The Trip in Numbers aka Art Boot Camp

I was away 4 days in Boston and New York City: 1 day in Boston and 3 in New York (with 1 day spent almost exclusively in Brooklyn).

I spent approximately 18 hours in different museums, with the longest individual stints being the Boston MFA and the MoMA at just under 4 hours at each.  I was quite surprised that Van Gogh's The Starry Night was not on view at MoMA, but that was because it was over at the Met as part of the Van Gogh and Cypresses show (shades of Macy's and Gimbel's perhaps...).

The worst time to travel was leaving for the Boston Airport at 4 am (and only catching 3 or so hours of sleep before I headed down to the hostel lobby to avoid missing my cab to catch that 6:20 am flight).

I managed to read 3 books - Shields's Larry's Party, Shamsie's Home Fire and Hamsun's Mysteries, as well as a significant chunk of Thurber's My World and Welcome to It.

I saw Stoppard's Leopoldstadt and the musical Some Like It Hot, both of which did very well at the Tony's yesterday.  (Total Tony's won by these two performance - 8!)  I also saw the 80's group Love and Rockets out in Brooklyn (they were great).  I came reasonably close to catching a movie in Boston, but the timing didn't quite work out, and Past Lives (the one that I almost went to see) didn't seem to have enough action to keep me awake.  I may check it out later now that I am back in Toronto.  We'll see.

I'll probably cry when I finally add all the expenses up, but I certainly economized on my lodgings and mostly ate quite cheaply (food carts, delis and grocery store sushi and even a cup of fruit from a subway vendor).  I also had Vietnamese in Boston's Chinatown and Indian in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and those restaurants were reasonably priced (or at least compared to the alternatives...).  I also got into three museums for free because of reciprocal deals with the AGO (though it seems this has expired with the Gardner Museum in Boston, so I can't count on that next time!).

Money left on my NYCTA Metrocard - $7.25

I took literally hundreds of photos, and I'll post some of the best starting tomorrow.  All in all, a good but pretty exhausting trip.

Time saved at Customs using the tweaked ArriveCan app - 1 to 2 minutes at best.  I won't bother with this on my next trip.

On a side note, I am sure I was exposed to dozens and probably hundreds of people in the museums, the plays and the subway/train, so I took the COVID test when I got home.  Somehow I've come through unscathed again, making this at least 10 times in a row I've self-tested and come back clean!