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Thursday, Jan 02, 2014
We headed out and took the bus to Central Park (again, I love the metro in the city once I figure out the maps and apps). Along the short walk to the Met, I took some snow photos. Now, the snow was staying on the ground.
At the Met, we headed in and I walked up to buy my ticket. I handed the lady $25 and she asked if that was how much I wanted to pay? Huh? I was confused a second. OH YEAH! $25 is RECOMMENDED! I had totally forgotten Jim's advice. $5 is the minimum. But heck, I'm not poor and the Met is a great museum. Hmm. I said, “Let's make it $15.” Fair enough. It was certainly worth that and more.
The place was just massive! Well, maybe the size of the building isn't exactly the Louvre, but each art piece or case has so much information that it was impossible to take it all in. Eventually, I opted to just get a cursory glance at each section and then someday return for more. The Egyptian area was amazing in that I wasn't even aware of how much interesting things survived all the thousands of years. The American Wing had a lot of colonial works and some great furniture as well. What was impressive were the rooms dressed in the respective era. It felt like you could just walk inside the room and back in time.
Once done at the museum, we walked over the Grand Central Station. We headed to the Shake Shack and met up with Jeff. Normally I don't eat much fast food (that's essentially what it is), but I did have a burger and about half a shake. It was darn fine eating, I must admit.
Jeff and I headed over to the discount ticket booth in Times Square to see about getting tickets for a show. As Once was supposed to be good, we asked about those tickets after waiting about 20 minutes in line.
$240.
Come again?
For two tickets? (We needed three, but also figured our other friend wouldn't be too keen on that price).
And I wasn't keen either.
I could afford it, sure, and I don't mind spending wildly on occasion, but it was just the principal. To me, I can't enjoy something if I vastly overpay for it. I'm not saying something like that isn't worth the money for others. To each his own. It's just not something I want to spend that much for. And given that the seats could have been poor ones, there was another risk I didn't want to take.
However, there was still the box office itself to try. Maybe there were cheap tickets there.
Or maybe there was a line stretching halfway down the block.
What was incredible was how bad the weather was getting. Evidently, it didn't stop people from getting out and seeing a show. Well, another show wouldn't be happening on this trip, so we decided to head down to the Rockefeller Building and see how long the wait was to get to the top.
Actually, not long at all. In fact, there was no line at all. Apparently, bad weather does keep people from the Top of the Rock. We bought tickets even though the lady at the ticket counter was nice enough to mention that the view was limited due to the snowstorm.
The elevator ride is in a word...FAST! I only wish I could see outside and gauge the speed of it all. They have a neat ceiling video display, which is okay too. At the top, you head outside and into...
The cold bitter windy snow!
Actually, they have great glass walls which do a fantastic job of blocking the wind. However, the cold was of course still there. I took some photos and video and enjoyed the view. Sure, it wasn't far, but it was still amazing. The snow whipped all around us and one could see the intensity of the wind by how it circled all over the place. The view, as someone would later point out, looked like something out of a “Batman” movie. Almost unreal.
We then went to the top level, where there is no glass wall. Up there you could really take in the chaotic energy of being up so high. You're about 850 feet up in the air. That's something to take in.
On the ground, there was snow. It was quite slippery. However, they had walls around the upper level and the lower level was much larger so there was no chance of heading down even faster than the elevator.
In time, the digits were beginning to seize up; thus, it was time to go back down again.
Below, we exited the building and entered the cold, snowy streets again. Now, the snow was really coming down. I could feel it building up on my clothing and making things wet. This would not do. However, we were on a quest for an Irish Pub and needed to locate one fast.
At long last, we located a nice Irish bar/restaurant and went inside. This was the spot. Our first order was simply that of Guinness. They weren't full pints, but maybe ¾ of a pint. It's funny, but in London, it's hard to get any other size except a pint. Here, I'm not sure what the logic is. Heck, very few are driving in downtown Manhattan so it can't be because of that.
From the pub, we could observe a little college bowl games taking place in other parts of the nation. In time, the others were done with their dinner so they joined us at the pub (also, a restaurant). I think one of the best parts of that place was just being out of the cold and snow. Plus, having a few Guinness beers is also a bonus.
Afterwards, it was back out into the cold night. We returned to Times Square and saw all the usual stuff: the lights, the crowds, the entertainers. And this was all during a crazy snowstorm. New York City doesn't sleep and doesn't turn off for snowstorms either. Traffic did seem lighter though.
Soon, Jeff departed to head back to his hotel, and we all returned back too. At the apartment, I packed up my things and tried to fall asleep early, but had no luck with that.