New Yowrk New Yowrk

D and I have arrived back in Vancouver after our 4-day excursion in the Big Apple. Our hostel was a bit dodgy but otherwise our trip was fantastic. We visited five major galleries (MoMA, The MET, Guggenheim, Neue and Whitney), saw the old World Trade Center site, the Statue of Liberty (from a distance), live theatre, jazz at Birdland and Greg Proops at Caroline's Comedy Club.

Before visiting NY I thought that the subways would be intimidating, Central Park would be full of bums and rapists, the possibility of being mugged was 90% and that the general population would be incredibly rude. It was just the opposite. I was pleasantly surprised at how helpful and polite the residents were, even on the subways. Central Park was beautiful and we weren't (even close to being) mugged.

MoMA was amazing and one of my favorite stops. It was surreal to stand in front of a Rodin sculpture, Van Gogh's Starry Night, Seurat, Monet, Richter, Kandinsky, De Kooning, Mondrian and Klimt paintings. A set of Rosenquist paintings of dolls wrapped in cellophane stands out as a favorite. I saw some incredible art and discovered some incredibly talented artists I'd never heard of. I was more than impressed with all of it.

I think NYC would be a great place to live though you'd need the cash to do it. 5th Avenue's apartments are the most expensive in the world; we found some apartments listed at the $30 million mark. Craziness!!

All-in-all I think I saw the best of New York and I'm sure I'll be back to visit what I missed some other time.