Everything is kind of in overdrive.
I’ve arrived in New York with a lot on my mind which is really not that helpful, because the city isn’t taking it easy. The flight was ok, but I wouldn’t recommend flying with Continental. They aren’t bad or something, but there are definitely better airlines to pick. The food was kind of weird and not tasty at all.
The good thing about CO: landing in Newark. You get a great view on the New Jersey port and NYC. Landing along a highway is also fun and the airport isn’t all that far away from the city, so that’s not an issue either.
As soon as you step out of the airplane, you will know that you are in the US of A. It’s fascinating how they don’t really need to exaggerate on TV shows and movies. The authenticity is mind boggling somehow. Seriously, I’ve stepped out of the gate after I’ve picked up my bags, got myself a coffee at Starbucks while waiting for my uncle to pick me up and a guy was purposing to his girlfriend who just came on the same flight with me. It made me smile and it freaked me out.
But that’s how they role here and in a way, it’s fun and exciting. For a European it’s just very unsettling, but since it’s not my first visit here and I’m not a full fledged European anyway, it’s easy to get used too. After all, my family here a long time and feels very american already. After so many years it’s not a surprise, but it’s interesting how we as a family got spread around the globe and how it merges when we meet up again. Clash of cultures meets family love.
I’ll give you a simple example: the food. I like Russian food, but I’m not eating all that often anymore. My mom isn’t cooking it a lot and I’m not visiting that much anyway. But getting here, you get this totally mind blowing mix out of Russian recipes and american ingredients. It tastes good, but it sure is something.
And than there are the conversations. I’m very convinced that social study groups would be happy to listen to us. Big family, moved a lot from one strange country to another, ended up being all over the world and is coming together in New York every couple of years. You can’t make this shit up and I honestly don’t know how to describe it. It’s weird, but I wouldn’t want to miss for the world.
But anyhow, back to Newark or better my trip after that. My uncle picked me up, but he needed to finish something up so we took a long trip through New Jersey and Brooklyn. And I loved it. It brought all those memories back and ending up in Coney Island just an hour after landing in New York isn’t the worst thing. Your instantly getting what New York is all about. It’s not everything about Manhattan. Brooklyn and especially CI does even have a different smell to it. But than again, Brooklyn has a larger population than Berlin and I’m guessing it’s more diversified too.
The next day I’ve been in the city. I took the express bus from Staten Island – which takes something over an hour – and it was a good thing to do. You driving on those highways and the city and it’s infrastructure is slowly inhaling you into its system. Urban life in the US seems always so much rougher, because it’s somehow more opened up, but it helps to get what it’s all about. There is yet again this strange authenticity to it.
I had a bit of time to kill in the city before my meeting with Nancy from my New York office, but that’s kind of a none issue if you are in New York. After meeting my other uncle for coffee, I’ve strolled around for a while and ended up being in the MoMA lobby. They have a public wifi there, so it’s not only worth a visit if you are looking for culture.
The rest of the day flew by me without really being easy. My cousin picked me up in the city and it took us 2 hours to get back to Staten Island. Friday evening roads in the city … it’s really as bad as it supposed to be. The following hours were filled out with food, more food and after that some more food. Meaning: I’ll seriously need to swim a lot after coming back to Germany.
After that we went for another ride. To Williamsburg, to be precise. My other cousin is working there, we met up and the girls wanted to show me around. Which they did. It was a fun evening, but since my soul is still trying to catch up with me in New York, I was tired as hell. 3am felt more like 7 or 8 for me.
And that concludes my first experiences here in New York. I bet most of you didn’t make it till the end of this superbly long blog post. ,)
Read with interest all the way to the last line. ;)
— Jerry · Mar 6, 06:58 PM · #
Made it to the end. Great post. I have a lot of family in NY too an totally get what u were saying
— Sam Figueroa · Mar 6, 07:11 PM · #
If a blog post is that authentic, like yours is, there is no problem with the length. I really envy your days at NYC. Seems to be a cool trip. Have fun!
— emzo · Mar 6, 07:34 PM · #
Nice Gibson-reference ;-)
— Johannes · Mar 20, 09:37 AM · #
I have lived in Ny for fifteen years, feels fresh and brings me back to my early days in NY after reading your post.
If you visit again come see a wonderful art collection in Greenpoint ,
Cheers, Wayne
— dapainter · Mar 26, 03:21 AM · #
Oh yes, I have to agree dapainter. You just brought up many of my memories about this wonderful city. I miss it a lot. Espacially the variety of cultures melt together to a wonderful mixture. I enjoyed walking around in Brooklyn, at first there is the Orthodox Jewish quarter, than the Polish quarter just in the north of Williamsburg or the Russian quarter in Coney Island. Sometimes you feel like being in a completely different place on earth.
But this weekend in Berlin, I had the feeling that Berlin is becoming like NY more and more. Don’t you think?
— Markus · Apr 22, 05:40 PM · #
Berlin is definitely a substitute drug, but it’s not the same drug as New York. And that’s a good thing.
While in Berlin, I almost feel at a place where I’m living. Sure, I’m visiting a lot and that lifts the usual disorientation one usually experiences while in a different city, but mostly it’s because I know a lot of people in Berlin and that creates a feeling of familiarity. This being appealing is surely not a quality of Berlin specifically. What I love about Berlin itself is this sense of a full grown city in transformation mode. It’s cheap, it’s rough and it attracts a lot of people that help change the city as we know it. It happens fast on an urban scale and even faster on the societal. Berlin is surely a fascinating place to be. It’s probably hard to find another capital of such a country in this state of … mind.
New York on the other hand has this taste of wander. You never stop being amazed by this city. Sure, it might fade after living there, but I think it will hold for a while. At least that’s what I keep hearing from my family and other people. And it might be even more intense for people with a certain awareness for urbanism. One can sure experience New York on very different levels. And there quite a few of them in this city of skyscrapers.
— Igor · Apr 22, 06:58 PM · #