New York City, did Rosie mention it was one hell of a crazy place? You walk around with your mouth hanging open for the first couple of days not quite believing the chaos you have found yourself in.
Stand still and let the ebb and flow of city swarm around you. The traffic sweeps past in a never ending river, people 8 abreast push past on the footpath, look up and you feel so insignificant and small dwarfed on all sides by towering glass. The noise is relentless, the car horns, sirens, people talking into their hands free mobiles, doors slamming, rubbish being collected, bottles being emptied from the bars. Combine the noise with the movement and light from never ending waves of neon signs, day morphs into night and it is still as bright as mid day, you know why it is called the city that never sleeps, it dosent, it is alive and it will devour you if you let it.
As a tourist the city is so far removed from anywhere Rosie has ever been, it is exciting and different and within an hour you too are mesmerised by the promise of the city and all of the different experiences it has to offer. Your walking pace has quickened to match your accelerated heartbeat and with a smile on your face you are ready to devour the Big Apple, and what a buffet there is to choose from, it is overwhelming.
Rosie and The Operator did the standard tourist biggies over their five days there. Next visit we would book an apartment in one of the villages of Manhattan and just wander, soak up real life living and see if we could survive. Shop in the markets, picnic in the park, walk and shop the length of 5th Avenue, eat out and see a show every night…..it would still take 5 more visits to see everything there was to see…..and then again New York city is not standing still either, it too is evolving, so new things appear around every street corner.
New York is a city that has something to offer everyone, fame, fortune, anonymity, excitement, isolation and adventure. If you were born there and new no better…..the rest of the world would seem a pretty slow place…..then again its nice to be able to take a slow long breath…….there is no time for that in NYC.
