06 Nov Alone in New York
2017 has been a good year. And a bad year.
It has been a year in which I made nine trips outside my country, but it has also been a year in which I ended up in the hospital twice. A year of contrasts. A year that, in many ways, pushed me to see things differently.
Somewhere between these two extremes, I made a decision that had been quietly sitting in the back of my mind for a long time: I would go to New York.
Alone.
For years New York had been one of those places that felt almost mythical. A city you grow up seeing in movies, in TV series, in photographs. Yellow cabs, endless avenues, towering buildings and that unmistakable skyline.
But knowing New York through films is very different from actually standing there.
When the idea of the trip finally became real, I realised something else: this would be the first time I travelled completely alone to such a big city.
There was no detailed plan. No fixed schedule. Just a plane ticket and the curiosity to see what New York would feel like in real life.
And maybe that was exactly what I needed.
New York at night
Why Travel Alone to New York?
Traveling alone changes the way you experience a city.
When you are by yourself, you move at a different rhythm. You walk more. You stop more often. You pay attention to small details that might otherwise go unnoticed.
In a place like New York, that freedom becomes even more important.
The city is overwhelming at first. The streets feel endless, the crowds move fast, and the noise never really stops. But once you accept that rhythm instead of fighting it, something interesting happens.
You start to feel part of it.
You walk through neighborhoods without knowing exactly what you will find around the next corner. A coffee shop, a park, a bookstore, a street that suddenly looks exactly like a scene from a movie you remember.
New York slowly reveals itself like that: step by step.
First Thoughts Before Exploring the City
Before even arriving, I had a feeling that this trip would be different.
Not because of the destination itself, but because of the moment in life in which it happened.
Traveling alone sometimes feels like a small reset. You leave behind routines, expectations and familiar places. You step into a completely different environment and, for a few days, everything becomes simpler.
You wake up, walk outside, and the city becomes your only plan.
New York is probably one of the best cities in the world for this kind of experience. You can spend hours simply walking through Manhattan, watching the rhythm of the streets, observing people, discovering corners that you never planned to see.
That is exactly how this journey began.
The Beginning of a New York Story
This article is not really about a specific place.
It is about the moment before everything started.
In the following days I would explore Manhattan street by street: sunny days, rainy mornings, long walks through Central Park and evenings spent watching the city lights.
Each day revealed a different version of New York.
Some were beautiful.
Some were chaotic.
Some were quiet and reflective.
But together they formed the experience that made me understand why so many people fall in love with this city.
And this is where the story begins.
In the next articles I will describe each day of that trip, starting with my first full day in the city.
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