for a few moments to really see the piece I moved on. But man I wish I'd got their picture.

THE BEST WAY TO DEAL WITH HIPSTERS IS TO EAT

Ok let's get more specific. One of my main aims in NY was breakfast food. Waffles, pancakes, French toast, eggs, whatever, as long as their was an option to swamp it with maple syrup I was there. One of the unexpected consequences of this is that the places where we wanted to go (mainly Soho and around or Williamsburg) are like hipsterville. This is probably an outdated method to refer to them, but I'm not too down with the kids so let's just say, all in black, apple laptop, iced latte and granola (if any food at all). Sitting in the middle of all these skinny hipster boys and girls (often though not always vegan) and eating plated piled with stodge, calories and bacon is like THE most satisfying thing ever. If you don't understand then you're probably "one of them". (Just kidding guys you know I love you really)

FREE WIFI BREEDS ROBOTS

I don't know if its because of the "hick" town I live in or because I'm at work most weekdays but the whole going to a cafe with a friend to sit opposite each other on laptops thing really hasn't caught on here yet. And I hope it never does. In fact Grey Dog had a sign up about not hogging seats and using laptops (which sort of makes up for putting all our pancakes on one plate...). But in Williamsburg we were looking for a bun and a cup of tea and were faced with two places both with rows of people's backs against the windows, laptops in front of them. We dubbed them the robot cafes. I guess if you don't have Internet at home, but to actually sit there with someone else and barely look up just seems like, unnatural to me.

CONEY ISLAND IS EVERYTHING I HOPED IT WOULD BE

After looking at what to do in Coney Island before we went and realising that everything was still recovering from Hurricane Sandy, I was a little apprehensive about what we would find. But to be honest everything was back together, Nathan's had a sign up saying that it would all be fine and since everything was due to open in time for Easter like a week after we were there, it was all done. And however cool it would've been to see it in full swing, there's just something about seaside towns in off-season that intrigues me. It's sort of the appeal of the abandoned park in Berlin, even though there were more people about. The creepy face too was just perfectly eerie and seeing the houses on the way as well as being able to go on a beach just 20 minutes out of the city is amazing. I really can't wait to go back and do everything, the museum, the hotdogs, the mermaid parade!

So yes. My birthday in New York was just perfect. It's a city I've always sort of idolised in that way that Europeans do about America and vice versa, but this was something else. I thing I've eaten my body weight in maple syrup, batter, pizza and Mexican food and I've spent enough money on incredible clothes to (hopefully) last me the year. I've also made a little map of my favourite places in New York and Brooklyn, mainly for me but its public so yeah, if you want tips! Shout out to Chuck too who guided some of our best food adventures. And well just phew, 25 hours of travelling there and back makes it almost nice to be home!