New York City Part 3: Central Park, The MET, and Pizza

Central Park, The MET, and Pizza

Walking to Central Park

Amy being reminded of children left behind

First stop is the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  But even though we only planned on exploring central park tomorrow we have to cut through the park in order to get to the museum.  So we took a couple of pictures along the way.

Then we arrived at the met.  What every patron should know going in is that admission is pay as you wish.  You can be admitted to the museum for a mere penny if you so incline.  However this is not noticeably advertised inside as it appears as though the admission is a set 25$ for an adult.  Considering we only had an hour that 50$ would be an absurd entry price.  Instead we opted for a much more reasonable 10$ admission to be boosted later on by drinks in their upstairs bar.

As it turns out an hour for the largest art museum in the United States is not nearly enough time and we found ourselves just hurrying through the insane never ending maze of rooms that the museum housed.

I actually find art immensely interesting as it is a glimpse in time of certain eras.  I find the amount of history gleamed through the different art styles very interesting and if I had the time i'd definitely pick it up as a hobby.

But alas I chose children instead and we instead found ourselves gravitating towards the rooftop bar.

Before I get to that i'd like to setup the pre reveal of the bar.

While going through the museum I did find myself feeling a similar claustrophobia that I experienced both in the subway and the very crowded and busy city.  This being due to the aforementioned maze like layout of the museum.

Adding to this was the incredibly narrow corridor that led to the bar.

While this may sound like a bad thing it actually really enhanced the experience of the bar.
This is because the bar is located on the roof in the middle of central park.

So you go from this narrow confined hallway and are greeted by this:

Its a phenomenal location that the museum is really not taking advantage of.  The bar was really just a makeshift location whos bartenders were both poorly trained and not particularly friendly.  There was also no seating.

However, ongoing criticisms aside, the view was stellar and more then made up for any shortcomings and everyone should make this a must do while in New York.  Heck pay a penny a person and bypass the art if you simply want the view.

By this point we were running pretty short on time (that broken down subway really set us back) and we still needed to eat.  But I had to insist on visiting St. Patrick's Cathedral on the way.

Being an atheist this may seem like a strange insistence.  But I care for a devout catholic in a long term care facility who said I had to check it out.  If for no other reason than his idol John F Kenedy had his funerals mass there.

We were actually fortunate to visit when they were doing mass as the church is currently under renovation but construction is halted during mass.

As always these big massive religious buildings are impressive and awe inspiring while also being incredibly expensive to build and maintain.

I have to stop myself for going into a diatribe about all of this money spent on a building with the various homeless and needy people right outside its doors, as well as Jesus's own teachings on the matter (which include a table being thrown over), but I suppose there was already a pretty bloody reformation fought on this, among many other, premise and i'm late to the fight on this one.

So instead.  Pizza time!

Being from Montreal and being proud of the pizzas it has to offer I sought out one of the better reviewed pizza places to see how New York compared.

Now the best Pizzas i've had from back home have thick bubbly and doughy crust with incredibly jam packed and thick toppings with much grease mixed in there (which is what probably softens the crust).

 Delicious.

New York pizzas are also known for their thick toppings but opt for a thinner crust (but not Italy style thin) and apparently (or foolishly I say) less grease.

Very good and I suspect most would actually argue for New Yorks style over Montreals.  The pizza had high quality ingredients and was very flavorful.

However I much prefer feeling like I've had an entire meal with just one slice of pizza.  The amount of jam packed goodness in just one slice is where my vote goes.

That being said we did have to rush through the experience as our time was quickly ticking by and we still had to return to our room to change and get to the main event of the trip.