〈2025-01-07〉New York Trip🗽：Day 2

Today was a day of learning the culture.

First I woke up in the morning and took a walk to Levain Bakery. I bought a chocolate chip cookie there. The shop was small but lovely. The cookies were the fist size, crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside, and not too sweet and really tasty. When I was walking to the bus stop, I saw a bigger Levain Bakery shop haha.

After that, I took a bus to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was my first time to take a bus in New York and I was very worried because I didn't know where and how to get on, but I got there. I had a vague feeling from yesterday that traffic in New York is very difficult. Many pedestrians don't obey traffic signals, cars are too crowded......difficult! 

When I stood in line at the ticket center in the Metropolitan Museum, a lady approached me and gave me a ticket because she had mistakenly bought two tickets. I didn't buy tickets online because I wanted to get physical one and keep it, but how lucky I was! The Metropolitan Museum of Art was really huge and had a lot of art on display. I'm the type of person who likes to take my time, so I really didn't have enough time. I joined a Japanese museum guide on the way. I heard that part of the museum's interior is itself part of the ruins. I didn't know that!! I really didn't do any research, so I didn't know what kind of art there was here. I was surprised and happy to see Van Gogh's self-portrait and Vermeer's Woman with a Water Jug on display. I walked fast from one side to the other and looked around, but I really didn't have enough time and it was very regretting. Next time I would like to spend a whole day to see it more thoroughly.

Next, I walked across Central Park to the American Museum of Natural History. On the way there, there was a saxophone player and the mysterious castle. I had actually planned to go to a diner called Lexington Candy Shop, but I didn't have enough time and gave up. I hope I can go there one day. 

I wanted to see the planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, but it didn't be running now, so I chose the Space Theatre as an option instead. But I was too tired from walking around all morning and slept 80% of the time. What a waste😿 After that, I looked around the Museum from one end to the other. Incidentally, I heard that this museum was where Night Museum was filmed, so I watched a bit on Amazon Prime the night before. I was too sleepy and fell asleep halfway through, but I'm really glad I watched it. I was excited to see the exhibits I saw in the film in person. Also, the section on human evolution and the section showing the various animals were great. The animal exhibit in particular was like a zoo because of the wonderful depth. There was also a section on Japan, which was definitely not a mistake, but somehow I felt it was ‘the Japan that foreigners think of’. I wonder if people from other countries would feel the same way when they saw the exhibits from their countries.

After leaving the museum, I checked my email and realised that I had won a lottery ticket for Aladdin on Broadway. But the deadline for payment had already passed within an hour of receiving the email. Really frustrating and sad. I didn't expect to win. Oh my Broadway😿.

There was no point in dwelling on it, so I took the underground to Top of the Rock. It was a beautiful night view of New York City, including the Empire State Building. The wind was really strong, though. I called my friend in Japan there for about an hour. It was fun talking with her for the first time in a long time.

I realised that I hadn't eaten anything since the morning's chocolate chip cookie, so I went to buy  the Halal Guys, the famous New York food cart, feeling like I would be starving to death. I wasn't sure if it was a copy or the original because there were so many food carts that looked similar, but probably it was original......I hope. Then greed got the better of me and I bought a Junior's cheesecake, which had been on my mind since yesterday.

I went back to the hostel with the two feasts and ate half of each. The cheesecake was rich and soooo good. If it were cheaper, I would eat it every day. The other half is for breakfast tomorrow.

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