Grand Central and Times Square

The Grand Central Station embodies the spirit of old New York in a fantastic way, a time before glass and steel constructions. Built in 1913 in the Art Deco style (a very American version of Art Nouveau), the building is filled with details, ornaments, allegories, figures, embedded in a train station architecture that celebrates progress and directs the viewer's gaze upwards, where a magnificent ceiling fresco awaits: the starry sky.

The Times Square is most impressive at night. High-rise walls with monitors flicker in bright colors, huge screens illuminated by spotlights advertise entertainment (musicals, movies, computer games or electronics). It feels like your browser is opening fifty different pop-ups at once. Pure sensory overload when Brad Pitt promotes a watch (was it a watch?) in an 80-meter format, at the same time a 'only' five-meter tall Mickey Mouse attracts visitors to the Disney Store, competing with Coca Cola red that illuminates the square in a different light. Unreal, to borrow from Postman, we amuse ourselves to death. After almost stumbling over a curb, I narrowly avoided a moving car as well.