16 Dec Wednesdays and Thursdays in New York
Today’s post will cover days 5 and 6 from my trip to New York.
After this post I will write five more posts, one about restaurants I sampled, events I took part in while in New York, one post about my first ever AirBnB accommodation, one post covering final feelings and impressions and one final post covering my experience with Turkish airlines, customs, transport and my first and last day in New York.
This being said it is time for days five and six.
- Day 5: Wednesday
I needed a day to stop running so much and my plan was bulletproof.
Travel as much as possible by metro or bus and rest my legs.
Well, that only partially worked so at the end of the day my app was showing me 14.8 kilometers done that day.
That day was the day I visited just two places. MOMA and the UN headquarters. Rest of the day was spent walking on 5th avenue, reaching Bryant Park and Times Square and just crossing the streets, looking at buildings and people.
I wish I could tell you something good about MOMA but I can’t. Except the 5th floor I found the concept of modern art not on my taste so frankly I was happy when I got out.
I guess modern art doesn’t suit me but frankly I cannot classify as art just any drawing or weird shape there is.
I also found the price here a bit high but that is just for my taste. What I consider art is stored away on just a level of that building so for me the rest of MOMA was just cruising between people, slowly, taking my time, trying to find something that would interest me.
It could be that for many the things displayed at MOMA are interesting, intriguing and so on but for me they are just some drawings, shapes, lines that by no mean are art.
After MOMA I walked towards the UN building and checked in on the little office across the building. My luck was that I was carrying my driver’s license because my national ID caused problems when trying to register.
You can tour some parts of the building for free but you also have the option to go on a guided tour inside, an option many people chose when arriving here.
I didn’t feel like spending much time inside that day so I just visited the free parts and got out and started walking towards 42nd street, moving slowly along Grand Center, Bryant Park, 5th Avenue and just kept on walking.
Even though I wanted to relax and stop walking so much that day I didn’t quite manage to do that.
It is very hard to rest when in a new city more than 7500 km away. My curiosity kept me wandering thru the streets, stopping for street food, looking at people, trying new dishes and eagerly waiting the show I was going to attend that night.
This was the day when it all broke and my life became simpler.
I ended meaningless conversations and pushed people away from my life.
The day ended with a magnificent event, a true life story that I will talk about in a later post and that night helped by my new old friend I slept like a baby again after much time.
- Day 6: Thursday
What better way to celebrate breaking free from toxic people and meaningless conversations than to visit the Statue of Liberty?
My journey started from Battery Park on a foggy morning and frankly as I reached the statue it could barely be seen.
What I loved from the start was the attitude of a security guard who kept telling us to move forward “ sun will prevail today”. And sun prevailed.
After 45/50 minutes of fog the sky started to clear and amazing photos were taken.
With a temperature of 23 degrees Celsius this day was simply amazing so I stood near the Statue for close to an hour and a half just watching it, watching the other tourists, the Manhattan shoreline.
Things couldn’t be better so after finishing my visit here I headed toward Greenwich Village.
And trust me I am happy I did.
Not because I have seen Carrie Bradshaw’s house from Sex and the City and not because outside of it I saw one of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen in my life but because of the whole feeling you get upon visiting Greenwich.
It is so small and peaceful, delicate restaurants and bistros filling the streets, beautiful doors and stairs, colored buildings.
It is simply a place to relax and cross the streets just looking around.
As you can notice I wrote less for days 5 and 6 but this doesn’t mean my days were empty.
Between attending outstanding performances, visiting amazing restaurants and visiting new places the time flew by fast and kept me from thinking about silly things.
On this day I thought a bit about a person I had an argument some days before I left for New York. I sometimes think about her and I can’t figure out if it is my pride or if it is the fact that I really found her to be so interesting sometime not long ago.
I did not answered her last message. I wrote it, looked at it and saved it on my phone.
Never sent it. I guess out of the original 20 lines or so I wrote only a few words really matter. And I guess those words are “it is wrong to say I liked you. I do like you. Even now. Even more”
The day ended with an outstanding performance from an amazing comedian and I loved each moment of it.
It was in a way the crown jewel on my beautiful trip and by programming (I won’t lie and say it was destiny) it was my final night in The Big Apple.
As I walked back for more than 20 streets between the Theatre and my house I just walked slowly, no rush, no pressure.
I knew that even if the next day I would leave the city around 19:00 hours for the airport my trip was over.
I passed happy people, people in a hurry, people walking hand in hand, dressed sharp or casual. I passed people eating in nice restaurants or standing in street corners. I passed blacks, whites, south americans, asians.
New York is a mix. You can find people from every part of the world here. I heard many people saying that the United States is so far from Romania I won’t meet many Romanians there but they were wrong. I did meet quite a few people there from Romania. Travelling, taking pictures, living there, moving from place to place, all in a city that never sleeps.
I wrote this piece on my way to boarding as all my other stories from New York but I left it unfinished. The final touch came more than a month away, in the middle of December as I was looking on some pictures on Instagram from New York.
On that night, as I bought a drink from the corner shop and walked slowly to my place I smiled thinking of how many things, how many feelings I squeezed in such a short period of time.
And I slept well. Because I was going home.