A day at the MET: Part II

Let's continue!

Back in the hall that led to the paintings and modern art area (this was the only way back out of this section).


Overlooking a hall filled with giant sculptures.


Now in a section focused on Christian artifacts.


I think at this point, I was passing through 2 different neighbouring sections, one on Christian artwork and the other on classical furniture; like I said earlier, it was a maze of hallways.


I managed to find my way into the hall with large sculptures that I had passed by earlier on the second floor. I really like how the 3rd photo turned out; shooting fast enough to black out the background really emphasized the look of anguish on his face.


The section on the other side of the hall that I wandered into. I found the sculpture of the baby to be really creepy looking hahaha (3rd photo).


This area focused more on Native artwork. The big wooden sculpture suspended in the glass case looked like some weird alien to me hahaha (last photo).


This section focused on pieces from Africa. Some pretty interesting pieces here too.


I had somehow looped back around close to where I had started, and this time, I managed to find the stairwell to the second floor overlooking the big hall with all the Greek sculptures. There were a lot of smaller artifacts here too (1st photo).


Down the long hall that led to the big square hall - I previously skipped going down this area too.


Passing by the main staircase set at the centre of the museum's main lobby. Just to give an idea of how much I missed, I never got to see what was at the top of those stairs.


Leading into another area with Christian pieces and artwork.


A huge section dedicated to more Christian artifacts. It might be hard to tell since I brightened a lot of the photos, but it was really dark in here; I'm not too sure why they were trying to create such a Gothic setting... Some very interesting pieces here too. There was a giant Christmas tree completely decorated with Christian ornaments and a large display around the base having to do with the Nativity scene. Unfortunately, no photos of the tree were allowed, which I assume was because this was a special display they probably only put up one time a year, and there were even guards are the tree to prevent any photography, so I had to shoot it from far away (12th photo).


I managed to cross back into the area focused on classical furniture, though I didn't see any of this the previous time.


And I ended up back in the hall with all the large sculptures, so I figured I might as well take some more photos of sculptures I didn't look at the first time (like I said, I skimmed many of the pieces).


I had to turn back around if I wanted to see new areas since I had seen all this earlier, so I made my way back through the section devoted to Christian works and artifacts. I spotted many additional interesting pieces of work, like the massive collection of small engraved tablets arranged in a particular order that I think were of the Christian saints (6th photo, I don't remember exactly since I stopped just to take the photo). Passing by the Christmas tree again, I couldn't pass up the opportunity and decided to risk taking a photo of it close-up (7th photo). Obviously, I couldn't take one directly in front of it, but I managed to get a pretty good shot from the side - so much work obviously went into setting it up that there was no way I could not take a photo to remember it!


At this point, the guards began actively herding people out of the museum because it was about 10-15 minutes before closing time. I found myself back at the main stairwell, and stopped by the side of the exit to take this one last photo, and then an over-aggressive security guard jerk started harassing me about no photography since the museum was closing now...as if me stopping that one extra second, already right next to the exit, to take 2 photos of the flight of stairs - not even artwork (this I would at least see some reasoning behind being stopped) - would compromise the entire integrity of the security of the museum hahaha; I wasn't blocking the exit and I didn't see any postings of a rule stating that no photography was allowed while exiting the museum...some security folk take their jobs way too seriously (*cough*failed cop tryouts*cough*).


Walking through Upper East Side. Even at night the area seemed really high-class hahaha. I was heading for the subway to get to...


Grand Central - 42nd St. station? Well not exactly, but it was as close as I could get to Times Square using the subway from where I was in the Upper East Side.


And even though I had already taken similar shots before, somehow, these photos looked different than my previous photos (I think it's because of the different ads they play on the giant screens).


I don't know why, but I felt like taking a peek inside the Toys'R'Us. I couldn't believe how huge it was - it had an operational ferris wheel ride at the entrance!


Why did I go back to Times Square? Well besides the fact that I loved the area, I wanted to try eating at Ellen's Stardust Diner (which I had passed by several days earlier). There were always long lines whenever I passed it the previous days, but there was no line this time, so it was like it was meant to be haha. A '50s styled diner with singing waitstaff, what's not to like? The food was actually pretty good - I had the guacamole chicken burger (last photo; it's blurry because I took it with my phone) - but pricey, but the obvious attraction was the singing waitstaff, who all rotate singing classic hits from the '50s - '60s eras. My waitress (3rd photo) had a decent voice and got a few of the customers to join in, but the server with the styled hair gave the most entertaining performance, jumping up on a section divider and belting out these comical wavering sounds to make fun of the song he was singing (4th and 5th photos).


Back in the subway, there was a woman singing opera! Even the cops were watching hahaha. I had been doing pretty good so far, but I didn't want to push it, so after dinner, I headed straight back to the hostel for more sleep. The day ended up a lot more productive than I had initially thought, which is always good!