Central Park, The Terminal & The Guggenheim (Last day in New York)

Well yesterday was my last day in the Big Apple (as in I left there this morning). And it was a nice relaxing day, not too much running around, it's good to relax and just chill out for a while.

Goodbye to the Swiss
Well it was literally Michael's last day, which was kinda sad as it's been good to travel around with him and learn all sorts of odd facts, like that Russia has a different width for their rail tracks or that you can actually travel as a passenger on Cargo ships.

So Bon voyage Michael, hope the Atlantic crossing is much smoother than the Pacific one was.

The Terminal
Well after saying 'bye myself and Annemarie (due partly to the effects from July 4th celebration) decided on taking it easy, so we went and saw a movie... The Terminal and you know what? It was a damn good movie, thouroughly enjoyed it... and I think it was based off a real story (perhaps someone can track some details down and post them?)

The basic plot:
A man (played by Tom Hanks) from an Eastern European country, speaking very little English arrives at JFK airport to find out that while he's been in the air, his country has had a revolution and 2 effects have occurred... The US has revoked all visa's from his country, and the borders to his country are now officially closed. Meaning he can't go home and he can't enter US soil... So he has to wait in the international terminal for quite some time...
It's a bit of a romance comedy, but I highly recommend it. :-)

I believe it was based off what happened to a guy in Paris airport who if memory serves had to stay in the Terminal for over 3 months... But I'm not sure of that (could be an Urban Legend)

The Guggenheim (and some chess)
Well not wanting to go back to the hostel straight away (and still having a few hours of sunlight) I decided to wander through Central Park and see if I could actually find these elusive chess players (I've seen them in movies!!!) I did actually find the Chess & Checkers pavilion, and I gotta say, Dupont's Circle in Washington was much better... It mainly seemed a hang-out for the homeless, though there were a few players (and dang they were fast!! Watch out little!)

After leaving there I wandered up for another look at the Guggenheim (as the previous day we'd decided to give it a miss, being skint backpackers), I arrived just as they were closing the doors, but through some creative begging I got a couple of minutes to look at some of the exhibits (I like!), before being kicked out, to the Museum store, which was open for another hour or so... My favourite display was this one with hands (but I won't bother describing it :-P)

Anyways, this post has mainly been for my own benefit to keep track of what I've been up to, but if you enjoyed reading it or any of the posts please let me know, you can post Anonymously (so you don't need to create your own blog), just need to click the small Post Anononymously button at the bottom of the Post Comment page (don't bother creating your own blog).

As always, hope everyone's well, take care from:
B