Destination No3: New York
From Frank Sinatra’s famous lyrics to the vivid mindsets that were created, New York has been the birthplace -literally and metaphorically- for many of the artists and movements that have changed the face of the world.
I must have been about eight years old when I decided that what I wanted most in life was to visit New York one day. Too many movies, too many songs, too many legendary stories of wild nights and of course the main legend that this is the city that never sleeps. It was for me what it is for a typical eight year old the thrill of meeting a dinosaur.
When I decided that “this is it, I am going”, I spent a lot of time thinking about everything that made me wanting to visit NY and why that longing never stopped. I could recall myself in different stages of my life thinking that this is the dream in most of the encounters I had with music, cinema, art, books.
People always told me: It’s too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. So I chose June. One the sweetest months in the whole year. It was raining for a couple of the days but then the sky did us a favour and kept those rain drops away for the rest of our trip. I think I spent a whole day at the Central Park just doing what the Americans where doing…sunbathing. My Dark Grey Turkish towel never really left my back pack. I used it to dry myself when it was raining and to lay down when the sun was shining!
I was lucky that all my expectations came true: from Patty Smith’s favourite Chelsea Hotel to William Borrough’s EastVillage, from Guggenheim to the MET and the MoMA, from Carrie’s favourite Meatpacking District to Brooklyn Heights, I was gobsmacked.
I recall that there was a moment, while inside the MET, I had to ask for a bit of guidance as everything was oh my so overwhelming, it made my head spin and my heart rate reach a sky height.
Somewhere around Soho I found this little bookshop and I jumped inside. I found a book filled with poems about the city. I told myself: “this is mine thank you very much”.
I arrived in New York with a mental suitcase full of excitement and a secret love for a place I never knew and left with my inner child deeply grateful.
On the plane back to London I was thinking: now that my dream came true, what’s next…?
Will I find another dream to dream? And I did find plenty. And one of them is to go as soon as possible back to where the streets have no name.
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