Tuesday, June 2nd - Culture Starts Today

I decided after all the wonderful 'hanging out' I'd done, that I needed my last 2 days in the city to be culture days – e.g. the theater, ballet and a couple of tourist attractions I hadn't seen in previous trips.

I was up and out bright and early – first stop, the UN Headquarters for one of their tours. I'm going to do a separate post on my UN experience – mostly because I was quite disillusioned and it really, really wound me up ... I'll put some kind of disclaimer on the post – Sue on her soapbox, read at own risk.

After the UN, I walked up through Midtown East towards Central Park. When I'd been in New York before with Citibank, I'd worked at the headquarter building on Park at 54th ... I wanted to walk by again and reminisce a little. The crazy thing was that I had actually brought good shoes with me so that when I walked in the fast paced work energy of that neighborhood, I would feel like I fit in … so I stepped into a little diner, bought a bottle of water and tried to subtly change my shoes. Then I'm out, walking along, all purpose and business like ... for all of about 10 blocks ... at which point my feet hurt and I thought, what the f*** am I doing, and proceeded to change my shoes ... there's an ego lesson here somewhere I'm sure!

Central Park is incredible – I'd only ever skirted around the edges before – this time I walked through about half of it ... it is huge!!! It was a hot day and the park was beautiful – definitely a welcome haven of cool green within the chaos of the city.

I made it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art – a museum I'd always wanted to see but never made it to until now. It was beautiful from the outside – a magnificent building. But inside, I've never been so overwhelmed ... it is huge and, I've been in a lot of museums so feel ok saying this, the most difficult to navigate museum I've ever been in ... There were two things I was able to find that I absolutely loved – the impressionists section which was really quite incredible. And then, my favorite, the roof garden – it was stunning with the most amazing views over Central Park and the buildings of New York along the edges. They also had a very cool exhibit there – very funky modern art sculpture – almost like wild tree branches strewn over the patio. When I was there, all I could think was what an amazing place for a cocktail party or reception – it just wowed me!

That evening, was the theatre – a little political intrigue which I thought appropriate given the theme of my trip ... I saw Mary Stuart, an English production and the story of the last few days before Elizabeth signs Mary’s death warrant. It was a powerhouse play for the two lead actresses – including a fictionalized scene between the two – with great performances from the original English cast – both Tony nominated.

I was exhausted by the end of the day – and energized all at the same time- I do love New York!