The Star-Spangled Sojourn (Part 3): UN Headquarters, The Cloisters, Natural History Museum, and Pop Culture Stuff

- October 14-15, 2015, Wednesday-Thursday (morning.)

- By my fifth day in New York City (click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2), I felt very much at home. I loved how my hostel was centrally-located, with interesting restaurants, stores, and tourist attractions nearby, how I could walk to the subway, reach there in a few minutes, and go anywhere I want with less difficulty (considering how confusing the New York subway can be,) and how I could easily navigate because of the systematic number- and alphabet-system for the streets and avenues. However, by the time I realized this, it was my last full day in New York.

- I started my fifth morning bubbly and excited, and dressed myself like my normal "youth ambassador" getup. With a coat and a tie, I hopped off my hostel on the way to my first agenda, and is probably my favorite place in the whole of New York. (I usually hate wearing, which is why I normally resort to other formal easier-to-wear alternatives like cultural formals, but just to fit in with the formality of the place, I gladly wore them.) That morning, I visited the United Nations Headquarters, which is only a couple of blocks away by walking; since it was windy that morning, I did not become sweaty, as I sweat the whole seven seas with just a little movement.

Took a photo of the Chrysler during daytime on the way to the UN.

Mandatory tourist photo.

HERE I AM!!

Plenty of flags.

Philippines!!

So formal.

- Anyone can visit the United Nations Headquarters, but the foremost requirement is a government-issued ID. In my case (and with many others,) I used my passport. Those who do not wish to book a tour in the headquarters may only visit the visitor center at the basement level, which is just a bunch of UN-related souvenirs and items (such as academic books on diplomacy, international relations, the UN, etc..) Those who wish to book a tour of the headquarters may book online (preferably), or they made purchase tickets on the day itself. Tour schedules are quite strict, so even when the guard and the security people will let you in earlier than scheduled, you may only wait at the lobby (with free wifi) or go to the visitor center first if your scheduled tour hasn't started. I made it a point to buy a ticket to the guided tour, because I wanted to know how things work in this impressive intergovernmental association, and because of my personal interest in diplomatic affairs.

At the lobby with the photo of Ban Ki Moon, the current Secretary-General of the UN.

With the UN flag.

- Tours last around 45 minutes to an hour, and there are tours scheduled every 15 minutes. The assigned guide will take you to some exhibits, galleries, and a walk through of the main meeting halls. More time and freedom to roam around the halls may be allowed, given that there are no on-going sessions for that particular hall.

- The UN (and the headquarters starting with the one in New York) was (were) established after World War II, in order to foster international cooperation, and to make sure that no big conflicts such as the World Wars would ever take place. The UN also created the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in order to make sure that people are able to uphold their dignities and worth, and that all nations will have a common understanding and definition of the basic human rights. Currently, the UN member states are dealing with the Millennium Development Goals, and the Sustainable Development Goals, which are lists of goals related to societal improvement that countries must attempt to achieve within a certain period (examples of these include eradication of poverty, eradication of world hunger, protecting the environment, promoting gender equality, etc.)

Our group's tour guide from Italy.

UN flag and the other flags of the member states.

See the Chrysler??

MDGs!!

'Nuff said.

Hiroshima bombed during the Second World War.

- The main attraction of the UN Headquarters is the General Assembly Hall, where the most important sessions are held. We walked through this hall, supposedly with no photos as there was a session going on, but halfway through the hall the guard in the assembly hall told our guide that we could take photos, as long as we'd be quiet and that we won't go downstairs and disturb the representatives. I was overjoyed, and made sure to take the perfect photo. I felt like home, and I hope that one day, I will be able to speak in the United Nations on something related to cultural preservation and ethnic-minority rights. (Wishful thinking.)

One of the most priceless photos of the trip.

Inside the elevator.

Formal shot.

- The last part of the tour was the visitor center, where we bought souvenirs. Apart from what I mentioned earlier, the postcard booth is also licensed to place a UN-stamp in everyone's passports. The United Nations does not have its own territory, and so the enclosed space of all the headquarters and offices (in NYC, Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi,) serve as the territories of the UN (i.e. they're "international" territories, and do not belong to any state.) Technically speaking, stepping inside the UN Headquarters that morning meant that I stepped on "another territory," which is why they may place a special stamp on my passport like the ones immigration officers use, saying that I "crossed borders" between the American and UN territories.

Had my passport stamped.

The UN flag.

No to violence!!

Last look.

- I left the UN as a happy boy, and passed by a typical American diner on the way back to the hostel. It made me happier. One of the items of my USA bucket list was to eat in an authentic American diner, and probably have typical American breakfast food. As for the diner I've been in, I was startled at the price of a basic American breakfast (toast and eggs); one simple breakfast was around 6 USD, plus an additional dollar or two if one wanted meat (ex. bacon or ham,) when the whole platter and more would normally be 2 USD average in the Philippines. I told myself that I'd cook myself a nice breakfast when I go back to Manila. I also realized that the menu will tell a lot about the owners of the diner. Despite being an American diner, the restaurant was owned and managed by latinos, so half of the menu had Mexican food (and it would be a different case when I reached Poughkeepsie the day after.) I ended up ordering a Thanksgiving platter, which was "thankfully" served everyday of the year. It seemed expensive at first, but it was definitely more reasonable than the 6 USD simple breakfast. The 14 USD (roughly) meal had big turkey-breast slices, stuffing, mashed potato, cranberry sauce, a whole corn on a cob, and a free salad or chicken noodle soup.

Lunch in a diner!!

Turkey platter with my free chicken-noodle soup, and a chocolate milkshake.

The food was indeed comforting.

- After my amazing lunch, I went back to my hostel to change into more comfortable clothes. It didn't take long before I was on my way again, and decided to journey to a less-visited branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, also known as "the Met" (click here for my visit to the main building of the Met.) I was prepared to go back in time for the early afternoon, as The Cloisters is a big treasure chest filled with medieval European treasures. The museum itself, ("cloisters" meaning "enclosed walkway") was designed in 1938 by architect Charles Collens, and was made to look like the French, Occitan, and Catalan cloistered abbeys.

- The Cloisters is probably the farthest point in Manhattan that I've gone to. It's located near 190th Street, and is accessible via subway (the stop is also 190th Street.) To go to The Cloisters from the station, the museum's website suggests riding the bus, but I found out that it is walkable from the station, and many people decide to walk to the Cloisters as well. The museum is a short 10-minute walk from the station, with a scenic view of the Hudson River; it is located in the middle of nowhere (in the middle of Tryon Park,) surrounded by trees, which adds to the "medieval" feel.

On the way to The Cloisters. This is how the NY subway platform looks like.

Inside the train. HAHAHAHA.

At the first/main hall of The Cloisters.

- The exhibit halls of The Cloisters made me feel that I was inside European churches and monasteries - complete with altars, saints, stained-glass windows, and sarcophagi. Come to think of it, medieval European culture, it seems to me, it brought together by Catholicism, especially due to influences of the once-powerful Roman Empire. This is also a reason as to why I've always felt that the European cultures seem similar to one another, although I understand that certain nuances in terms of expression (in art, music, etc.) can be found by those with trained eyes and with a better understanding of European history and cultures. (Western history is my waterloo, as I've always been inclined to Asian history and cultures since I was young.)

Lion stepping on a dragon.

Jesus from Spain.

Weird acrobat.

The original pillars from France.

French walkway.

Altar from Spain.

Statue of a young king.

Nice stained-glass windows.

Sarcophagus.

View of the whole hall of dead people.

Close up of the sarcophagus.

At the garden.

Facade.

More facade.

I absolutely loved the colors of the windows; the other windows had stained-glass images like this panel.

Another larged stained-glass panel.

Woven fabric.

Genealogy of Jesus.

- The main exhibit of the Cloisters is the hall with unicorn tapestries. This series of tapestries is quite controversial due to differences in scholarly interpretation of the significance of the unicorns.

The most well-known piece from the unicorn series.

Medieval weaving.

Goodbye, The Cloisters!!

The Hudson River.

-  At around 3pm, I decided to leave The Cloisters, and hopefully reach the American Museum of Natural History before it closes at 5pm. Since The Cloisters is located in the far north of Manhattan, it took me almost and hour to reach the American Museum of Natural History; the Natural History Museum is located beside Central Park.

- I arrived around 4pm, and I was ready to buy tickets, when the ticket person told me that because I arrived an hour before closing time, I did not have to pay for the entrance fee. I assume that they do this because people who arrive an hour before won't be able to enjoy the whole museum anyway. (The museum is quite big, and if you've watched "Night at the Museum," it might not take long before the exhibit pieces come alive.) With this in mind, I had to quickly scan the museum map, and chose the galleries that interested me more, these being the anthropological and cultural galleries that showed aspects of the traditional cultures of the world, mostly from the Asia-Pacific, and the indigenous Americas. The more-visited galleries, however, are those with the dinosaurs and the giant blue whale.

Indian gods welcomed me at the American Museum of Natural Hsitory.

Ainu mannequin.

Zoroastrian religious costumes.

Replica of the Code of Hammurabi.

Cuneiform.

Genealogy of the Mongolian rulers.

Xiongnu/Hun.

Georgian.

Thai khon costumes and masks.

Indian festivals.

Large olmec face.

Mayan calendar.

Indigenous American costumes.

Traditional American-Indian house.

Wayang kulit puppets from Indonesia.

Sarongs and other brocaded textiles from Southeast Asia.

From the different indigenous groups of the Philippines.

From Easter Island.

Different masks from the northern American groups. I like the one with the octopus the most.

I loved this mask. It shows a face inside but....

It's a toucan-like bird on the outside.

- I whizzed by all the cultural exhibits (and it is during situations like these that being a "shark on land" with fast eyes comes in handy) and so I spent the last few minutes before closing time by visiting the prehistoric animal exhibits (i.e. early mammals and dinosaurs.) So far, I could not remember seeing any dinosaur exhibit as astounding as the one in the American Museum of Natural History; what comes a far second would probably be the (temporary) dinosaur exhibit in Hong Kong's Science Museum that I visited last year (click here to see.) I also stumbled upon the exhibit hall with the big T-Rex and the Apatosaurus (aka "Brontosaurus") until the guards had to usher me and the other remaining visitors to the exit. (I wasn't even able to browse through the museum shop, but heck, at least I go to see most of the museum for free!!)

Ancient pachyderms.

Giant elk; it was one of my favorites as well.

Tricerotops.

T-Rex!!

Apatosaurus.

Ancient flightless bird.

Dinosaur skeletons at the lobby of the museum.

Another one.

Outside.

You can probably feel how tired I was in this photo. Imagine, a large museum in under an hour.

- I went back to my hostel to rest before I met my college friend Nikko for dinner in a nearby Moroccan restaurant (couscous anyone??) It's been a while since I last saw Nikko, and it was great that I got to catch up with him, though we only had a little time to do so. To cap the night, I took some photos of the well-lit Chrysler Building on the way home.    

In a really dark Moroccan restaurant with Nikko.

The Chrysler Building at night.

- Thursday morning was my last morning in New York City. I initially planned to have a relaxing morning before meeting my friend Janus in Grand Central Terminal for the second leg of my USA trip. That morning, I first visited a quiet residential area of New York (Greenwich Village,) and can be reached by hopping off the Christopher Sheridan subway station, or the 4th Street subway station. The main reason I went here was to find the facade of the apartment used in the sitcom "Friends." For those who watch the show, sorry to say that there is no Central Perk (the coffee shop where the main characters usually hang out) below the apartment. There is, however, a Mediterranean restaurant called The Little Owl. It was too early when I went there, so the restaurant was still closed; I never got to try the restaurant. I did, however, stumble upon a few other fans of friends from around the world trying to take the perfect photo of this memory-filled apartment (at least the way we "know" the apartment.)

Saw this gem on the way to the Friends apartment. Wizard of Waverly Place anyone??

"SO NO ONE TOLD YOU LIFE WAS GONNA BE THIS WAYYYYY *CLAPCLAPCLAPCLAP*"

The red one is The Little Owl.

The typical shot used in the show.

With the street signs/lamp.

- A few minutes southwest the Friends apartment is the facade of the Huxtable residence from the late-80s show "The Cosby Show" (obviously starring Bill Cosby.) Many of my peers, all the more the younger ones, may not know about this series since it was shown before we were born, but trust me, it's one of the funniest series I've seen in forever. The themes and dialogues are timeless, so anyone can relate to the show. Also, Disney-star Raven Symone made her TV debut in this show, as the little kid named Olivia Kendall.

- When I arrived at the Cosby house there were some renovations going one. One man who was also with the renovation team sort of looked like Bill Cosby too.

The man looks like Bill Cosby.

The famous Huxtable-residence stoop!!

Can't miss this opportunity.

- Seeing that I had a lot of time to spare, I decided to visit Times Square one last time, and go to the Ripley's Believe It or Not "Odditorium." Metro Manila once had this kind of "freak-show style" museum by Robert Ripley, in Shangri-La Mall specifically in Mandaluyong City, but I cannot recall when it closed. I remembered how I used to be freaked out and scared of the things exhibited. When I visited the Odditorium in New York, I felt like that little (fat) kid again, especially since I knew how Ripley's Odditorium would really place some surprising effects to surprise visitors. There were some galleries intentionally made to look like an "organized-chaotic" office of some Indiana-Jones-like adventurer-collector from the early 1900s; it's the kind of hall where you're not sure if some of those items are cursed or what. That, however, is the charm of the Ripley's Believe It or Not Odditorium.  

Such a fanfare.

With the then-tallest man.

Wax statue of the person who turned himself into a snake.

Vampire woman.

One of the fattest people to ever live.

With Robert Ripley

Voodoo statue.

Death mask of Napoleon.

Pig/boar torture mask.

Another execution/torture chamber.

What goes inside your head.

Face in (probably) formaldehyde.

Ms. Rubber Face.

Shruken heads.

- Finally, I went to Grand Central Terminal to look around, so I won't get lost when it was time for me to meet Janus later that day. I took some photos and familiarized myself with the terminal, before going back to my hostel to get my things.

Grand Central Terminal!!

Constellations.

Facade.

See that detail.

- The Grand Central Terminal was opened in 1902 as a major hub for many train lines. Inside the European-style building, one can see the famous clock above the information booth at the center of the middle concourse, and on the ceiling is a giant painting of the constellations. It is said that constellations are the opposite/reverse of where they are supposed to be aligned/placed, because of a mistake in interpreting the position of the constellations. Setting this fact aside, the terminal itself is a nice place to behold, and the basement concourse is a nice place to behold - for the hungry stomach; the basement is a giant food court.

- I later went back to my hostel to get my things, and returned to Grand Central Terminal. I met Janus at the information booth (with the nice clock on top) at the main concourse, and had lunch. Janus and I had to keep our energies up for our onward destination in the USA. I had to say goodbye to NYC, and I hope I'd get to visit it again in the future. For now, greater adventures in the USA lie ahead. Next stop - Poughkeepsie!! (Part 4 will come up in a few days. Please don't forget to read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here, 7 here.)

Clock on top of the information booth.

Shake Shack!!