New York, New York!

In my bedroom at my parents’ house in Germany, I have a framed poster of New York City on my wall. Literally every night before I fell asleep, I would look at it thinking one day I will make it to NYC. Turned out, this “one day” was May 21, 2009.

When we got on the plane towards New York, I was scared to death. Just in case I haven’t mentioned it before, I am afraid of heights, and going on a plane is the worst. Luckily, I sat next to a chatty Indian guy who kept me distracted from the fact that I was thousands of feet above the ground. I am pretty sure I would not have appreciated his company as much if we had been on a bus together…

After arriving to the famous John F. Kennedy airport, my friend (a German intern at Porsche) and I went straight (and in New York this means two hours) to our hotel. By the time we got there it was 1:00 a.m. and we were quite exhausted. We went right to bed, not even noticing that we had a room with view on the Chrysler Building until the next morning!

We started the day with a delicious cream bagel and then headed towards the Rockefeller Center. We got on “Top of the Rock” – the observatory platform – where we had an awesome view of the Big Apple. After taking millions of pictures we made our way to Times Square – together with hundreds of other (mainly German) tourists. Around noon it became awful hot and we decided to walk towards Chelsea and Greenwich Village, along the Hudson River. In Chelsea, my friend and I visited a few art galleries. Some of them were really crazy, but at least they had air conditioning! We almost bought a piece of artwork by Andy Warhol if it wouldn’t have cost $ 200, 000.

After our tour through Greenwich Village and a yummy Italian ice cream, we headed back to our hotel in order to get ready for the ballet show at Lincoln Center. The ballet was fantastic and afterwards we indulged ourselves with food and drinks at a very New Yorky restaurant. On our way back to the hotel we passed the Times Square once again, but this time at night although it felt like daytime due to all the bright lights. By the way, we didn’t use the subway once this day. Yes, we walked from 42nd street via Rockefeller Center down to Greenwich Village at 4th street and all the way back!

The next morning started early. The first target on our sightseeing list for the day was jogging through Central Park. Frankly, it was more like a stop and go. Although we tried our best pretending to be real New Yorkers, we still were tourists and had to take as many pictures as possible.

The Statute of Liberty, eating a New Yorker hotdog and exploring the Financial District were next on the list. When we walked through Battery Park on our way to the Statute of Liberty, we passed the “Sphere” – a sculpture that originally was displayed in front of the World Trade Center and somehow survived the 9/11 attacks without too many damages. It has become a symbol of hope as well as a reminder of the victims of the attacks. The sculpture was moved to Battery Park after 9/11 and has been there ever since. Long story, but you will find out in a second where I am getting at. Have a guess, where the sculptor is from. His name is Fritz Koenig and yes, he is from Landshut, Germany – my hometown! Probably our most famous citizen!

That same day we spontaneously decided to see a musical in the evening. We bought tickets for “Hair” (don’t ask how much we paid!) before we went to Little Italy for dinner. Andi gave us this recommendation and she was so right about it! It really felt like being in Italy with all the chairs and tables outside and the Italian waiters asking you to come in and dine at their restaurant.

After a fantastic musical show we wanted to see the Brooklyn Bridge by night. And what a surprise, we got lost! So we asked two girls that were passing by where we need to go. They were very nice and walked us half way to our destination. Never ever say again that New York people are unfriendly! After having been on the bridge we got on a taxi because firstly, we couldn’t walk anymore and secondly, you have to use the yellow taxis at least once while you are in NYC! We then went to a bar in the Financial District that was very busy during daytime, but as it turned out, not so much during night.

By Sunday, our feet were killing us! We went to see all the things we hadn’t seen so far like Macy’s, Soho and Chinatown. We were amazed by the wonderful buildings and boutiques in Soho, but disappointed by Macy’s. For lunch we went to Chinatown where we also bought the legendary “I love New York” t-shirts. Afterwards we relaxed at Central Park before we got our baggage from the hotel and headed to the airport.

During our subway ride to the airport I was worried we would miss our flight. We had only two hours to get from Midtown Manhattan to the boarding check point at JFK. Luckily we were able to get there in time and as it turned out there wasn’t any reason to worry in the first place. Our flight had a two hours delay. Instead of leaving JFK at 7:05 p.m., our plane took off at 9:05 p.m. Exhausted but happy we arrived in Detroit at around 10:30 p.m.

What else is left to say, but “I love New York!”

Miriam