NYC, the city that never sleeps.
When my friend Maria was in town we made plans to hit up NYC for a day! Eddie, Maria & I hopped on a 2 1/2 hour train ride and y’all when we walked into Grand Central Station my eyes lit up. I haven’t been in a ton of train stations in my life – but my goodness there really is nothing like seeing that place in person. It’s kind of one of those “is it really real” type places – you see it in movies and tv shows so often it’s almost like a movie set vs an actual hustling and busting place.
I think we ended up walking 12-16 mies that day.
We walked through some of Central Park, hit up time square, and walked by a TON of must-see landmarks. I literally can’t even list them all but we filled our eyes with some gorgeous scenery and incredible people watching. We didn’t go into the city with a plan other than seeing Ground Zero – everything else just kind of fell into our laps. Ground Zero was truly a humbling, sobering, and completely overwhelming experience in general. To be in the place where so many lost their lives on that horrendous day, where our world literally stopped and changed forever. Monumental isn’t even a big enough word for what the experience was. I will say that I think I have even a different perspective now than I did a year ago…being married to a man who is in the military and whose job is to help defend our country…it just tears all of my heart strings.
My first overall impression of NYC – wow.
Lots of beautiful buildings, interesting people, tons of shopping and food choices, and a list of 10,000 things to go see and do.
The serious fast-pace everyone runs at can be a bit much at times – but I learned quickly after moving to the north east that people are always in a rush and kind of cold about it…so I just put on my “I’ve got to get somewhere” face and hustle along with them.
I also wasn’t really prepared for the smell.
NYC stinks – at least the main streets we were on. There are a few of those small little “cities within cities” I want to go take a look at on our next trip and maybe it won’t be so bad – but dang…it was a constant mix of meat, urine, garbage, and gasoline; weird combo.
Riding on the subway was an interesting (and fun) experience!! I loved being able to hop from one end of the city to the other in a matter of minutes – I mean seriously, it beats walking miles on miles on miles!
Times Square was a really cool place to see. All the screens and ads, the vendors and tourists, and OH EM G – TRL!!! We didn’t see the Naked Cowboy, but we also didn’t walk around the area too much. I quickly learned how much the really big tourist areas weren’t really my jam; I preferred the smaller more quant areas. Also, Tiffany’s – woah, did you know that store has like 4 levels?!?!? We only stayed in the first level, because let’s be honest it’s kind of crazy to walk around all that expensive jewelry!
When we go back I would love to: see a broadway play, take a workout class at Athleta, go to the top of the empire state building, explore central park a little more (especially the zoo!), and visiting some of those more quite areas.
Do you have any favorite places in NYC?!
Tell me all about them so I can add them to my list for next time.
