So, I and NYC have had a very interesting and tragic love story. You can imagine, New York is on everyone’s bucket list since the day you landed in the States. And it has taken me almost 4 years to finally be here. And I have canceled a trip to New York twice This is just counting the number of times when I have paid for the trip and did not make it. I am not counting the number of times I have made tentative plans with different people at different times. After all this time, I finally made it to New York. Things happened this time too, but I managed to finally reach there.
I live very far away from the airport and it takes me a lot of money and time to reach the Cincinnati Airport. It takes me only 2 hours to reach New York, which is very cool, and now that I have visited once, I think I am going to visit a lot of times in the coming year. But yeah, I reached New York around 10 am. Lovely, bright, but a little chilly morning.
For the stay, I decided to live in a hostel to save some money and still live close to the main NYC areas. I booked one bed in a female dormitory room and it was pretty cool. When I booked the stay, I was a little skeptical about the bed situation. I am quite claustrophobic and the beds were not like the open bunk bed kinda thing. When I did finally reach the hostel and was able to just sneak into what the room looked like, I thought it would be okay. And it was, more or less, okay. Fun, actually, had some chats with people there and it was fun!
The company that I work for, has an office in New York. As soon as I landed, I had to go there. They were supposed to get me lunch, so I had good motivation to go there. Traveling for the first time on New York subways is a task. And on top of that, I had the wrong address. I traveled to the wrong part of the city and had to get back on the subway to get to the correct address. So basically, my first 1-1.5 hours were just on Subways. After finally getting to the office, they saved up some lunch for me. It was good, I worked for a while and then left at 5 to finally begin exploring the city.
With all my experience planning trips in NYC, I had not planned anything or booked anything in terms of sightseeing or exploring the city. I was going to just go by the mood. Which is sometimes a little scary, when you have so much pressure of being in the most happening city in the world.
On Friday when I reached there, after leaving the office, I decided to just explore the area around. I saw some cool buildings. I saw the Flatiron Building which looked pretty cool. Had a slice of pizza (which you have to have when in New York) followed up with ice cream. I did the “Friends experience” thing. It was so much fun. Super super (keeping the two supers even when Grammarly tells me not to) nostalgic. That show, which spanned over 10 years but for me, it was more like 2-3 months was probably the first English show I have ever seen. I used to think that I won’t be able to relate to English shows and movies and watching this show did change that. I loved the show. The friendship among the six stars is so heartwarming. Got some cool pictures with Hugsy, the Pivot couch, and other memorable stuff from the best episodes. Post that, I visited Washington Square Park and it was a very fun visit. If you are lucky you can see the spiderman person who was pretty cool. I explored the area around Chelsea Market. Towards the end of the day, I was very tired. Had walked around 17-18k steps. So I decided to watch a movie lol. Tu Jhooti Main Makaar – the Ranbir Kapoor one. I have been wanting to watch that movie since it was released. This is the cool thing about solo trips. You can do whatever the hell you want, whenever you want.
The next morning, I started the day with a bagel. It was amazing. Apart from how busy pick-a-bagel was. I finally realized what the struggle is behind solo trips. The place was extremely busy. No one to give you recommendations. Ordered what I wanted, and then there was no one who would have reserved a table, obviously. I found a table outside. As soon as I sat there, I realized I have forgotten to take the tissues. And one thing to know about me, I do not eat without tissues, lol. When I went to take the napkins and finally managed to come back through the crowd, I realized there is no straw for the coffee. It had flown away. Following the 30-second rule and the fact that I cannot go and get a straw again, I decided to use that one. But you get the picture, that is me, wasting 10 minutes just to get started with eating. This is the real struggle.
I spent the whole day exploring the city. Roamed around Central Park, and saw all the famous spots, basically all places that SRK had posed at. The park is enormous. There are horse carriages to carry you around the park, but it is super expensive. Walked through the Brooklyn Bridge, and saw the park there. It was magical. Saw the empire state building, bull statue, and the fearless girl statue in the financial district. There was a place, Dumbo, which had a very cool view of the bridge. Throughout the day, I had Ramen which was amazing. Post that, I had cheesecake and wine. Going into a cafe and ordering wine and cheesecake without any food is awkward but who cares. It was superrrrr yummm!!!
Post that I went to the place I was anticipating the most, TIMES SQUARE!!! I have to tell you, it was the most overwhelming feeling at that moment. To think of what all you have been through, what all you have lived through, how many times you have wanted to see this place, it all seems overwhelming. I combined all this overthinking with a couple of women empowerment songs in my ears, and I started crying. As you can see, it is not very difficult for me to start crying. There was a Bollywood night near Times Square which I did want to go to. I had no one to go with of course but I still wanted to go because I love dancing, and it had been a while since I had listened to Hindi songs in a club. So I thought, worst case, people watching in a night club, does not sound that bad, right? But well, it was really nice. I made some friends and danced with a random group of people which was a lot of fun. I reached the hostel at 3 AM. That ride back in the cab was amazing. One of the most memorable nights. I am going to remember this for a very long time!!
If you ride at 3 AM with the windows down for good 20 minutes in cold weather, you can be sure of getting a cold the next day. It did not strike me the previous night, unfortunately. The next day, I woke up really late, with a very bad headache and cold. I went and saw a Broadway show. Visited the Friends Apartment. This was my first Broadway show ever. CHICAGO!! It was amazing. A lot of fun. Then, I made the bad decision of trying out the Dominique Ansel Bakery. It was a 30-40 mins wait. We were given hand warmers in the line, imagine. And it was not that good. Everything on Instagram does not taste as good as it looks. Post that, some Indian dinner, and I was done for the day.
It was Monday, and I was working. It is a new job and I did not want to take any leaves this early. I worked the whole day. Went on a welcome lunch with my teammates which was a lot of fun. Thai Villa – super amazing and yummy food!! So basically, post that, I went to one of the observatories – Edge NYC. I saw the sunset there and it was so amazing. Got a glass of champagne to toast to the sunset and to the trip in general. It was again, one of those overwhelming moments. It has an outdoor deck which is very cool. Usually, when you go to these observatories, you take a ton of pictures of whoever you are visiting with and then that’s all. Since that was not a thing I could do, I just stared at the sunset and the whole of NYC and it was very cool. Post that, I just saw the “Vessel” building, which looked pretty cool. Also, met a friend at a rooftop bar which was also fun. Finally got a picture with the Empire State Building.
Tuesday, was my last day. I had a flight out at 6 PM. I decided to do some small last minute things. Went to have a dosa in the middle of Washington Square Park. It was really good. Run by a Sri Lankan man. Very limited options though. I never realized that the cup had Sambhar until the end lol. Then I did the Roosevelt Island Tramway thing. A 4 minute ride which was very cool. Visited the High Line park and the Grand Central Terminal. Trust me to cross off everything on my list before taking a flight out. It took me so long to finally reach the airport and I was worried whether I will reach the airport on time. I reached at 4:45 PM. Pretty close. And I was very sick by then. I have a cold and a sore throat. The air hostess felt super bad for me and was trying to offer me hot water, snacks, or something. And of course, the story does not end here. United forgot my bag in Newark. I waited fro 30-45 minutes only to hear that the bag is still in Newark. By the time I reached home I was half dead. The bag was delivered today though, so overall a happy ending.
So, overall, NYC is beautiful, busy, and bustling. Very very similar to Mumbai. I love, love, love the city. Hopefully, there are many more visits to New York because there is so much to see in this city. I was overwhelmed at several moments. The big city, hundreds of people roaming around on the streets, the crowded subways, and millions of places to eat, probably can get anyone overwhelmed. Especially, if you are alone on a solo trip listening to beautiful women empowerment songs. Looking forward to a lot more trips!
