Tales of The Big Apple 1

A book wanted to be read, so I never got to write anything about New York on the bus to Providence. Now it's time - big time...

New York isn't explainable. It's a thousand cities in one and it's all the stories that everybody has heard many times before or experienced themselves on their visits.

It's the worlds greatest shopping city, art city, walking city, clubbing city, eating city, musical city, tourist city and immigration city... It's all that and it goes on and on and on.

I was very lucky to be able to stay at my friend Sejal's place. I was supposed to stay for a week, but as I already after 2 days started to get minor panic attacks by thinking of how I would be able to do all the absolutely most important things, and as another friend very kindly offered me to stay at his place, I ended up staying for almost 2 weeks.

It's impossible to describe it all, so I've made a selection of experiences and posts below.

Location:W 24th St,New York,USA

Dumbo - Tales of The Big Apple 2

Spending a full sunny day in Dumbo (Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass) with your camera is absolutely wonderful. The empty factories, old buildings and street art are very photogenic. And when you then add, great exhibitions, the best ice cream and a magic sunset - then Im as happy as I get.

Even if I had to wait in line for half an hour. I've learned that in New York it's cool to wait for food - if only it's highly recommended. I must admit, I refused to wait 2 hours for the apparently best pizza.

Here are some of the best captures.











And the sunset - what a sunset...

Location:W 24th St,New York,USA

Walking and cycling - Tales of the Big Apple 3

I walked and cycled most of New York (I could borrow a bike from Sejal). The weather was amazing most of the days - with sun and clear blue sky. Only exception was my 20 minutes at Liberty Island that got me completely soaked.

When walking NYC, you'll easily cover 20 km in a day. I love walking all the way down a street or an avenue. Often, they're many kms long, which means that in one street you'll pass through boheme-rich West Village, fluorscent Times Square, boardwalk-café Upper West Side and infamous Harlem. Or in another street in the Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, where everybody's dressed as in the 1850'ies, middle class white Clinton; african-american Fort Greene and the expat neighborhood Brooklyn Heights with 40 floors sky skrabers.

Another fascinating thing about New York is that you can walk in to one of the expensive galleries on West Broadway (street) in Soho (neighborhood) see a beautiful painting - obviously original - thinking the artist is just a bit too inspired by Chagall, take an extra look at the signature and realising it's not inspiration as the artist actually is Chagall. Or in another gallery see a Damien Hirst painting with a price tag showing155,000 USD.

Location:W 24th St,New York,USA

The rich and famous - tales of The Big Apple 4

On my first night in New York, Sejal took me to an Italian bar and restaurant close to Times Square and the Broadway theatres. I found it very suitable that mr. Big from Sex And The City also attended the bar and bid me welcome.

Location:W 24th St,New York,USA

A very important, early death - tales of The Big Apple 5

My great grand mother was born in Brooklyn.

Her parents were Danish emmigrants, who had married when arriving in New York in 1881. She had three older siblings: Holger, Edward and Lily, and the family tried as so many others to pursue wealth with changing luck.

When my great grandmother was 5 years old, her mother, Amalie, died - only 47 years old. As my great great grandfather, Julius, couldn't provide for all four kids, he decided to send the two youngest back to Denmark. Therefore, my great grandmother - 5 years old - had to say goodbye to her father and two older brothers in New York and cross the Atlantic to Copenhagen. The sisters ended in two separate parts of the family and they never saw their father or brothers again.

Hadn't my great great grandmother died too young, my great grandmother wouldn't have been sent to Denmark, and I wouldn't have been. Our stories are all full of coincidences, but I've always thought this was particular cruel, though still fascinating.

When I got to New York, I realised Im the first of Elizabeth's (my great grandmother) descendants to return to the city. That had a larger effect on me than expected. Therefore, I spent some days finding out, where they'd lived, married and are now burried. I managed to find the church in which my great great grandparents were married.

It wasn't a church anymore, but here's a picture anyways.



And the surroundings.


If anybody's curious, my mother has tried to find descendants of Holger and Edward and whether we have relatives in the US. Unfortunately it's a dead end, so it seems I don't have a rich uncle in America (even if that would have been wonderful).

Location:W 24th St,New York,USA

Impressions from New York

I've spent the past 12 days in New York; infact, Im still here. One week simply wasn't enough. It has been completely amazing and overwhelming, so I haven't had time to write posts for the blog. Hopefully I'll get time for that tomorrow in the bus to Providence where I'll be visiting Marie. Until then, here's some of my impressions from the city that (absolutely!!!) never sleeps.


Financial District viewed from Brooklyn Heights


Keep left right eat shit - sign poetry


Tennis art at Williamsburg Bridge


The Street TV at High Line, a renovated train high line, which now can be walked by tourists and others.


They might be ugly, but they sure are nice to have...


Graduation at Columbia University


Wall Street


Sun set view from Empire State Building

Location:W 24th St,New York,USA

Free museums and americana

The seasons are changing. It was getting winter in the Southern hemisphere, and since winter and me are doing best in small doses or in suitable distance, it was time to move further north. This brought me to the US where I landed 2. May. I spent the first week in Washington visiting my American girlfriend Genta and her husband Chris. Genta has been living outside of the US the past 15 years, so it was quite unusual to see her in her home country.

You can spend a lifetime in Washington, but as I only had a week, I had to focus!
Genta and Chris lives in a satellite town to DC, McLean that is characterized by very large houses and lots of forests and greenery. Genta provided me with a ticket to the metro and directions for getting to The Mall, which runs between the Lincoln Monument and Capitol Hill and where all those monuments and places, you've seen from Washington on film and TV (except The Watergate Building) is situated. Everything is bigger than expected and it takes approximately 100 years to walk from one end to the other, so it's easy to understand why the easy accessible public shared bikes are very popular. The only place that doesn't seem larger is The White House. It actually seems smaller than expected.


Vietnam Memorial

At The Mall are most of the Smithsonian Museums also situated. For those who didn't already know (like me a couple of months ago), The Smithsonians is a gigantic research and museum foundation, which among other things run 19 museums, most of them situated in DC and all with free admission. My first thought was: free admission = boring museums. Boy, where I wrong. I spent so much time at museums during my week in DC. And Im far from finished.

I've visited the Museum of Natural History with dinosaur skeletons, gems in all shapes and sizes, stuffed animals and nature photographs.



It was, by the way, in the evolution section at this museum at a booth, where a researcher explained the differences in the steps of human evolution that a group of creationist teenagers asked him some very critical questions about the validity of evolution as a theory. I was at the same time shocked and fascinated while listening. Luckily, the researcher was used to handle and argument that sort of rubbish, but it's hard to imagine that such pure stupidity is actually walking this earth. In a weird funny way, it's sort of the best argument so far against 'survival of the fittest'...

There where lots of other museums. The museum of American History with the Star Spangled Banner, the history of slavery described through Jefferson's case, the American presidents - and their wives and an exhibition about innovation. Hirshhon is the museum for modern art with Hopper and Rodin as my highlights.

The Air and Space Museum has the Wright brothers' first airplane, Lindbergh's Spirit of Saint Louis, Apollo 11's landing shuttle etc.



And finally The Museum of American Indians, where my brain finally overloaded because of the enormous amounts of information. I still managed to learn the it was the Spaniards who reintroduced the horse to America. I must also mention the museum building itself. It is some of the most amazing architecture, I've seen for a long time! I can highly recommend visiting museums in Washington.

I did get to do other things than seeing museums. In the weekend, Genta and I went to a baseball game: Philadelphia Phillies against Washington Nationals (of course we cheered for the Nationals). Genta thought I should experience som of the real Americana. I totally agreed. It was extremely fascinating. All of it. The game itself, though the first four innings where rather boring because none of the teams managed to do a run. But then Washington had four home runs and suddenly I found myself standing and cheering loudly. The chilidogs with chili con carne, cheese fries and beer. All of it made it a perfect afternoon.


Only slightly frightened by the huge chili dog.


We had perfect seats very close to the field.

Sunday morning, before the traffic began, Genta took me on a bike tour in Washington, so I could see that DC is much more than monuments and the Smithsonian. Even if the picture shows me on the way to Capitol.



And then - New York...

Location:Wrightson Dr, McLean, USA