New York New York – part 1

I know, I know, you had to wait for this story far too long. I apologize for causing you sleepless nights and problems concentrating on your day to day tasks because your thoughts kept drifting of, thinking about me, wondering how my experience of New York City has been. And because you have been waiting so long, I will not taunt you anymore and continue with a description of my very first, and maybe last, visit to the United States.

Day 1: My arrival

All of you that are loyally reading every story I write already know that my trip by train from Montreal to NY was view wise beautiful. I slept a little, wrote a little and read a lot. Finally I had time to read what I want to read instead of what my Profs tell me to read and of course I grabbed this opportunity with both hands carrying the following three books with me: “What is the What” by Dave Eggers (beautiful, I’d say a must read for all), “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran (inspiring short stories given to me by a good friend) and “The Wayfinders”by Wade Davis. The only thing I did not like to much about the trip was the border control. Those home land security people were immediately getting on my nerves and in total we had to wait for three hours, but I did get in eventually, so I guess I cannot complain. Eleven hours after departure I sat foot in New York City. I admit, I had to smile with the thought. I found a taxi who took me to the apartment, my home for the next week. There I met Marlieke, a Dutch dancer/choreograph, my roommate for the week. After, shortly introducing myself and eating a falafel sandwich I went to bed.

Day 2: O dude, I am in NEW YORK!!!

Woke up, put some warm clothes on and went out. For the first time seeing it in daylight, I could now be sure: O yes, I am in New York! I decide to get myself a subway card for the week, but do not want to use it right away. I much rather explore this area of Manhattan on foot, since you can’t see much underground. The apartment I stay at is very close to Union Square, so it is not very coincidental that this is where I end up at first. I look around and see a street sign with ‘Broadway’ written on it. I decide this is where I want to go: the attraction of theatre is still working on me. I pass a huge comic store and go in to see if there is anything cool there I could bring my dad. But I get over stimulated by all the plastic supernatural characters staring at me right after opening the door end within 5 minutes I am outside again. I can always come back later I think to myself. Breakfast first. I find a place on Broadway, called Cozy and decide this is where I want to have my first breakfast and plan the day. 15 Minutes later I am outside again, satisfied food wise, still without a plan and a little bit disappointed. Let me just say, Cozy is about as cozy as an average McDonalds. I decide to slowly make my way to Times Square, since I want to be there for a demonstration for Palestine at 1 PM. When I arrive at Times Square I get a little overwhelmed. The mass of people is so huge that, once you enter, you lose all your ability to choose speed or direction. I just shuffled along until I saw a way out. I do manage to get to the demonstration eventually and spend the rest of the day shouting, marching and dancing for Palestine.

Dag 3: Some more Sightseeing

First I went out to check Central Park. And I have to say, I was quite impressed. It is a beautiful big piece of nature. Central Park is big enough in order for me to walk for hours and have the illusion at times I am the only one. The fact that it lies in the middle of this enormous city and you can see the skyscrapers dooming up behind the trees makes it kind of surreal. There is a huge ice-skating place in the south of the park, but a combination of my clumsiness on the irons and the long line-up made me pass for this. After walking around for a while I went to visit Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. Huge, beautiful, rich and out of place is all I have to say of this really. You can check the pictures. Then I took a tram, which is really a small car that transports you to Roosevelt Island through the air, hanging on a cable. This was amazing! And I have some cool pictures to proof that. The view of the city was enormous. And since I decided earlier that day that I am not going to stand in line for 3 hours and pay 20 dollars to go up Empire State Building I was really happy to have found this (free!!) cool way of transportation with an awesome view. I ended my day treating myself on a vegetarian meal in a restaurant in Brooklyn.

Well peaps, it is getting late and I worked hard all day, so I will write about the second half of the week in which I celebrated new year, visited ground zero and much more next time.

central-parc-15

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…to be continued…