Why is New York called The Big Apple anyway? Wikipedia have the answer 🙂 I had breakfast this morning in a charming little place called The Muffin Place on Upper West Side. Sesame seeds bagel with jam was simple but very tasty. Sitting enjoying my bagel, my eyes wandered around and fell upon this poster on the wall:
May 17th march (click image for large version)
There’re a couple of reasons why I chose to take a picture and also to actually comment on this poster in my blog. My Norwegian readers will of course note the date and see that this is the day when most Norwegians are out marching anyway. The 17th of May is the Norwegian Constitution Day and this is celebrated with parades throughout the country. Another reason was the poster design. I’m not a design expert so anyone reading this that knows anything about design will have to forgive any mistakes. It’s just that it reminds me of Soviet and socialist propaganda poster design. I really don’t mind – I was just a little surprised by it. The AIDSwalk is a worthy cause though, and I hope they get lots of people to join them in the walk.
After breakfast I went for a looong walk in Central Park and snapped shots east and west with my new camera:
Flowering trees on the Upper West Side (click image for large version)
Not really in Central Park yet, I just liked the flowering trees and the sense of springtime they inspired in me 🙂
Sunbathing turtles in Central Park (click image for large version)
This however is in the Park, just next to the Belvedere Castle on Vista Rock.
Belvedere Castle, Central Park (click image for large version)
View from Belvedere Castle, Central Park (click image for large version)
Morning in Central Park (click image for large version)
This picture is just a quick catch of a couple of girls enjoying the spring mood this particular morning. I believe they were sisters and that their mother was standing a little to my left taking a picture.
I think Central Park is a beautiful place and it’s great that the citizens of NYC have this place where they can get away from the noisy streets. It is a little surprising though that they have several roads open for car traffic crossing through the park. Why couldn’t they have made this one place totally free from car traffic?
Traffic through Central Park (click image for large version)
Next, I walked straight in to a photo shoot. It was at first not obvious who they were actually taking the pictures of, but when I came a little closer I could see the model stand there looking extremely bored.
Photo shoot in Central Park (click image for large version)
Photo shoot, who's the model? (click image for large version)
I didn’t recognize the girl – anyone know who she is?
Later that day I went to meet my friend Sture downtown. This is I guy I haven’t seen in almost 15 years, except for in a birthday party a couple of years ago. We hooked up on Facebook some weeks ago and he saw from my status messages that we were in New York at the same time!
My friend Sture in West Village, Manhattan (click image for large version)
We had lunch at a nice little place in West Village and had “Norwegian Eggs Benedict”, which meant that they were served with smoked salmon instead of bacon … 🙂
After a very nice chat with Sture, I walked to Ground Zero and jumped on a tourist sightseeing bus. One of my fellow passengers snapped a picture of me.
Sightseeing in New York (click image for large version)
Here’s a few shots from the rest of my day:
Grafitti (click image for large version)
This grafitti caught my eye. It’s one of two things I saw in Manhattan that was directly connected to the current financial crisis. The woman in the top left corner is saying “… they say to keep on shopping, but they won’t give us any more credit …”. The other thing was this:
US National debt counter (click image for large version)
Someone is concerned about public spending …
That’s it for now 🙂
