America + Canon = Photostory to share (part 2 – New York City)

For the last half hour I'm trying to figure out a good introduction for the 2nd part of my American story. As you can see in the title, it's about New York. The problem is that I have a feeling that there is absolutely nothing new I can say or show about New York City.

There are so many articles, books, guides, photos about it and I wonder is there anything left for me to say?

There is. My opinion.

In NYC you can do whatever you want. Go wherever you want. Whenever you want. Dressed however you want. And no one will care about it. When you come from a small country and a small town where you can feel a lot of judgement around you, that can fell liberating. And that's how I felt about this city.

We were there for a week and we wanted to experience as much as we can so we bought a NYC City pass which gave us a lot of benefits, discounts, free tours etc. It's hard to mention absolutely everything we saw/visited/tried/experienced, so I'll stick to some main points.

Let's go through my week in the concrete jungle.
Since during our week we didn't have any concerts or games at Madison Square Garden we decided to go on a tour to see it. Which happened to be a great idea. They showed us the whole arena, talked about significant events that happened over there and we even entered the VIP apartments as well as the locker rooms. Fun fact – there is one major event for every date in a year that happened in that arena. And one more - Justin Bieber sold out the arena the fastest!

A stand out and something worth mentioning is definitely a Broadway show. Those few hours of my life are among the best ones in my life. We witnessed a remarkable human beings who are really at the top of their game. The show was called The Paramour and it was a combination of Broadway musical with Cirque de Soleil performance. I call that a double success. We were all in awe, from first till last minute.

Visiting Broadway, Madison Square Garden, Madame Tussauds and all the similar places is definitely worth a visit, but when in New York take some time to go on the Times Square and just stand. Stand and watch. Forget the photos, the sharing, the social media , you'll have time for that. Become aware of all the people that surround you. I don't know if there is any other place in the world where you can see so many different people at the same time. Embrace that. Who knows, maybe you'll notice someone who stands out in the crowd.

One more place in New York had the similar influence on me. NY subway. I believe it's a city under the city. We got lost there. We skipped the stations. We tried to find the station for 2 hours during the night, because there were some constructions. We failed and called Uber. We almost missed a bus for another city because one subway line that day didn't work. We carried 6 suitcases on the stairs to the station because we couldn't find elevator. We climbed down, just to find out that it's the wrong direction. We separated by accident, while our phones were dead. We were confused, angry, frustrated. Yet, we loved it.

In my previous post I mentioned how I love viewpoints, because I feel like they are the connection between a person and a city. In New York I proved my theory. We climbed the Empire State Building and Top of the Rock. One was during the day and one during the night, but both were equally breathtaking. For me, when you see all those buildings, standing high and tall, it's like witnessing the self-confidence of the city. Like New York was daring us to go back down and explore everything he has to offer. Of course, we accepted the challenge.

During the week we dedicated to take one day to visit botanical garden, SOHO, Little Italy, East Village and Chinatown. It was a great way to experience the city just by randomly wandering around and finding out the hidden parts of the city. SOHO and East Village are my favorites.

One passage simply needs to be dedicated to Central Park. Since it's really enormous, we rented bikes so we can see as much as we can. It was so much fun and we loved what we saw. So many people doing so many different things. You feel like you're capable of doing anything over there. I think one picture perfectly captured variety of possibilities.

You assume that we didn't just walk around, not eating or drinking anything. And you're right. So, I want to mention three places that I will remember from this trip. Number one is Ellen's Stardust Diner. Typical American diner? If having singing and dancing staff is what you mean by typical, then yes. It's super fun, you get your food with music an they try to get into Broadway. Win-win situation. Next restaurant that took my heart was Havana Central – a Cuban atmosphere in the heart of New York with delicious food and lovely ambient - a must. Last but not least is 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar. Drinking cocktails while looking at the Empire State Building? Sign me in please.

Three more places are left for me to mention here. Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn bridge and Grand Central Station. All of them are well known to everyone, so I'm not going to go into details. They made a great impression on me. On lower Manhattan we rented a sailing boat which gave us some amazing views. I was also deeply touched with the part where 9/11 tribute center is.

Brooklyn Bridge was on walking distance and we had some nice afternoon chill time. While Grand Central Station made us feel like we are in some kind of movie. One photo from that place I appreciate a lot. I'm not going to interpret it. Create your own opinion.

And that's it. New York was something special on this roadtrip. I saw so much.
And still, there is so much left for me to see. I'll be back. I'm sure.