I ♥ NY

Quite a few years ago - I think it was in 2002 or 2003 - I decided to enter a whole lot of online competitions. This was before the whole world was online, entering online competitions. It was the first and only time I did this, but I won a great prize that day: a plane ticket to New York.

So off I went in November, on my own, for four days in the big apple. Before I left, I'd booked a "room" in a hostel on The Bowery. It turned out to be a cubicle with a two foot wide berth, but I didn't go there to sleep anyways, so that was fine. When I went to put my luggage away, I was told to go right at the top of the stairs, because to the left was the homeless hostel. All the inmates of that place mingled in the reception/sitting room, and it was a really nice atmosphere because real New Yorkers were staying in the hostel to the left, while young travellers were staying to the right.

I loved the feel of New York when I was there. I'd been told before I went that it was a dirty and dangerous city, and that the people were not very friendly, but I did not find that was true at all. I was told by a lot of people that it was because of 9/11 that the whole city pulled together, and also that Giuliani had cleaned up the city. All I know is that I felt safe, even at night in ABC city and on the Subway, and that everyone I met was genuinely friendly.

While I was there, I wanted to get all I could out of the experience. I made my jetlag work for me and got up before six in the morning and got to bed by nine in the evening (figuring these might be good hours to keep for a girl on her own in NY). I walked absolutely everywhere, only using the Subway once, and then only because that was another NY experience I wanted to cross off my list.

I spent the better part of a day in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Did you know they have a whole Egyptian temple in there? I was gobsmacked. Every hall I went into was more amazing than the one before. By the time I got to the Flemish masters, I was so tired I just skipped them. This means I have to go back sometime, of course. I spent at least half a day in the Museum of Natural History.

I ate my way through New York: a real New York diner for home fries, a jewish one for Matzoh ball soup and a turkey sandwich (more like a turkey tower - I think there was a whole rafter in there (I looked it up: a gaggle of geese, a rafter of turkeys)). Then of course I had to eat in China Town, where I had the most amazing meal ever for about two dollars as I seem to remember. Little Italy was MUCH more expensive, but then I only went there for dessert. Every day. Sometimes twice. Cream cakes and eclairs. Mmm. Oh, and then there were the bagels, of course.

I also drank my way through New York (not quite what you think): I discovered that if my feet needed a rest, no one would bother me if I sat reading and writing in Starbucks for a couple of hours, having bought only one bottle of water. (I should look up that travel diary sometime and see if my memories match what I wrote.) Actually, I also met up with some Flemish friends who also happened to be in New York one night and that night we drank more than just water. We went to a very hip wodka bar where all the waitresses were impossibly pretty in little black dresses. I just sipped a glass of Margaux - mostly.

Of course, I did the shopping districts, cool little cafes in Greenwich, Manhattan, not the Statue of Liberty and Ellis island (another thing I have to go back for). I saw huge birds of prey in tiny city parks and hordes of joggers in Central Park (I looked it up: gaggle of geese, horde of joggers), I heard only Spanish in my Subway carriage, and every possible other language in the world out on the streets. I went book shopping and gawked at diamonds in Tiffany's. Overall, four days well spent, I would think.

One morning, as the guidebook suggested, I was first in line to visit the Empire State Building. I rode the elevator up, and when I got to the top I was happy I bought a woolly hat in Greenwich Village. Even though it was a very warm November day, it was still November in New York, on top of the Empire State Building. (How cool - I know.) That is where I bought the only souvenir I brought back: an I ♥ NY mug for Babes. He's not been yet, but I will take him sometime and he's definitely going to ♥ it. That mug is sitting next to me just now, waiting for another batch of tea. I never really got the point of souvenirs until just now.