24 hours in New York City...pretty ambitious right?
Over June and July 2016, my brother and I went on a road trip with some Texan buddies, driving from Chicago through Tennessee, Louisiana and then to Texas. It just so turned out that flying to New York, staying for 24 hours and then flying to Chicago, was a lot cheaper than flying straight to Chicago from London...and so it began, an ambitious 24 hour adventure in the big apple.
We booked Air bnb's for each of the cities that we would be stopping in on the trip (annoyingly I didn't take any pictures of these) and our bnb for our stay in New York was in Brooklyn. Both my brother and I had visited New York before (a good 7 years ago) but we never really had the chance to look around Brooklyn, so a 7am start and a 2 mile walk to 'Brooklyn's best doughnut' sounded like a good place to start. After getting somewhat lost due to not having access to Google Maps (it was definitely my fault - we didn't think that through enough) and a 50 minute walk in the morning sunshine we made it to Dough - they did not disappoint. We had a plain glazed and a passion fruit doughnut... and it was probably one of the sweetest breakfasts I have ever had, this trip was bound to be full of sugar. That isn't even the worst thing we ate that day: a few hours and a lot of walking later we had a second breakfast, this time in what seemed to be a healthy cafe with lots of nutritional options. What did I get? Challah french toast with blueberries and syrup...more sugar but whatever i'm on holiday.
Having visited before there were a few things they we had already checked off our list: early morning walk around Central Park, seeing the view from the top of the Empire State building, going to the Rockefeller centre, seeing Brooklyn bridge, shopping in Time Square, going to a show on Broadway. There was one place that has changed drastically since we last visited: Ground Zero.
There is now a stunning museum filled with facts, stories and artwork of the tragic 9/11 events. It felt surreal being able to see actual pieces of the buildings including the steel beam that the plane first made contact with, as well as as photographs of many of the faces of those that lost their lives.The only thing for me that felt more uncomfortable was how commercialised it was; there was a souvenir shop, like in most museums, and there were so much merchandise that you could buy. I think proportions of the money made go back into keeping the museum running, but it just felt shocking seeing '9/11 memorial' plastered over tshirts and hoodies, necklaces, wristbands etc.
When we left the museum I definitely felt emotional, I think we can be somewhat desensitised to recent history like this sometimes because it is discussed so much in the media...I was so young when 9/11 happened but I remember it. Seeing artwork and reading and listening to the stories of survivors of 9/11 and those service people that helped members of the public and those working in the buildings survive really made it feel more real.
It was somewhat difficult to decide how else to spend the rest of our day having had such an emotionally powerful morning. We decided to walk around Wall Street, I am not sure what the big fuss was about I was expecting a much prettier street, yet there were still hundreds of tourists taking photographs (including me *sigh*). An old work colleague of mine has just recently moved to New York, so we decided to meet her in Time Square (although hideously busy on a Saturday afternoon that place is still makes me feel like no where else in the world), get some lunch, have some ice cream and seeing as it was such a beautifully sunny day we took a long stroll around Central Park and found somewhere to sit down and relax for an hour or two.
I think our biggest issue of the day was transport. We had problems figuring out the Metro, we went on the right train in the wrong direction...twice...for far too many stops. It was definitely annoying that there were no timetables, we had no idea how long we had been or would be waiting for any of the trains. We really should have looked into our phone service for having 4G and data roaming in the states, instead I decided to suck it up and pay £40 for us to have internet on our phones for the day...we still got lost...yay Scouting skills.
One more thing that was on my brother's list of things to do in New York City was to have drinks at a rooftop bar. I don't remember the name of the hotel, but we headed up to the top floor, I felt incredibly under dressed but I didn't care... I am on holiday and I am having a good day. It was $5 for my diet coke, I have no idea how much the alcohol was but I tried to let that not shake the moment. Although I am scared of heights and there were far too many people around for me to really enjoy it, the view was incredible. We were overlooking Central Park and all of that greenery among the tall buildings was just beautiful.
The last time we were in New York it was April. It was so cold and rainy, but it didn't make me sad. New York has this incredible ability to constantly make me feel like I am on the set of a film: that might not sound hugely desirable to anyone else. I think I just get lost in the romanticism of narrative when it comes to this City. I don't generally like being cities but when I look back at some of my favourite films and TV shows, so many of them are set here. New York feels like such a magical hub of stories and I feel very inspired being here.
28,500 steps in one day...thanks for the exercise New York, I will be back again sometime.
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