new york city, new york. (iv)

actually the greatest thought about new york that stuck with me for a long time even after i went back to milan was that it was once a brutal and a wretched city with a very high criminal rate. lots of immigrants came to the city because it was unsafe and therefore it was cheaper. and the fact that it become one of the safest cities now means that it had been through a lot of effort both by the government and the people. this for me is what differentiate new york city and other major european cities. the evidence of the uglier past was still evident especially to tourist like me on the subway system. this gives hope to other developing cities that they can actually be great cities with good effort and planning. like it or not i can't help but comparing to my hometown because of the same characteristic, like how plural the society is, from races to social classes. and somehow it gave me hope that with a good planning, someday it could also be a good city.

of course all these views about new york city was are just glimpse of my very short stay. i need to stay much longer to really perceive it more. i need to read more to understand the process of planning and what makes new york city, new york city. but what is sure for now is that it was the most inspiring city i've been to. it has too much to offer. like my friend who once lived long enough in new york city, if you couldn't find it in new york, it probably doesn't exist.

new york city, new york. (iii)

now this one here deserves one single post because it's easily my favorite part of new york city. the midtown manhattan. maybe partly because of it's the image of new york that i mostly associated the city with at the back of my head. like the image of manhattan i expected it to be. another reason is maybe because i was raised in a metropolitan city without nature at all, so i actually enjoy the view of nice skyscrapers shaping a nice skyline of the city. now don't get me wrong because most of the skyscrapers in my city are ugly. but here the older buildings looked actually really nice and the color palette was just beautiful. it reminds me of the palette of helsinki. out of the mostly beautiful art deco older buildings you can easily tell how ugly the newer buildings are with all blueish glass.

the picture in nine small similar images might not do justice for it. each deserve a blow up image cause i really enjoyed every angle of this part of the city.

new york city, new york. (ii)

i think the awe towards new york city has a lot to do with the fact that everything feels familiar in a way because you know the city a lot from the media; from movies or tv shows you watch, books you read, songs you listen to, or from your study. like you know them at the back of your head as an imagination. it's maybe like feeling how your imagination appears in real life in front you.

the first night my friend took me with our take away dinner to sit at one of the ferry points in east river in brooklyn overlooking manhattan skyline. that's the first moment that got me like, "holy, i'm in new york". and i can say that that was basically how i felt almost the whole time i was in the city, except when i fell sick due to so many reasons, which wasn't cool at all.

like when we were walking down the street of manhattan and suddenly we arrived at times square, it was really unexpected for me. like we all know times square. but when you're there it's a completely different feeling. you got to feel the vibe that couldn't be translated in any form of media unless you're being there. then there were lots of many more places that turn from just names into a real experience of the place: williamsburg, brooklyn bridge, greenwich village, east village, battery park, bryant park, central park, the guggenheim, moma, lincoln square, grand central, the high line, bowery, chelsea, soho, park avenue, fifth avenue, harlem, chinatown, and a lot others.

new york city, new york. (i)

it felt surreal to me the fact that i was going to new york. even saying to the officer at barajas madrid airport, "hi, i'm going to new york" felt rather surreal because i never thought i'd go this far, at least not in this period of time. it was a rather impulsive plan i had been having for couple of months but i always thought it would end up just as a plan. but turn out that it didn't.

new york killed me. it really is something else. i would say that it's the best city in the world, now that i have been to 29 countries, and i've lived in paris and madrid. it's not just about what you see but what you perceive. it's the people, it's the vibe, it's everything.

what struck me the most was how it felt like a utopian city to me. everyone is a foreigner. everyone came from somewhere else in the world. everyone is welcomed. being someone who is struggling with identity my whole life, i could instantly relate and felt belong to the city. having the precaution of how new yorker could be very individualistic and everything runs in fast pace, at least twice i experienced the kindness of total strangers.

new york inspired me. it has everything to offer. it made you feel like you wish and you want to spend your daily life there for some longer period of time. to really feel the life of living in the city.

new yorkkkk!

moving the tape a lil' forward out of the chronological order, just because i've been having this acute euphoric post-new-york syndrome. best city in the world, i have to say. hands down. more about it later on.