< Notes...

When we visited New York, we went to The Met. Ever since, and every once in a while, I get an email from them offering me membership. I would love to be a paying member, but what good is it to me, if I am near 1,000 miles away from it?

I have to say, those days on NYC were also a health “retreat”. I mean, look at how many steps I clocked in each day, and I ate just once a day. Yes, my legs and feet hurt at night, and it was hard to fall asleep, but next morning I was ready once more.

Talking about the American Museum of Natural History, their dioramas (this is just one collection) are out of this world. Nothing I write, or show here, will do them justice. You need to see them with your own eyes. I strongly recommend those two museums, The Met, and the AMNH.

The The Metropolitan Museum of Art (colloquially known as The Met) is amazing, and we didn’t even begin to get a glimpse of it. It is in our list of places to visit again when we return to NYC. Likewise for the American Museum of Natural History, which we also visited, and “saw”.

Though trains (subway and above ground) are very efficient and plentiful, in and around Manhattan, when it comes to their state, cleanness and overall sanitary state (for trains and their stations), there is no comparisson to those in London, Berlin, or Tokyo, to mention a few. NYC trains and stations are in a state of disrepair.

Yet, there is no better way to traverse the city than taking trains. Owning and driving a car in NYC is borderline pyschopathic—which, coincidentially, could also be said about Tokyo.

Kid happened to notice first, before I did, that there are quite a few people around Koreatown (where the hotel we stayed in is situated) seemingly doing nothing. Moving boxes with one side to the other, conversing while the third one works, walking in and out of a building, or simply hauling containers on a small hand car around. We found the reason for the last; they are pop-up vendors that sell street food, and we caught them working on their setup.

There isn’t much one can do with only 3 days in NYC. The impression one can get from New York is also bound to be skewed because, again, how can judgement be made for such huge city in only 3 days? So, I understand that I will need further visits to have a better idea of it. Considering we only visited one borough, and didn’t explored it on its entirety, well, we know next to nothing about it, right?

The bad: always something being built, or repaired, noisy, smelly, kind of dirty, expensive. The good: people from everywhere—truly a “melting pot”, lots to eat, and see. Transportation (subway and trains) is excellent. I mean, you take a train and get off at decent walking distance to anywhere you might want to go. The layout of Manhattan is delightful, there is no way to get lost.

We spent the last four days in Manhattan, NYC. Apologies in advance for the notes about it that will soon follow. I myself like quieter, cleaner, cheaper cities. That is not to say I didn’t like it—I did!—but it wouldn’t be my first choice to live in. The kid, on the other hand, said he “wouldn’t mind it at all”.