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Max's Round the World in 36 days
New York, New York. I arrived to NY very late last night as the plane was delayed...The positive thing was landing at midnight and naturally the view from the plane was probably the best as it ever gets when it comes to a night big city landing...Cannot really think of any other city that might look better but would love to be surprised...Manhattan and the bridges in the night took my breath away. The negative thing is that having taken a shuttle service I only got to the hostel at 3am and was absolutely dead. The next positive thing though was experiencing NY by night - my first proper encounter with the city has been through the windows of a van as we were passing through all of Manhattan including Times Square. Needless to say I love night driving in ANY city so getting thru NY kept me excited. I also met this girl from Miami who is working in real estate in NY and she even invited me for a Easter Sunday dinner in the Central Park - unfortunately had to refuse as I have a more exciting way of spending Sunday which is flying back to London (the keybord's wet from crying at the very thought...)
It has been pissing down since the very morning today but nonetheless I made my way in the subway and strolled around Manhattan for the whole day. I looked at the Statue of Liberty from the shore but judged it was not worth waiting for the ferry in order to get closer as it did not particularly appeal to me from the distance. As a doomed banker I naturally could not miss the US financial centre so went down to Wall Street & took some pix of the NY Stock Exchange. Then on to Ground Zero where there is probably no way of not getting a little bit into a reflective mood - seeing this whole in the ground surrounded by skyscrapers and watching the planes going above gave me a little bit of an idea of what actually happened there - even though it still is so much not possible to immagine, it just does not get to my mind. Finally I made my way to SoHo and Greenwhich village and ended my walk on Times Square which is probably the most impressive place in NY. There's this huge Virgin megastore there so I wouldn't have been me if I hadn't stopped there for a looooong time. Bought latest Placebo and Buddha Bar VIII as I thought they were cheap compared to Europe.
So yes, you cannot not like this city. However anti-American I might be, New York has got something in it, an atmosphere of a welcoming big city - a blend of modernism, that makes you look up in awe at the surrounding skyscrapers when passing thru the concrete jungle, with vast European-style cafe and bar areas, that remind of London's Soho or even Covent Garden...No doubt a place where it can be exciting to live, a city as no other. I really really enjoyed the day.
I had a lastminute change of my plans now and instead of spending another full day in NY I will be heading to Washington tomorrow to see a friend of mine who has been studying there. An invitation I could not refuse and am happy to go - NY is amazing but it is my last holiday day tomorrow and the last thing I want is to spend it all on my own. I honestly feel very bad about coming back to 'the real life' and after days of joy and excitement I perfectly see coming a period of depression! Already I cannot see the pictures taken a couple of days ago let alone going thru them when back. A horror.
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