Visiting the US was never on top of the places we wanted to visit. But when a work trip to Miami came up, we took the opportunity to extend it and spend a couple of days in New York.
In the winter of Jan 2019, we touched down at JFK International Airport. We’d heard stories of people having to spend several hours at US immigration and how it’s slow and tedious. We were dreading the same but for whatever reason, it took us about an hour, maybe even a bit less to go through it and come out unscathed.
We were finally in USA or “America” as many folks in India like to call it. As it was already around 9:00pm, we opened the Uber app to check if that could be an option – as expected an Uber ride would be expensive at 65 US$ while a Subway ticket was approx 8 US$ per person and the commute time difference was not very significant. The subway seemed like a better option, so we got ourselves the tickets and were on our way to Manhattan.
We got off at the nearest station from our Airbnb at 121st Street and as we started walking towards it, I started to notice the small details – diners, traffic lights, street lamps and the brownstone buildings. For my first time in NYC, it all somehow seemed familiar but better in real life than in the movies. Also the subway system in NYC can get pretty complicated to get your head around initially and it’s also really old – but that makes it all the more interesting – but also a pain when you have to take so many stairs so often. It’s not like in Singapore, with escalators and elevators, conveniently place at all metro stations.
When we arrived at our Airbnb, the lower floor of a townhouse – we were greeted by our host. Pleasant young guy called Alex. He showed us around the house, gave us some suggestions on where to go and what to do, then retreated into his basement living room to study for some exam he had that week. I always assumed that townhouses in New York would be expensive to rent but based on what I saw, it didn’t seem so – I could be wrong but I’m not really sure.
The next morning, we started out on foot to look for breakfast. We found a nice cafe and ordered two cups of coffee and something to eat, as you normally would. Turned out, it was a mistake to order two coffees because one mug alone was so huge, it was enough for three average sized human beings.
More than Times Square and Wall Street, I wanted to go to Central Park. Although it was quite cold that day, it was still bright and sunny and that meant a good day to be at the park, at least for sometime. And I loved it there, it was quiet and peaceful on a weekday, the lake was sparkling as the sun rays hit the water at angles. From one side of the lake you could see the skyline and you never tired of looking at the ducks swimming and squawking and the chubby squirrels scuttering around and nibbling at stuff. After a while, we had to get indoors as the cold was becoming unbearable even though we were covered from head to toe.
That night we did go to Times Square which to me was a bunch of billboards, lights and a lot of people taking selfies and photos. I mean, there’s not much you can do there really. After that, I thought it would be a good idea to sit at a diner and have some cheap american junk food. So we walked into the first one saw, ordered burger and fries, talked and watched people walk past on the pavement outside.
The next day, we decided to partake a typical american breakfast of bagels and coffee. This was at a place called Absolute Bagels, walking distance from our stay. I was skeptical about having a bagel because the last time I had one at a Starbucks in Asia, it was chewy, too dry and too dense. This place however had many options to choose from and promised a good bagel – so we got ourselves the one with sesame seeds on it and garlic cream as filling. The coffee cup here was a normal human size too, so it was okay to order two. Well what can I say, americans know how to do their bagels right – and we really enjoyed breakfast that day.
Energised, we left for Battery Park and then Wall St. But man was it freezing that day and the notorious wind made it worse. We had to wear gloves and it was impossible not to keep your ears covered. We spent some time at the usual sites – the New York Stock exchange, the Raging Bull and so on and decided to visit the Brooklyn bridge when the sun was starting to peak out from behind the clouds.
I enjoyed walking across the bridge more than I thought I would. The bridge was an architectural marvel when it was completed in 1883 and I felt like it still is, as it’s being used to this day with a 6 lane roadway and cars and people plying on it, constantly. Besides, it transports you back in time and gives you great views of the river and the skyline.
In retrospect, I didn’t love NYC, but all-in-all, it was rather difficult to not like it. We had a good time actually and revisiting in better weather wouldn’t be such a bad idea, after all.
