One week into Boston, oddness.

I've been in Boston for a week, and haven't blogged. Why? Well, I'm oddly out of it.

Can you imagine a small mean looking mythical figure of some sort, tiny and pure evil, with boots of metal, dancing around the inside of your skull? Perhaps a redcap, or something of the ilk.

That's what the last weeks been like. It's come and it's gone, and they sell panadol in giant bottles here, so I've been coping. But its definitely put me out of sorts.

Something else has been making me ill, which has doubled with the headaches (or caused them) to make that wonderful combination of hot, cold, sweaty, shivering and aching.

That's been my week. Hasn't lent itself to making me functional.

Accordingly, I've wandered around Boston a little, enough to really like it here. It's such a beautiful city/megalopolis. I don't feel any of the crowding or danger that was omnipresent in NY. The Big Apple was very much about people being crammed into too little space. Here, it just feels more spacious.

Strangely, some parts really strongly remind me of Dunedin. A lot of the houses are about the same age, or at least show a similar taste in design. That old cold Dunedin flat style, high ceilings, wooden floors, funny staircases. Except here, they keep the places warm, which is nice.

I'm currently staying at a hostel, trying to find some more permanent housing. Before this I was crashing on the floor of a friends room. Couldn't keep that up indefinitely. Looking at some places tomorrow. If those don't pan out, I'll figure out something. I always do.

Hope everyone else is doing well, and had an awesome Feb 29th, the day that doesn't exist.

Rock on.
TB

New York and more.

Before heading for Boston tomorrow, one more round of pictures and whatnot.

On Broadway, even McDonalds is FAAAAABULOUS!

Times Square

M&Ms store! With four walls of pick your own M&Ms

And a Hershey's store too!

The Gershwin Hotel. Sorry, a bit blurry, but pretty cool.

Quarter-circle punch=HOBOKEN!

>

Ground Zero

Lady Liberty. Actually, a lot smaller than I thought it would be. And not animated by the Ghostbusters either.

Financial District skyline.

Watchtower, where Jehova's Witnesses come from.

NY in the snow.

I made a snow angel. It's purty.

A bird. Of some type. That's red. Shut up, I'm not an ornithologist! It's red! On the snow!

Inside the cloisters, a rebuilt European cloister in North Manhattan. It's filled with medieval European works of art and tapestries and is absolutely stunning. Bit of a pain to get to though. Especially in the snow when you have no idea where you are or where you're going.

That's it for New York, ladies and gents. Next (and final stop) in my travelogue is Boston.

 

TB/AC

New York, picture edition

Museum of Natural History. You know who that is out front on the horse? That's Teddy Roosevelt. He was a pimp of a president.

Squirrel! Woohoo!

Ice on the ponds in Central Park.

The Metropolitan Art Museum. What is up with America and neo-classical architecture? It's just bloody everywhere. Ooh, I know, let's throw on a huge column for no real reason! It'll look stylish!

An Egyptian tomb inside the Met. Very cool.

Memorial in Central Park

Apple Store. I was unimpressed that this wasn't actually the store. The store itself is below ground, and the cube just sits above it.

Inside the Empire State Building

Me atop the ESB. Damn windy up there, let me tell you.

The view from the top

The spire (or whatever it's called). That's where King Kong climbed!

The ESB from outside

Museum of Sex. Actually had a damn interesting exhibit on sex and design.

...oh my.

Chrysler Building

Statue in the UN. I think there was meant to be some sort of message implied. Couldn't really figure it out.

Trump Tower. Few know this, but it is actually a miniature version of the diamond Trump used to propose to his most recent wife.

160mg of caffeine in this. It was mighty, mighty potent.

Corner of 53rd and 3rd. If anyone reading this is a Ramones fan, that'll mean something.

That's it for now folks. I'm sure there'll be more later!

Live, from New York

New York is an utterly mind boggling city. I'm struggling to come to terms with how much there is to do here. In the past three days I've been to five museums (three of which were absolutely huge), up the Empire State building through central park, and walked about five hours every day. I'm getting slightly museum/galleried out.

This city is overwhelming though. I've been exploring for these three days, and I've covered a tiny fraction of Manhattan. There's just so much here, especially with food. My lord, so many places to eat. I could live here, and eat out every day and barely make it down Broadway, let alone anywhere else. Every block is filled with cafés, delis and restaurants.

I'm also surprised by how many dogs are in this city. Wherever you walk, someone is out walking their creatures. Many of them are wee toy ones, but there are some proper big dogs too. Dog ownership seems to be huge here, and it's nice that central park has dog sections just for them.

What about the infamous NY rudeness, I hear you ask. Well, yes and no. Most people I've encountered haven't been rude, so much as brusk. And they really don't appreciate you standing still and humming and hawing while trying to sort things out. Some people have been obnoxious, but that happens everywhere. Most of the time I get the feeling they just expect you to know what they know, being NY natives. That it's blindingly obvious, and that you may have been dropped on your head repeatedly as a child (kinda like Chris's first year tutorials). Though, I've seen more people give up their seats on public transit in NY than anywhere else I've been. For kids, old people, everyone. They really seem to care about helping each other out there. Curious.

I'm also amazed at how polyglottal (is that even a word? It is now) it is here. I figured it would be like most cities, mostly English with a smattering of Spanish. But here I've heard more languages in one place than I thought possible. Not just in tourist places either. I've got an okay ear for identifying languages, and so far I've definitely heard Hebrew, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Hindu, Russian, French, Italian, a few different African languages, and a whole bunch that I had no idea what they were. There are times when I've been what seems to be the only English speaker around. It's an interesting experience, and far more diverse than I expected.

And nobody's tried to mug me. Woohoo!

TB/AC

American history, why?

More from Philadelphia, this time wandering around the historic centre of the city. It was astonishing the level of jingoism and almost propaganda that was there. From an archaeological and historical perspective, the buildings are extraordinary, and there are sites of historical import. What drove me to distraction was the sense of self-righteousness behind the whole thing. There's this sense that America discovered and perfected democracy, and that every other nation looks to them for guidance. I found this particularly true at Institute of the Constitution, a swanky museum about that singular piece of paper. They go on and on about how "all men are created equal" (except non-whites and women, but we fixed that eventually, so it's okay), and how it was the first democracy, completely ignoring the precedent set by, at the very least, the Greeks. And they try and wipe over the whole race and gender thing by claiming that since they got it right eventually, it's still fine. Well, I'm pretty damned sure America was one of the final nations to abolish slavery, and not exactly quick off the bat on the suffragette thing either. The entire thing felt like a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. Explosions, sweeping scores, moving speeches.

They also spend a significant amount of time talking about how the people control the Government, the power is separated by the three branches of Government, and how the amendments stop abuse of power. Yeah, nice one guys. Lets completely ignore the problems of rampant gerrymandering, and how the current President has broken the balance of power, ignored the checks and balances, plunged the nation into an illegal war, and violated a number of amendments. None of that matters, we're America, we discovered Democracy!

The Liberty Bell was another of the same sort of thing. An entire building filled with reasons why the Liberty Bell is important, and a symbol of liberty and freedom the world over. Sorry to break it to you folks, but no it isn't. It's a cracked bell. I'll bet 90% of Americans couldn't tell you why it was important anyway, let alone the rest of the world. Turns out it was the bell that they used to call the Philadelphia legislature. Oooh, I'm so impressed.

I'm not trying to be disparaging of American history, nor its importance in terms of the international movement towards Democracy, just that a slightly more international viewpoint would benefit everyone.

Anyway, on with the pictures

The already mentioned Institute of the Constitution

With a huge ol' American flag

Grave of Ben Franklin

The Liberty Bell

Food Time! This is the Philadelphia Cheese Steak, thinly sliced beef, onion and melted cheese with mayo and ketchup on a roll. This was from a small stall called "Mom's", and was absolutely fantastic.

Oh man, donuts are so good. Custard filled, chocolate topped. Wicked.

Valentine's day. Everybody picking up last minute things for their honeys.

Philadelphia: This city bleeds history

In Philadelphia, and strangely enough the city is not entirely crafted out of cream cheese. This is the city that founded America, and it's strange how damned proud the locals are of their past. There really is a sense of self-righteousness here, the whole Manifest Destiny thing, that they were placed in this land by God, and fuck the rest of the world.

Plus it's blisteringly cold. Not as cold as Minneapolis (-11°F before windchill), but I'm just feeling it worse here.

Fantastic Museums though. A bit heavy on the American colonial stuff, but some great sculptures.

Pictures!

The stairs Rocky ran up! And those are fucking HUGE columns in the distance.

George Washington on a horse

The Thinker, in front of the Rodin museum. The stuff in there was entrancing.

The NZ flag on a street lined with the flags of many nations.

Giant Ass Star Wars exhibit and the Ben Franklin Institute. Yes, I'm a geek. You're surprised?

A Gyro from a street vender. Bad lamb, tzatziki, lettuce and tomato on some pita. Decidedly underwhelming, but I was starving and cold.

A statue of Raptors outside the Natural History Museum. Dinosaurs are just kinda cool.

Finally, just for Chris, a comic book shop. On the sidewalk. In the snow, rain and frozen rain. I don't know what the deal was, but that's pretty hardcore.