fighting against time

Today the fourth and final day in New York took its beginning with a trip to the Spanish Harlem, where we went to El Museo del Barrio - a museum with latino artists. It was a guided tour on the exhibition Caribbean Crossroads, with discussions about some of the paintings. The guide showed how the latino artists had different point of views, and where they got their inspiration from. Many of the artists had painted places from their original country, although one of them were changed a bit and made much more colorful. All in all it was a museum with very different, and some very beautiful pieces of art. The fact that they have been painted by latinos gives an very different point of view than for instance the pieces of art at MoMA.

The spanish team at El Museo del Barrio

After the visit at the museum we went for a walk in Central Park - the enormous and world famous park in New York City. The feeling of suddenly standing surrounded by trees and bird song was such a weird feeling - no cars honking (the New Yorkers are VERY impatient), no traffic, but just nature and people having a good time in the wonderful weather we were so lucky to have.

Some of the very beautiful places in Central Park

Thereafter our own very intense program began as there was so much yet to see in New York. So we quickly grabbed something to eat and took a subway to the end of 5th avenue with Malou, Kamilla, and Anne, where we saw the square, transparent Apple Store. It was quite an unusual building. And not far away there was Nike Town, which didn't consist of more than 4 big floors! It's definitely American all the way through.

The transparent Applestore

Later after a bit shopping in these stores we went, after quite a walk, to the corner of Bedford and Grove Street in Greenwich Village to - of course - see the apartment that have been used in FRIENDS ;D Although it's not the apartment, they have been filming for the inside shoots, as the set is made up in a studio in LA. But this apartment is used every time they want to show that they are in their apartment. We are all huge fans of FRIENDS, so it was very fun to see the actual apartment.

              

The three of us in front of the apartment

But with very little time, the day continued to SOHO - a fantastic shopping place with all the great stores. Of course we had to prioritize a bit as we in no way would be able to visit all the stores we wanted to. But MANGO, Converse, Topshop, Adidas, and Victoria's Secret were some of the places that we wouldn't miss.

The American flag made of Converse shoes - kind of cool!

Tired - but happy - after a lot of shopping;-)

We hurried back to Times Square to eat dinner for the last time in New York City - it was very cozy and we had a lot of fun.

Unfortunately we didn't have much time, as Kamilla, Anne, and I (Sabrina) wanted to end New York with a trip to the 86th floor of The Empire State Building. After some quite long queues where the tiredness really had gotten to us, we finally got in an elevator and went up. And suddenly all the waiting time were forgotten in the light of the beautiful view from a balcony around the building. You could look down and see lights everywhere! To see so much of New York City from above was nothing more than amazing.

The amazing view from Empire State Building