The Artful Tourists

A trip to New York would not be complete without visiting the magnificent museums. Course, being total culture vultures, we spent the 3rd day of our trip at not one, but three of them.

We hopped the train uptown to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A favourite, I used to come here at least 2-4 times a month. There always something new to see. And I knew that Sean would love it as much as I do.

And I knew exactly where we’d begin – the Egyptian art gallery, housing one of the largest collections of art outside of Cairo. We saw masks, sarcophagi (although no mummified bodies and animals like that found at the British museum), jewelry, the tomb of Perneb and the impressive temple of Dendur in the Sackler wing.

Besides the Egyptian wing, I showed Sean another favourite part of the Met – the European sculpture courtyard.

And as if that wasn’t enough, I made sure he marvelled at the painting of the Buddha of Medicine Bhaishajyaguru in the Asian wing.

It was almost too much for poor Sean. He was awestruck and visually gorging himself on everything. He joked that if he was a cartoon, there’d be steam coming out of his ears, what with so much to process. It was partly my fault, as I was dragging him throughout the galleries, so that he doesn’t miss out on things that I knew he’d love.

It would take us weeks, nay months, to see the over two million pieces in the Met’s mammoth collection.

So many things we still did not get a chance to see.

To our dismay, we had to skip over all the paintings as we were on a strict schedule. That meant not appreciating any of the museum’s 2500 old master and 19th century European paintings. No Rembrandt, Vermeer, Picasso, Van Gogh, Rubens, Caravaggio, Impressionists or Post Impressionists.

I also didn’t get to visit the Costume Institute, which was temporarily closed.

And that was just the first half of our day.

In need of fresh air and a chance to unwind mentally, we took a stroll through Central Park. But not too leisurely as we were coming up to our next stop – American Museum of Natural History.

Saying that the size of the AMNH is huge would be an understatement. There are 46 exhibition halls, spanning 4 city blocks. One could easily spend weeks here too, what with their holdings of 32 million specimens and cultural artifacts.

We started out in my favourite area, the Hall of Biodiversity, with its 100 ft long spectrum of life wall display and the Hall of Ocean Life, presided over by a 94 ft model of a blue whale.

Sean, on the other hand, couldn’t get enough of the life-sized dioramas of animal life in their natural setting. He also thoroughly enjoyed the Hall of Meteorites, as well as, the Hall of Human Origins, which displayed the skeleton of Lucy.

And of course, the piece de resistance, the Fossil Halls, with the world’s largest collection of dinosaur fossils. We skipped through a lot of the other exhibits, just so that we could have enough time for the dinosaurs.

Unfortunately, there was an event planned for later that evening, so the rotunda was closed and we were not able to get up close and personal with the giant barosaurus, which is also the highest free-standing exhibit at the AMNH.

I wished that we had more time there, as we didn’t even get to the rose centre for earth and space. But we did close the place out.

Sean and I were dog tired at this point. And famished. I didn’t care where we ate. I was happy with the first place we see. Fortunately, Sean had the good sense to steer us away from the Shake Shack. (too many kids) and instead, we sat down at Cafe Frida next door, an intimate little Mexican place on Columbus Avenue.

We ordered tortilla chips and guacamole, which was served in a “molcajete” volcanic stone mortar. Sean had the shrimp flautas, crispy rolled corn tortilla tacos garnished with lettuce, salsa verde & guajillo, creme mexicana and crumbled cotija cheese. I ordered the quesadilla with a blend of melted mexican-style cheese on a corn tortilla.

So tired were we that we didn’t notice at first, who sat down next to our table. It was actors Michael McKean and Annette O’Toole. Oh my god. We were sitting next to Lenny from Laverne & Shirley and Superman’s mom in Smallville! Well, I was thinking Lenny, while Sean was thinking David St. Hubbins of Spinal Tap. And we both thought of A Mighty Wind, Best in Show and For Your Consideration.

Photos: WB/CW + ABC

Sean and I were nerding out, but not to the point of fangirl/boy-ing them. I thought that perhaps they were working on a project together, but they’re actually married. All the more reason not to interrupt their dinner. I  mean, they’re just regular people right? Who just happens to act for a living. Well, I’m sure we made an impression with our not so graceful, nay, clumsy exit upon leaving.

Somewhat energized, we headed over to Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts. The Metropolitan Opera was performing Faust that night. Then a funny thing happened. Upon recognizing Lincoln Centre, Sean paid homage to Ghostbusters by dancing around like Dr Peter Venkman, when he was trying to impress cellist Dana Barrett. A second Ghostbusters nod on our trip!

As it was Friday night, that meant that there was no admission charge at the MoMA, as it was generously sponsored by Target. We got there half an hour before closing, just so we could look upon Edvard Munch’s The Scream. It was the last day it would be exhibited and I couldn’t miss that.

Like Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa at the Louvre, The Scream was displayed behind bulletproof glass, in a low lit room. Upon gazing on the iconic piece, I was surprised to see that it was drawn by pastel on cardboard.

Later on, I would read that there were 4 versions made in various media and the painting I thought we would be seeing is actually in a museum in Norway. This pastel version at the MoMA was on loan from a private collector. Also on display was the lithograph print.

I wanted to show Sean my favourite piece at the MoMA and that was the Four Seasons: Spring, summer, Autumn and Winter by Cy Twombly. but to my surprise and disappointment, it was no longer on view.

We did, however, get to see The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh. But that was about it for the MoMA. Again, if we had enough time. Which seems to be the recurring lament of the day.

At this point, my feet and thighs were seriously hating me, but we had one more stop to make. And that was Nintendo World at Rockefeller Centre. Talk about nerd heaven. Gamers on the first floor,  in teams, competing against each other for prizes. Of all the places one could be at on a Friday night in New York. This was their idea of a good time. aAh, games – the universal language.

Sean bought some items and we headed back to Chinatown, utterly exhausted. We had been on the go everyday, leaving around 10am-11am and returning home well after midnight. I’m used to traveling this way – exploring the city by foot – and am glad that Sean was able to keep up.

And he gave me a foot massage at the end of the night. That, right there, was better than anything I could’ve bought in the stores. Yes, I think I’ll keep him as a travel companion.

View more photos of my trip on my Flickr album.