despite a large amount of time spent giving
tours and standing watch and giving more tours in new york... we did get a certain amount of time off. the bright lights and stunning view of midtown manhattan tempted us from the ship to come and explore new york. i did alot of walking... all over the place... little brasil, the library, grand central station... all these grand buildings with classic architecture from when people cared about what buildings looked like and didnt try to build wierd things... people would thank us on the streets as we walked by. which was pretty cool... sometimes. it was pretty funny, i was walking down the street and i passed a sma
ll street sign under the sign for 46th street that said little brasil, and i was like this is little brasil? its mostly 3 or 4 restaurants and a shop selling brasilian things... good restaurants though. i can recommend one of them, i ate there three times... ipanema restaurant was great... and their fejoada was wonderful... you could split it between two people and both walk away full.
i went to the metropolitan musem of art again. i went when i was in college and it
was cool, but i spent alot of time running from crowds... it didnt seem that crowded when i went this time... at least compared to some of the art museums in london... i spent alot of time looking at the greek and roman statues... i ignored most of the rest of greek and roman antiquities section. completely ignored the egyptian section. i saw a couple cool old paintings in the american section, but the way they had them displayed behind glass in big shelves was annoying... then they had a special exhibit on american paintings... so, i got to see some cool ones about bargemen on the mississippi.
to get to the museum i had walked through central park. the leaves were changing colours in central park, alot of leaves were already on the ground, but, alot of them were still there changing colours, so
that was nice to look at... and walk by. the weather was in the high 60s and that was kinda hot with lots of walking in service dress blues...
one of the other fun things i did was go up to the top of the rock. the day was clear, b
ut kind of hazy, but it was cool to go up and see the sights. there were alot of people up at the top of the rockefeller building from all over the world. it was cool to see everything, but once you had finished looking around and taking your pictures, i didnt see much point of hanging out for hours. i had gotten a discounted ticket at 10 dolla
rs... supposedly some people got to go up for free in uniform, but i didnt really get anything for free except some dinners that some of my friends bought me. not that it bothers me free things from strangers is kind of odd, it just boggles my mind how some of the other members of the wardroom got all sorts of stuff for free. i'm glad that our sailors got yankees game 6 of the world series tickets, giants tickets, knicks tickets, and hockey tickets... since alot of them would never get those sorts of experiences otherwise. but, i can pay my o
wn way. i also really didnt try to get my picture taken with every single celebrity that came on the ship. i did get it taken with miss new york (she happened to walk by the quarterdeck when i was on watch) and mike and mike, Captain, CHENG, MP2 and I gave them a tour of the ship... apart from that, i didnt really do any of that. the wierdest place pricewise was the met. they dont have actual prices. they have recomended prices (exorbitant recomended prices) i paid 10 dollars. the recomended was 20. 10 dollars is more than i paid to go to the hermitage. which is supposed to be an expensive museum...
i left new york this time, actually liking the city. i had been 3 times before and really had not liked it. too big, too many people, too crowded. it still is, but there is a smittering of decent architecture. its not berlin, london, dresden, praha, or wien... its just a big grid with lots of tall buildings... which isnt that impressive... but the fact that you can order indonesian food online and have it delivered pretty much is awesome. i spent enough time there now, that i can find my own way around... its a grid, its not hard. but, being there on my own gave me the reason to walk around on my own and not brainlessly follow my yankee long island friends around the city with no idea where i was... so, yeah, i'm looking forward to going back to new york... on the ship. but, i'd still rather go somewhere foreign.
tours and standing watch and giving more tours in new york... we did get a certain amount of time off. the bright lights and stunning view of midtown manhattan tempted us from the ship to come and explore new york. i did alot of walking... all over the place... little brasil, the library, grand central station... all these grand buildings with classic architecture from when people cared about what buildings looked like and didnt try to build wierd things... people would thank us on the streets as we walked by. which was pretty cool... sometimes. it was pretty funny, i was walking down the street and i passed a sma
ll street sign under the sign for 46th street that said little brasil, and i was like this is little brasil? its mostly 3 or 4 restaurants and a shop selling brasilian things... good restaurants though. i can recommend one of them, i ate there three times... ipanema restaurant was great... and their fejoada was wonderful... you could split it between two people and both walk away full. 
i went to the metropolitan musem of art again. i went when i was in college and it 
was cool, but i spent alot of time running from crowds... it didnt seem that crowded when i went this time... at least compared to some of the art museums in london... i spent alot of time looking at the greek and roman statues... i ignored most of the rest of greek and roman antiquities section. completely ignored the egyptian section. i saw a couple cool old paintings in the american section, but the way they had them displayed behind glass in big shelves was annoying... then they had a special exhibit on american paintings... so, i got to see some cool ones about bargemen on the mississippi.
to get to the museum i had walked through central park. the leaves were changing colours in central park, alot of leaves were already on the ground, but, alot of them were still there changing colours, so 
that was nice to look at... and walk by. the weather was in the high 60s and that was kinda hot with lots of walking in service dress blues...
one of the other fun things i did was go up to the top of the rock. the day was clear, b
ut kind of hazy, but it was cool to go up and see the sights. there were alot of people up at the top of the rockefeller building from all over the world. it was cool to see everything, but once you had finished looking around and taking your pictures, i didnt see much point of hanging out for hours. i had gotten a discounted ticket at 10 dolla
rs... supposedly some people got to go up for free in uniform, but i didnt really get anything for free except some dinners that some of my friends bought me. not that it bothers me free things from strangers is kind of odd, it just boggles my mind how some of the other members of the wardroom got all sorts of stuff for free. i'm glad that our sailors got yankees game 6 of the world series tickets, giants tickets, knicks tickets, and hockey tickets... since alot of them would never get those sorts of experiences otherwise. but, i can pay my o
wn way. i also really didnt try to get my picture taken with every single celebrity that came on the ship. i did get it taken with miss new york (she happened to walk by the quarterdeck when i was on watch) and mike and mike, Captain, CHENG, MP2 and I gave them a tour of the ship... apart from that, i didnt really do any of that. the wierdest place pricewise was the met. they dont have actual prices. they have recomended prices (exorbitant recomended prices) i paid 10 dollars. the recomended was 20. 10 dollars is more than i paid to go to the hermitage. which is supposed to be an expensive museum...
i left new york this time, actually liking the city. i had been 3 times before and really had not liked it. too big, too many people, too crowded. it still is, but there is a smittering of decent architecture. its not berlin, london, dresden, praha, or wien... its just a big grid with lots of tall buildings... which isnt that impressive... but the fact that you can order indonesian food online and have it delivered pretty much is awesome. i spent enough time there now, that i can find my own way around... its a grid, its not hard. but, being there on my own gave me the reason to walk around on my own and not brainlessly follow my yankee long island friends around the city with no idea where i was... so, yeah, i'm looking forward to going back to new york... on the ship. but, i'd still rather go somewhere foreign.
