New York

New York I love you but you’re bringing me down. Well, trying to put you down into words is. This post has become my little gremlin over the past almost 2 months. Since my return I have fought it, I have wrestled with it, there has been tears and tantrums, trying to get it back in it’s little box. A severe case of writer’s block I suppose. How do I list the ways I love you? The moments we shared? New York you’re perfect don’t, please don’t, change a thing.

You know that feeling when you wake up from a dream, as if a fog settles over your mind and you lay there trying to determine what is dream and what is reality? Well even weeks later I still can’t quite tell you which it was.My excitement as the plane descended over JFK was reminiscent of a 6 yr old’s first plane trip, nose pressed up against the glass, grinning from ear to ear! I am finally HERE in the most famous city of all. I catch the subway through the suburbs of Brooklyn and just about let out a squeal as the train comes over Williamsburg Bridge and I feel as if this is where I have always been, although a little detached, my head swirling in the fog.

There’s Madison Square Gardens. And a whole heap of yellow cabs. And street signs. And my poor brain nearly explodes. The Brooklyn Bagel and Coffee company (in Manhattan) delivers us the first real hit of New York breakfast with a great coffee and a winning combination of wholewheat bagel with dill cream cheese and oat and raisin bagel with fig cream cheese, setting us up for the day. We meander downtown way; through the streets that sit under green, leafy trees, metal fire escapes and beautifully uniformed apartments and end up on Bleecker Street. Here we somehow manage to stumble upon the Magnolia Bakery, and Marli and I sit in a little corner park eating our red velvet cupcakes in the sunshine and discuss how life couldn’t get much more perfect than this. We practically skip along the streets, following Bleecker onto Broadway and Bowery, where Alexa Chung struts past and I’m starting to wander if someone is just making this up. Welcome to New York, where dreams are made of.

The Brooklyn Bridge spans the East River reaching out and drawing Brooklyn towards the shadows cast by downtown Manhattan. It’s a pretty good start on the whole New York things to see list. We catch a glimpse of Liberty, the river, the towering sky scrapers of downtown and the first glimpse of the infamous Manhattan skyline. It literally takes my breath away and I start to have the realisation that this is happening to me for real. We roam along the boardwalk beneath the criss crossing cables, half there, half in our own little dream worlds. Under the shadow of the Brooklyn bridge, sits a beautiful white building. It houses the legendary Grimaldi’s, a Brooklyn pizza institution. The cream soda is to die for and really gets the taste buds flowing for the main show. Ricotta, mushrooms, mozzarella and tomato sauce can’t really be wrong but it also doesn’t usually taste this incredible. It’s a New York pizza success story and definitely lives up to the hype.

Jumping on the East River ferry, we zip through the wind tunnel, leaving the open plains of Brooklyn for the forests of Manhattan. The South Ferry terminal is positively teeming with people and I really wonder how long it’s going to take us but then the gates open and they glide effortlessly up onto the ramp, swallowed up by the gigantic boat. Staten Island sits below Manhattan island and the free ferry that heads there (the big yellow ferries that you have seen 100 times on TV and movies), gives one of the best panoramas of New York. Standing over the rolling ocean straight ahead is the towering buildings of Downtown, to the right the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges swinging round to Brooklyn and Governors Island in the foreground, to the left the Lady sits atop Liberty Island with the gateway to New York, Ellis Island, behind and New Jersey continuing up and down the horizon.

The sun doesn’t venture into the financial district around Wall St all that often but when it does it illuminates the pretty churchyards and gardens of spring blooms that are dotted between the gargantuan buildings, brightening and breaking the imposing shadows. After the utter hectic-ness of the financial district, the mood shifts somewhere around Greenwich Street . Here lies the construction site/memorial of the September 11 attacks. A story everyone knows well, to finally lay witness to the site was an emotional experience. In the footprints of the twin towers lay two pools, in each pool water falls metres down into what would have been the foundations of the buildings and flows into a black hole to disappear from site. Each pool is surrounded by the names of everyone that died in the attacks on September 11 and also previous World Trade attacks. There is a museum and a garden of oaks, plus one tree that was found on the site after the bombings and nursed back to health. The afternoon sunlight sparkled on the water, throwing out rainbows and illuminating some of the names so they glowed gold. When you take the time to think that all those names are lives ended in wasteful violence, it’s hard to keep it together. All the while, the construction site surrounding the memorial roars around you but somehow doesn’t interrupt the tranquility, as they move onwards rebuilding the new World Trade Centre.

From the thought provoking, raw emotion, insight into humanity of the 9/11 memorial to the frivolous, shallow, flashing lights of Times Square, the contrast couldn’t be more extreme. I am equally disgusted and enthralled by this place. Like a reality tv show, I judge it and I hate it and everything it is but I just cannot turn away from the big, bright flashing lights. As much as I’d like to pretend I am above it all sometimes, I am still a tourist and I am standing in Times Square and I just want my damn photo taken! Broadway delivers us the final blow in a knockout day. After umming and ahhing we decide on Jersey Boys due to Brooke’s enthusiastic reviews. Every visit to the theatre ends in 2 ways; me lamenting that I do not go to shows enough (as I seem to only do it when I am on holiday?!) and me wishing I was talented enough to be in one.

I’m pretty wired as we go up the elevator. The sun is still shining as we cast our first look over Central Park, Uptown Manhattan, New Jersey and Queens from the top of the Rockefeller Centre and it was more spectacular than I could have imagined. We walk around to the other side of the building and I hear myself stop mid-breath because here I am, standing over lower Manhattan and it is one of those life affirming moments. Me, I am actually here looking at the Empire State building, at the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges, I can see Brooklyn and Queens and New Jersey; I am a part of New York City. Photographs will never capture even a percentage of this, I know that but still I click away, hoping that I may shoot something that will kick my brain into taking me back to this moment. Plus there is something about the intense search, the measured looking of composing a photo that helps me soak it all in, down to the smallest details. The sun sinks into an orange fireball as it disappears behind the New Jersey horizon, it is one of the most spectacular sunsets I have witnessed, spewing a vast array of colours over the city. Almost instantaneously as the sun moves on, just like the more familiar stars pop into existence before your eyes in the night sky, the lights of the buildings start appearing below us. We really have done well with the timing, seeing it all; this beautiful city in all it’s glory. The wind is bitterly cold up here but I’m reluctant to leave, as if it might trigger the bubble to pop and I’ll wake up somewhere not so fantastic. 

The first thing the “birthday girl” (aka Marli as it is here real/pretend birthday) wants today is Starbucks (well coffee but when you’re hanging round Fifth Ave Starbucks is coffee) so after much searching (yes we appreciated the irony) we finally locate one in the Trump Tower. The second wish is Breakfast at Tiffany’s, just like Audrey so with coffee and birthday donut in hand, we gaze longingly into the shop window. Then we go in. Whilst Brooke and Marli shop up a storm, I’m more content with looking at the things I’d never buy (How much for that hideous eyesore!??). So what to do next? Well of course it was about time for more cupcakes so down Lexington we go to find Sprinkles, another member of the NYC cupcake pack. So coffee, jewelery, cupcakes, what else could us girls need? Well obviously bras as we duck into underwear heaven aka Victoria’s Secret. Finally we are feeling like we have done pretty well with the girly morning. We sit in the sunshine in Central Park, surrounded by bags of shopping, sipping on a Snapple, munching on a Philly cheese steak sandwich. This is complete and utter happiness I am sure of it. Central Park is far more impressive than I imagined, a real haven and a place where finally the sunshine breaks through the canopy of buildings and you can catch a real sense of escapism that pours off the thousands of people wandering the endless meadows.

The East Village is a treasure chest of good places to eat and have a few drinks. Each night without much of a plan we stumble upon some memorable (for the right reasons), atmospheric, brilliant eatery but tonight is different. Tonight we have a plan. It is finally time for the Meatball Shop. After a brief taste (of an ice cream sandwich) on the very first night, we have been trying to get back into this tiny restaurant each night. Tonight we put down our names and slip off to one of the bars to have a drink whilst we wait. It is definately worth the wait and we overdose on all things meatballs with our buffet like spread. Finished off with the utterly beautiful ice cream cookie sandwich, this place is another win of the New York eating scene.

Coffee for first breakfast at the very cute Bluebird, which like a lot of my recommendations turns out to be around the corner from our apartment in the East Village. Second breakfast is a bit more substantial with pancakes, waffles, bacon and maple syrup in a diner in Brooklyn. Yes we have crossed the river again and this time find ourselves in Fort Greene for the Brooklyn Flea Markets. The next few hour are spent somewhere between bitching about a lack of money or the fact I live to far away to get the amazing chair/wardrobe/bike home. Oh and of course enjoying the whole rummaging through the endless riches we find in the churchyard. We wander back through Williamsburg, although to be honest I’m not that interested as I am moving there in  a few days. Still I get pretty excited by the river overlooking Manhattan, the cafes, vintage stores and cool people hanging around. I feel my feet start to get itchy, I have that feeling again; it’s time for the next place!

The last day of any trip always has that horrible pressing feeling. That urgency and almost annoyance of trying to do something when it’s all coming to an end. Although it’s not the end of my trip as yet, today all the others are hopping on a plane bound for Vegas and leaving me all alone to fend for myself in the big city. We make a last ditch effort to see a few more things like Grand Central Station-tick and then kind of wander, half lost, half with intent through Bryant Park, Times Square and finally back into Central Park. However we cannot kick that rush of the departure time and we head back (in a yellow cab through the park and upper east side which was pretty good!) to our little apartment to say our goodbyes. It has been an absolute treat being with my fabulous crew from home again. I have had such blast catching up and hanging out in this wonderful city. But then, just like always, I turn around and Im back on my own again, walking bag in hand to the next destination.

Hellooo Williamsburg. I am really at home now. Back amongst the hipsters, the graffitied streets, the vintage, the emerging artists, the cool cafes, the boutiques, the antique markets. Just like I’m back in East London. Hipsters are much the same wherever you are and they make excellent people watching and I sip on a coffee as I laugh at them/wish I was them. They do run excellent markets though and the Williamsburg branch of the Brooklyn flea markets have perhaps the most incredible setting, lying alongside the East River looking onto Manhattan. They are full of much the same stuff as the Fort Greene ones but the location kills it. I get the world’s biggest and tastiest sandwich and sit along the shore of the East River in the sunshine, watching the outline of Manhattan before me. I am wishing the others were here to see this. When I am alone my mind wanders away and I get lost in my thoughts. It’s nice to have other people around to bring you back to the present and to share all the wonders with you. I am always content being alone, I am more than used to my own company, but experiences like these are always better shared.

I don’t know what it is about the High Line that got me so excited. It was one of the first things I wanted to do when I decided to come to New York. I mean yes, the idea of a park on a disused railway line that sits over the city and runs a fair length of the west side of the island is quite spectacular. But wandering along it, even in the gale-force winds, made for a really nice morning. They have done an amazing job restoring it and making it a real feature of the neighbourhoods it towers above. When it stops, its a bit of crash back in reality as you get off under a busy overpass and walk through the industrial, gritty streets of docks near Chelsea. I walk and I walk and I walk with no plan and no idea, these are my favourite days.  Through Chelsea, the Garment District, Theatre District I zig zag along the grids until finally I hit the river. The East River. I have walked from the Hudson on the west  across the whole island. And now I am standing looking up at the incredible United Nations building. I sit and eat my burger in the park on United Nations Way with all the other professionals on their lunch break. Every now and then I see someone with the special lanyard and I am stung by jealousy. I want to work at the United Nations. And spend everyday here in this park eating burgers on my lunch break. Back at the UN headquarters (see what I mean, you would get to say that all the time!), it is very, very special watching the Grand Assembly in action. It may be just a budget meeting today but here is the room for the world. The place where all nations come together and try to work together. It makes the world feel no so big after all. Seeing the security council and UNICEF’s work here is also a real highlight of this whole trip. This whole place has left a a great fuzzy feeling, that for all the bad in the world there are people trying to do better, the right way. Speaking of fuzzy feelings, by the time I walk the length of the East Side to get the subway home, I can barely feel my feet! 12kms today (I ‘mapped’ my run/walk) and I can barely make it upstairs to sit on my roof terrace and watch the sun set over another remarkable day in New York.

So second last day. Should probably go see that statue they talk about every so often. So up bright and early and down the Battery Park to jump back on the tourist trail. I like to mix it up when I travel; feel like a local one minute, shamelessly snap away on my massive SLR like a tourist the next. And today is all about shameless snapping. I jump on the ferry and calculate quickly the very best position where I need to sit to get the best views of Manhattan, and the Statue. She is quite a thing to behold too. Much smaller, than you imagine but also much more powerful too, just standing there all alone in the harbour. Lady Liberty does stir all those emotions as intended, especially when coupled with a visit to Ellis Island. The gateway to the Americas, Ellis Island was the main immigration port from the 1800’s to the 1950’s and as most of you will know, there was a fair amount of people immigrating to America in these times. It was fascinating reading stories and learning about the sheer number of people who would wait in these halls, with barely nothing at all, just hoping to get into this country and get an opportunity to live good lives. It was actually quite emotional at times (well maybe that’s just me), especially looking through those semi-circle windows to see the Statue of Liberty or island of Manhattan in the distance and imagine those people so seeing the same things, so full of hope, so full of promise.

One of my recent things I have a bit of an obsession with are the seaside resorts of the UK. I like the kind of time-gone-by vibes they give off, the semi rundown look. I like the way that despite this people still love them; the fairground rides, the “beach”, the boardwalks or pier, they all get a workout. So I catch the subway down the length of Brooklyn to the infamous Coney Island. I miss the ocean amazingly so it invigorates me just being in it’s presence. I spend a lot of my life wandering, strolling, meandering, rambling around new places, just my iPod and I, with dreamy eyes and a smile on my face. This is when I am happiest. And do it between the sea on one side and the rides of Coney Island on the other, well I might have just skipped a few times. My little visit was only topped by the sunshine appearing as I sat down on the boulevard steps with my famous Nathan’s hot dog and giant coke. Wow am I going to miss this place!

I have just enough time to have one last beautiful coffee in the very cool Toby’s Estate listening to hipsters discuss their online Etsy shops and fashion blogs. I cannot wipe the smile off my face. New York has been beyond my wildest imagination. It has smashed through all the high hopes and praises I have grown up upon. And I have left another part of my heart in another distant place.