World, I’m coming! A-1
“Don’t look up!” someone told me. He said not to draw attention on me. I’m a tourist after all.
Well, I guess I failed
In my letter from me to me, I reminded myself of my lack of risk taking. Truth be told, I love my comfort zone. It’s just too cozy for me to think about leaving it. But I believe it is time for me to start moving. I want to live, fully, and experience different things. I want to see the world and to meet people. I want to discover and to learn, so that’s what I did.
Welcome to New York !
Ahm… wait, first let’s do a stop in Philadelphia.
After waiting for four hours due to the two hours delay of the flight, I finally left the International Airport of Denver. To be honest, I am a bit scared. When I was younger, I would often get sick while traveling in a car. Also, my last flight experience was not so pink. Fortunately, the flight will only last three hours and actually went pretty smooth. My delay, however made me miss the last trains in direction to New York. It is 1 AM and I am stuck in the airport. What to do?
- Wait for the next train to come
- Go to the city center with a cab
- Call an Uber driver
I was supposed to take one train to the city center and another one from there to New York. But since I missed the last one, I have to wait during 4 more hours for the following train. This is way too much waiting to do. Especially since the airport is getting emptier as time goes by and my stomach is already growling. Next option then!
There was a Cab driver at the airport when I arrived there. When he saw me, he asked if I wanted him to drop me off. Considering the fact that it is getting late and the emptiness of the airport, I thought about it. But he wanted to charge me way more than an Uber would have done. Plus, I am not quite sure. I mean, I didn’t request him so… Anyhow, I ended up saying yes after bargaining with him (African instinct ?). When I finally went outside, something happened. There was a police car parked right behind the cab and as I was walking toward him, he mouthed “Continue, continue”. So I continued, and did as if I didn’t know him. I walked for a moment, touching my phone to seem busy and went back in the airport. Uber it is!
I requested an Uber driver who arrived less then 2 minutes later. As soon as I heard his voice, my African detector went on. He is indeed African, Nigerian actually. It was nice. We talked about many things. We talked about this and that, about life and struggles, about love and fear… interesting, right ?
3 AM, Amtrak Train Station. The train to New York is scheduled for 5:15 so I have two more hours to kill. This is my first time in Philadelphia and in a Train Station actually. I am alone and don’t know what to do. After thinking about it for few seconds, I walked around looking for a place to charge my phone. I am hungry and am starting to feel tired. I then decided to sit down somewhere and get some rest. But instead, I took my note book and started writing about my adventure. I even asked a stranger if he could take a picture of me.
I wrote for a moment, and took a break to get ready for my train. It is 4:30 in the morning and more people started arriving.
The ride lasted about 2 hours and I arrived at my friend’s house around 7:20 AM. I was literally dead so I took a nap.
It is my first time in New York and the first thing I had to deal with was the weather. God it is freezing! Being in Colorado for almost two years now, I got used to a pretty changing and warm temperature. It could be cold in the morning and warm in the afternoon. It could rain or snow one day and the sun would be bright the next day. The weather here is rough. I literally spent my whole week in a coat. However it didn’t keep me from visiting some pretty nice places.
Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges
Two days after I got in Brooklyn, my friend and I decided to visit the bridge. After trying to figure out our way and the bus stops, we then stopped few miles away from it and continued by walk. It is only when we got to the middle of the bridge that we realized our mistake… we were on the wrong bridge. We had followed the road signs and ended up on Manhattan Bridge instead of Brooklyn Bridge. Bummer! We walked for a few more feet and then turned around to go back home. It is freezing and my friend had the marvelous idea of wearing her baskets. Fortunately we were able to take some pretty nice pictures on the bridge. What was amazing about it was certainly the view we had from it. We could see the highest buildings and a great part of the town. We were even able to see the statue of Liberty. Two days later, we got the chance to visit Brooklyn Bridge. The view was just as beautiful. But it was at night and the pictures didn’t come out as nice as desired.
Times Square
Going to New York and not visiting Times Square, who dares ?!? Again, it is freezing; but we are doing our best to survive. Actually, it’s when I got at Times Square that I didn’t follow the advice. My eyes were always looking up. I couldn’t get enough of the view. The buildings are huge. There are gigantic panels around the area on which we could watch Facebook lives and advertisements. Famous brands like Sephora, H&M, Forever 21, MAC, M&M, etc, are also represented along the roads. It was more than my eyes could see. I wanted to see and to take a picture of everything. I even danced on the streets near a pannel showing the US flag! I had fun, for real.
The Trains
Can I not talk about New York trains? Of course not. I’m repeating myself when I’m saying “It is a premier” but it certainly is. For many things. I had already taken a train on my way to New York but the state’s trains are way different. I’m only happy I didn’t have to take them alone. I would’ve end up lost in a station of the city. Trust me, if you don’t know your way, the struggle is real. Even when using the Maps application. What is nice about the trains is that we could travel for long distances for a small cost. Also they are running 24/7 meaning that we could always be sure to find one. But you have to be on time, the trains don’t wait for anybody. Once they depart, well… they are gone. In one of the stations I had the chance to watch some dancers do they art. It was beautiful. Seeing people doing what they love and are passionate about has something quite powerful and inspiring. I took a video of them dancing while enjoying it.
Truth be told, New York is a city where everything is always going fast. It’s like it never sleeps or stops. This can sometimes be overwhelming and stressing. Funny thing, I was there for only a week and I was already stressed out, haha.
I visited other places as well, like Korea Town but the previous points overall resume my trip to New York. All that is left is for me to point out some important points of this adventure. These are a few things I’ll keep in mind when traveling to New York during Winter:
- Always wear a coat, a heavy coat, when going outdoors. It’s freezing over there !
- No baskets, tennis shoes, and definitely no sandals. If you plan on doing tourism, trust me, you would be better off wearing some heavy- but comfy - boots (don’t forget to put some socks on).
- Keep your gloves, scarf, beanie and any other warm clothes with you. It’s cold, cold, cold.
- Grab your camera. It seems obvious but with now-a-days phones, you would think they would be enough to take great shots. Many of my pictures ended up blurry, too dark or just weird. Especially at night.
- Enjoy it! It also seems obvious but sometimes we are in such a rush and want to visit everything that we forget the essential. A trip is more than cool pictures. It’s taking few seconds to admire the views, enjoy the local meals and have real memories.
The week is over. I’m on my way back to Denver. This was a nice experience. One that I won’t forget, the weather made sure of that! I hope I’ll soon discover new places. I’m just really happy I made this trip. At least I can now say that I did some true efforts toward accomplishing one of my goals. See you soon for the next episode!
Cheers!
A-1 is the name of this experience.
One can get out of their comfort zone by doing many things. Traveling, trying new activities, meeting people, etc, are various ways trough which one can do something different. The A component therefore stands for the first domain, which is Traveling and the 1 component is the area of travel, New York.
