Being a New York Resident
One of the best things about living in New York is that you can do everything at your own pace. No stress. Therefore we are slowly going through all the different gems we have heard off, but are also trying to find new once too of course. After waking up fairly late and after having massive amounts of coffee and late breakfast we decided to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As a New York resident you pay as you wish to visit many museums. There are also a lot of other ways to get in for free or for a small fee to a few museums, some of them have free entrance during certain hours of the day and so on. To prove that you are a New York resident at Metropolitan Museum of Arts you can either show them you New York ID or License, or your Library card, or a current bill or statement with a New York State address. Yes you heard right, you can show your Library card. To get a library card in New York City you have to bring a statement or letter addressed to you with your New York address. Once you have a New York library card you can access your culture pass, which can give you free entrance for up to 4 people to a lot of different museums across New York City. You can only reserve two different museums at a time, and you can also only reserve some museums once per year. We utilized this when my dad came to visit over Christmas and new year.
Metropolitan Museum of Arts
As we waited for the subway I watched a rat run towards a huge piece of bread down on the tracks, and then a second larger rat appeared and the fight was one. I am not sure which one of those rats won, but I think the fight was still on as our train arrived. The Metropolitan Museum of Arts opens at 10 am, but we didn’t get there until about noon. There are two admission desks when you enter, as well as two coat hanger rooms. You can also pay your admission by using one of the many screen stations they provide. As a New York resident though you have to stand in line. After we checked our coats we grabbed a map and planned our afternoon. We decided to start with the Egypt section, and then continue into the American Wing and then Arms and Armor. This is kist a tiny part of the whole museum which is 3 floors.
The Spectacular Find
The Egypts are one of many spectacular people that have always amazed me, along with the Mayan, Incan and Aztec. We used to hav a large book at home that talked about everything these different people had created. But I was still amazed when I saw these small sculptures of the Egypts and their life, as you can see above and below. In 1920 a new room at one of the mountain cliffs was discovered. We are talking about 1975 B.C here. I find it incredible. All of the figure were made of imported coniferous wood. Then we continued through the rooms and awed at all of these stone sculptures.
You could also see huge collections of stones and jewelry, but below is my favorite. It is a golden piece with delicate animal heads surrounding it. We glanced through the American Wing, most of what was there we have seen in Alaska and Montana, and we started to get a bit tired. We did walk through the Arms and Armor, and the European Sculpture and Decorative Arts though before we headed out, after abut 3 hrs.
Dive bar and Food
The Metropolitan Museum of Arts is on the East side of Central Park, and we walked through the park to get to the west side. The New York subway system is set up so it’s easy to go north and south of Manhattan, but to go east to west you either have to catch a bus, or walk. Once you are down below Central Park it gets easier to get a subway east to west. After a quick walk through the park we got to the west side and eventually the Dive bar, which I first thought was just a dive bar, but the bar name was literally Dive Bar. We had a couple of beers there before we walked south and towards an indian BYOB restaurant called Alachi Masala. We weren’t too impressed by the food, but it was still good.
Central Park
One of my New Years resolutions, well my only I should say, is to walk through Central Park at least once per week, for my own sanity. Two weeks ago we took a walk through the most northern end of Central Park to the most southern end. We live about 10-15 minutes from the northern end so pretty close to the park. I love all the small trails you can follow in the park. In the northern end of the park you can access the Loch, and in the more southern part the Ramble. Before you get to the Ramble you can walk by the Swedish Cottage, a model school house built in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Another favorite location is the Bethesda Terrace. The Bethesda Terrace, a vision created by Olmsted and Vaux, took about 10 years to complete, and it was done in 1868. There are plenty of statues in Central Park. Balto, one of the Siberian huskies who helped bring the serum for the diphtheria outbreak to Nome. The statue was erected 10 months after Balto and the other dogs completed the run in 1925. Another one is Alice in Wonderland which is close to HC Andersen and the ugly Duckling. You can explore all the sculptures and monuments in the park here.
Do you have a favorite section in the Metropolitan Museum of Arts or in Central Park?
