I guess getting as much rest as early as possible once the symptoms become present is the key to recovering from a flu, my body was still in travel mode, or my mind willed my body to do it since I knew I couldn't waste any time. But whatever the reason, I recovered from the flu surprisingly very quickly - I think it's the fastest I've ever done it. I awoke just before the hostel stopped serving free breakfast, so I grabbed a few things and then headed back to back. I went in and out of consciousness for the next couple of hours as the cleaning crew came in for the daily cleaning (the typical kind you'd find at a hotel/motel in the US - I found it surprisingly because I wasn't used to seeing a dedicated cleaning service in a hostel before staying in the US). I finally woke up again at around noon, groggy and still a bit warm, but feeling like I could actually head out! And after finishing my breakfast and popping some cold pills, I was back outside, on my way to the MET.
Astor Place. This area became my residence for the rest of my stay in NYC.
The Soupman restaurant I had dinner at the previous night. If you watched Seinfeld, then you'll know who the "soup nazi" is, and apparently, the character was based on the chef who started the Soupman chain (although he's supposedly not anything like the Seinfeld character). Like I said before, his soup was really good (though a bit pricey), but this particular location was a bit strange - it shared its location with a Cold Stone Creamery! Ice cream and soup...strange combination haha.
At Washington Square Park. The park was so close to the subway station and it was such a nice day, that despite still recovering, I felt I just had to see it; I don't know why I didn't just wait until another day. Of course, with my luck, part of the park was closed due to construction (1st photo)! I assume the evergreen beside the Washington Square Arch was there as a Christmas tree, like the one at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn.
I didn't know NYU was right next door to the park. See Columbia University and NYU without meaning to, check and check.
Back outside the MET.
Inside the main lobby. All the people are a testament to how popular the place is. I arrived with about 3-4 hours left before closing time, and there were still plenty of people buying tickets. I read somewhere that it takes at least 6 hours to skim through everything in the entire museum, but figured I could do it in two thirds the time - little did I realize just how enormous the MET really is...
Taking photos in an art museum is a good exercise of photography skills: flash can't be used, there's often dim lighting in the rooms and harsh lighting on the pieces, and there are plenty of perspectives to choose from for most pieces. It also shows the limitations of the camera and lens in use. My XSi really faltered here - the auto white balance really struggled, leaving me to spend a lot of time doing quick colour editing to all my photos from the MET, so some strange colouring may be noticeable in some photos...I guess that's what I get for buying an entry-level DSLR.
I should also warn that there are a lot of photos to follow, the most I've ever had in one series of posts (I have to split this into multiple posts otherwise it'll get way too long). I really rushed through everything I saw, not taking the time to read any of the background info behind the pieces or really get a good look at them, and I can estimate I only saw no more than two thirds of all the public galleries in the museum, and even then, I'm definitely sure I missed a handful of galleries in the area I attempted to cover because of the maze of hallways (and I didn't bother using the museum map). So if one was to read the background info and briefly study each piece on display, it would easily take at least 2-3 full days to cover everything inside, just to give an idea just how many things there are to see at the MET. Now keeping this in mind, I only took photos of pieces that interested me so that I could look at them later on. So putting that all in perspective, there were actually many more photos I could have taken. So with that, enjoy the photos (a lot of effort went into getting these photos up), and I'll try to keep the commentary to a minimum hahaha.
The first section I walked through - even at this point I was impressed with the collection. Walk can I say, I'm a sucker for ancient armour hahaha. Some pretty interesting pieces here, like the eyes (those were kind of creepy haha) and the carvings with missing bodies, body parts, and heads (I guess since not everything could be recovered).
Next section, with lots of very intricate, detailed work (check out the 16th, 19th, and 20th photos). The main hall had plenty more sculptures with missing heads and body parts. The sculpture of the woman had so many missing pieces she looked horribly disfigured (23rd photo). I found the sculpture of the "African youth" quite interesting - it shows how the Greek perceived the Africans (7th photo).
I was now on the second floor. I was actually looking for a way to get to the second floor overlooking the big hall of all the Greek sculptures, but I couldn't find one and ended up in this section.
Finally, I got to the section with paintings! For some reason, I pictured numerous rooms filled with paintings when I thought of the MET, so I was really expecting to see these type of galleries the most when I got here.
Modern, more abstract, artwork. Some very interesting pieces here, like the big shiny concave structure made of hundreds of tiny mirrors (1st and 2nd photos), the sculpture of a man crouching down attached to the side of the wall (8th photo), and the various sculptures. I'm one of those people that can't believe some artists make thousands of dollars with a painting anyone else could make, but makes up some unique perspective that the painting is supposed to show that suddenly makes them an artistic genius, ie. the paintings in the 3rd, 10th, 12th, 13th, and 17th photos.
I wandered into a special (ie. limited time) gallery of Japanese items, including swords, armour, clothing, and artwork. Unfortunately, there was no photography allowed in this gallery (even though I saw some people seek some with compact cameras); I managed to get off this shot at the entrance before I was told photos weren't allowed (I didn't see any postings saying not to?!). I preferred seeing the exact same things in Japan, obviously, hahaha.
I think this is a good place to split up the post. More great photos to come!
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