Winter Trip - New York

The desire to take a solo trip had been growing for several months - I felt pulled into too many directions at once, constantly feeling rushed and needed an escape from darkness of winter. In January Iceland air ran a series of very good offers, timely spotted by my husband, and, off I went - to New York and DC. The trip turned out perfect - I met with my old friends and got acquainted with new people, did a bit of shopping, sightseeing; viewed art and made some myself. The main reward of it was realization that despite of distance, and not seeing my friends as often as I would like to, the connection is still there and we didn’t grow apart. With constant moving around, whirlpool of meeting and parting with people, this reassurance gives me a lot of comfort.

The New York part of the trip was centered around my college friend, whom I haven't seen in seven years. We did all ultimately girly things: Sex and the City tour of New York, which gave an excellent introduction of different areas of the city; lunching (I didn’t realize how much I miss variety in food), shopping, visiting unorthodox Museum of Sex, which proved that the gap between generations is vast and what is entertaining and light for twenty-something who happened to recommend this museum to me, is uncomfortable and explicit for me; more traditional Guggenheim Museum, where a security guard gave us an excellent lecture on its history, building, and present exhibition, in Russian no less.

The best part though was just strolling around with my friend and enjoying each other company. And here are some interesting things found in New York:

• Tree houses at Madison Square Park - their purpose is unknown. There were too big for birds or squirrels, too high to use as living quarters for humans, plus, there weren't any stairs.

• Fearless squirrel at Central Park. This little creature came very close and tried to stare me down, obviously furious that I didn't offer it a snack. Only a flash of the camera made it backed out a bit.
  

• Olafur Eliasson's work of 2006 " You See Me"at Louis Vuitton Fifth Avenue. Admittedly I feel slightly geeky asking to see an art work at the place where everybody admire craftsmanship of LV creations, but a salesman was very helpful and even told me about "Eye See You" pieces which formed the centerpieces of the Christmas windows in all Louis Vuitton stores during winter 2006. "You See Me" does fit naturally in the space of the store. I couldn't resist asking if many people came to see it and was told that it did happen. (I heard that at present moment Louis Vuitton commissioned Sofia Coppola to design some of the bags.)

Both of my visits to New York coincided with cold weather, I really should try to visit it during spring or summer some day.