cloisterage!

[guingel]

so much to say! which is why I haven't written in a while. 'tis exhausting. ;)

i'll just start and see what happens, shall I? (I'm conserving my energy by using a minimum of capitals. they just really take it out of you!)

I should probably take it easy with the exclamation points, too, come to think of it ;)

Not that I'm particularly exhausted right now or anything.

So, I've redesigned my journal colors, to go with my new icon set. Very silly and fun, and only slightly sacrilegious, as you can see in the icon I'm using. Ahhh, the Merode Altarpiece. :D

Which brings me to my next item of business! That being, the Cloisters.

Katie, David, and I went into NYC on Friday, and it was absolutely fantastic! [dinner break! XD] Whoa! Totally forgot I was writing this. XD 5 hours later. . . After dinner, mom and I played pictionary, then Katie and I watched two episodes of Buffy and Angel, and then I made scrambled eggs (3 meals today! I just had breakfast after dinner. . .) and then Katie and I played some Monkey Island! [as of me finishing and posting entry, it is now midnight. lol.]

Good times.

So, the city. First we went for lunch in Chinatown, at the usual place. Which was awesome, as ever. It just makes me feel so special. Being a regular rocks! :) Then we walked along Canal Street looking for gifts for roommates. I got Corey an elephant, because she collects them, and Katie got Dinah a fan. Then Katie decided it would be a good idea to use the Canal St. stop on the A line. >.> We got off on the Chamber St. stop and then walked south! If you know the A line, you will know that we had a very, very long walk down Canal St. ahead of us. But it was fine. We were really lucky because the weather was just amazing. It was like, 50 degrees. Excellent, amazing, perfect day to be outside a lot in the city. Totally the opposite of crisp, though. Mild, in a slightly soggy way. XD

Which is why we then spent the next forever on the subway! . . . hahaha. . . (that was pained laughter) We were going from below 14th St. to 190th St. Practically the entire length of the A line. The entire length of Manhattan, even. It was a long trip. And the 190th St. stop? Highly dodgy! Most sketchy. You have to take an elevator up, it's so far underground. A manned elevator. Which was slightly weird, I don't usually go to the type of places where they have elevator attendants. Especially not ones who work for the MTA (metropolitan transit authority) and have a little. . . cubicle thing. And then, at the top, once you get out. . . it's very tiny, and there's this blue wall, made of plywood or something, and three doors in it. Like, front doors, not subway station style doors. So, so weird. I. . . don't even know.

It was cool when we got out, though. Cos it was still an awesome day. And there's this great park. But first, some poorly marked areas. XD You have to walk in the bike lane of a road, til you get to this really cool little cafe where we used the bathroom. We were thinking "this is a really small cloister!" But no, it was just the beginning of the journey. Because then you follow some more slightly worrying signs that take you through the beautiful, wonderful, amazing Fort Tryon Park. :) (pictures to follow!) At one point, there was literally an arrow pointing the exact wrong way. We were suspicious, cos, you know, it pointed back the way we came. >.> So we forged ahead a little, and there was another sign, pointing the other direction. So we went on a bit more. . . and saw another arrow! It was really quite like that. XD And then some wandering around taking photos while David got annoyed. We took pictures of the vista. As we called it. Repeatedly. :) Actually, we first photographed the vista in the parking lot of the cafe. Hell, it was a good view! Of, err. . . projects. >.> Still cool. Very NYC.

After wandering around the pathways of the park for a while, enjoying various vistas, there it was! In the distance, we saw a tower, glowing in the sun! We thought, "OK, that looks like a cloister" but it was so far away! It really is quite a haul. Not as bad as it looked, although once you get on the grounds of the cloisters there's a bit of a steep part that was quite exhausting. But I'm so glad it was all there because it was so beautiful! And it was a really good time. And then the cloisters are so beautiful, it's very rejuvenating.

To be brief, they're awesome. All medieval european art. Altarpieces, arches, tapestries, carvings, stained glass. . . all sorts of cool stuff. And totally rocking columns. And squares. Of columns. And gardens! Which we couldn't go into in winter. I must go back in summer! So nice, though. All of it. I mean, not nice. It's too weak a work. Fantastic. Beautiful. I was overwhelmed. It was so much to take in!

And we found the Merode Altarpiece!! The beginning of our trip was spent looking for it. XD And then we waited for some art history students to move away, and made the guard really nervous with Katie's camera (you can see the pictures later) and confused the other people in the room (it was a small room) by standing in front of it for a really long time, laughing our asses off! Oh, tiny Jesus with a mission. He is the kick.

So, then followed another really long subway ride back, although only to 34th St (Penn Station). Only. Hahaha. We amused ourselves in a magazine store for a bit, then caught the train home!


All photos by ambushbug, the lovely Katie, photographer extraordinaire!


the very first picture of the trip, at the train station. If you've ever, ah. . . wondered what an LIRR (Long Island Rail Road) station looks like, this is it! And in the background, Long Island! >.> I included this picture only to show of the magnificent hat that Corey gave me. Ooooh, it is awesome. It's not in any of the other pictures because it was way too warm. Particularly insider the cloisters. For a stone building, it is remarkably well-heated. Really. ::fans self::



Picture 16: Hahaha. "The station will be marked 'The Cloisters'," says Mom. Haha. This was the only sign. And it's really early in the station, so it goes by when you're still going at a fair clip (my new favorite phrase). It was only sheer luck that I saw it. And said, "we're here! get out!" (we'd thought they were a stop or two later). So we got out, and Katie and David see no sign. They didn't believe me! And I said, "I saw a sign down the platform" so we walked down, and walked, and walked, and no sign! They thought I'd hallucinated it, and finally I saw it! And made Katie take a picture. :) Never let someone send you to a subway station without telling you what station it is. -_- Still, I found it! XD Thanks to my eagle-like eyes.



Picture 18: As promised, a photo of the vista from the parking lot. See the projects down there? lovely. It was really nice, though. Really cool.



Picture 27: Another of the view. And the George Washington Bridge in the background. As you can see, this one genuinely is really attractive.



Picture 28: OK, I kind of included this one to show we were there. I believe I had to trick David into smiling for this one, as usual. He was feeling sad. Another of the vista. So pretty! I believe that is the Bronx. I guess it must be. I'm not used to being uptown. Usually I'm looking out on Brooklyn or New Jersey.



Picture 34: (see, I am being selective!) I included this one because it's just so incredibly beautiful, and a great picture, and shows you how awesome Fort Tryon Park is!



Picture 38: Another one that's just really nice. I loved the way the sun was hitting that wall. Battlement?



Picture 42: Yeah, another one that's "look! A picture of me!" I look really good in all the pictures Katie took that day. XD I was having a sexy day. I was looking down at stairs. Slightly vertiginous.



Picture 44: At last! The cloisters themselves! And, when this was taken, we were finally on the grounds! It's a neat building, isn't it?



Picture 50: The entrance to the museum. Just the coolest hallway ever. My dad has a black and white picture of this in his portfolio from when he was close to our age! Wild. It was completely awesome. And we arrived as the drawbridge was going up for a car, which rocked!!



Picture 64: I left out most pictures of the art, because I want you to go and see it for yourselves :) But I did include this one, because it is such a damned awesome, nifty picture! Pretty sconce, too. Sconce? Is that right?



Picture 66: The potential sconce was in the same room as the Merode Altarpiece! :D See, this is the picture that made the guard nervous. And, by extension, me. I felt a little awkward and Katie took a long time setting up. XD Which is why I look a little odd. But still really sexy, right? ;) Anyway. I'm pointing to the famous Tiny Jesus With A Mission. Lookit him, making a beeline for Mary's womb. Or knees, if you want to be anatomical. Lookit where that light is! No one's womb is down there! . . .Maybe it's supposed to be over her crotch! The Angel Gabriel is in the center with Mary, Joseph is making a mousetrap on the right, with which to catch Satan. Because, see, Joseph was the trap for Satan--Satan wouldn't realize Jesus was God's son, because he was, er. Joseph's son. Katie studied the piece. On the left is the two patrons and an incredibly creepy guy lurking in the background.

Worried because you can't see Tiny Jesus With A Mission, because he's so incredibly small? Don't worry. . . we took a close up!


He's incredibly detailed, as this picture shows. It's a little fuzzy, but you can see. I didn't realize that he was a baby. I thought he was fully grown. Because, you know. He's carrying the frikkin' cross with him!! What the hell?? No, really. What the hell? Stick with doves, people!



Picture 77: There were a lot of pictures of the two courtyards, because they're awesome, and of views from them, but I eventually thinned it down to just this one. Which my dad called a "perfect picture". :D I made a really cool icon out of it, too, if you've checked out my new icons already.



Picture 78: Very last picture of the evening. Isn't it lovely? The sun was setting as we left. ^_^ Which gave us just enough time to walk all the way back down to the subway station before it got dark. So pretty.



As you can see, an absolutely lovely, wonderful day. Everything was beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.