Friday, June 24, 2011

Live in New York City

It isn't like the rest of the country - it is like a nation itself - more tolerant than the rest in a curious way. Littleness gets swallowed up here. All the viciousness that makes other cities vicious is sucked up and absorbed in New York.
- John Steinbeck
Lone and I just returned from a whirlwind, 4-day trip to New York, NY to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary (June 21st, the summer solstice, the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar). We have now been married for more years (25) than we were single (22 and 24, respectively) -mind-boggling, but in a good way, of course.

We flew via Bogota, Columbia with Avianca (saving approx. $2,000), and despite the long layovers, approx. ten hours each way, the planes were new and comfortable and the staff very helpful. Not quite Korean Air, but then what airline is.

And with the exception of our run-in with TSA agent O'Gara in JFK, the trip was pretty uneventful...as any good trip should be. Mr. O'Gara let me pass through the fingerprint reader only to inform me, after Lone had passed through, of course, that my fingerprints had not registered. In truth, he asked me if there was a reason that I was trying to avoid registering my fingerprints, i.e. if I had something to hide (because his job was to protect the citizens of America), this despite the fact that I had registered my fingerprints on my previous trips to US, a fact of which he was aware. What I wanted to respond was: "Yes, because I just had a double hand transplant", but my wife's clam nature, and our ability to let off steam by joking about it in Danish real-time, prevailed. Once through customs, we proceeded to take the AirTrain JFK into Manhattan, an excellent value at only $5 per ride as well as a quick and stress-free form of transport.

We stayed at On The Avenue Hotel, a Manhattan Boutique Hotel offering excellent value-for-money and, quite possibly, the best location (2178 Broadway at W 77th Street) on all of Manhattan's Upper West Side, walking distance from the Museum of Natural History, Central Park and the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts, not to mention from the Apple Store on Broadway, Zabar's, Big Nick's (2175 BROADWAY) and the Shake Shack (366 Columbus Ave, New York).

And yes, I did purchase a new MacBook Pro (I purchased my current MacBook, which Lone will inherit, in 2007), $1.199 (R$ 1,907.85) in New York vs. R$ 3,500 in São Paulo! Also, to my suddenly-Apple-doubting-Android-loving-planet-awesome-ÜberGeek-friend John Tomizuka: go visit an Apple Store..any Apple Store! People just walk in and buy tons of stuff. It's like there is no economic crisis whatsoever! I have never seen so much money change hands so quickly…and this during the store's least-busy hours. Steve Jobs must have put something in the water! And the Broadway store is one of four Apple Stores in New York! It's simply staggering!

Anyway, in spite of an awful cold, Lone braved a day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Simply spectacular…the equal of any museum in the world, the Louvre, the British Museum. In fact, it blows away the British Museum and that is saying something. While Lone went downstairs to ogle the Greek statues, I saw exhibits from Ancient Near Eastern Art, Arms and Armor, European paintings, European Sculture and Decorative Arts, Modern Art. Incredible!

Finally, back at Alfheim, Esben, who like Lone is suffering from a terrible cold, held down the fort while we frolicked in New York, NY. Hysterically, one of our hens has decided to take home delivery to a whole new level.