city TRIP

new york city

Visiting New York for the very first time is like that Christmas Eve feeling for little children. They can't wait to open the door to the living room and marvel at all the glitter and sparkle. With amazed mouths they jump from one gift to another and devour joyfully one by one sweet treat.

So familiar this feeling is still today, it's as if it was yesterday when we jumped from A to B just to make sure we didn't miss any sights of the Big Apple. Ten days should be enough for that. And they did – and yet they didn't.

So we got up early, slipped on our most sporty running shoes and went to Greenwich Village to explore our "Hood". Afterwards we crossed the High Line up to Chelsea. Then headed east to Madison Square Park, northwards to the Empire State Building until we reached Central Park. The following days were timed similarly: We walked – partly with tight steps – through Soho, to Tribeca, up to The Battery and towards the Statue of Liberty. On our way back – and shifted down a gear – we made tasty side trips to Little Italy, Chinatown and East Village. 

Now finally, after the first few days and most of the checked off points on our bucket list, we were ready to enter the hip crowd of New York. That meant: less sightseeing, more people-watching. And New York really has a lot of those ones to offer, and they are no less admirable than some of the city's sights.
We found them everywhere: on Broadway, at Times Square, of course in Central Park and in stores in Soho, Lower Manhattan and the West Village. The inhabitants of the Big Apple showed themselves with tremendous self-conception, great frankness, and an ease worth emulating. A coolness from which we were far away at that time ... After all, we were just children with open mouths who visited New York for the very first time.

USA, September 2012. | All words and photos by The Sturgheons.