Over the years, I have associated the city, New York to the 9/11 attack. It is sad but true. Then later I would hear people call it the city of dreams. I remember when started my career in Lagos, I would picture myself in high-rise buildings with spectacular views of New York, juggling my tasks and having a great life. I like to blame it on the movies. Now I’m thinking Hongkong or Singapore wouldn’t be a bad idea.
I arrived in NYC in mid October, the weather was great. A bit chilly but sunny. My boyfriend had told me to take the train so I opted for that. I hadn’t factored in that I would be doing a great deal of walking. It was a mission to get a taxi, I had no idea where I was in relation to the hotel I would be staying at the time. I thought to myself I would just alight and get a taxi. I stood for approximately 30 minutes and couldn’t find a taxi, so I looked for a hotel nearby, connected to their WIFI and ordered an Uber.
Now came the funniest thing, my hotel was just three blocks away. Unbelievable, if only I had a map, I would have navigated my way seamlessly. I did ask a couple of people for directions but they acted clueless and were not keen to help. Maybe they couldn’t understand me because I was pronouncing my T’s
While I was experiencing my waiting chronicles in Manhattan, I couldn’t help myself not looking at the different characters the city offered, life seemed fast, people with different characters passing by, destitute chilling by the road side, traffic and endless noise from fire vehicles. It was original and the real life. It did reminded me of Lagos, Nigeria where I am from. I remember telling my sister, this is Oshodi in Lagos.
This was a different kind of holiday for me, City break that requires no effort on dressing. I would have been fine with a couple of t-shirts, jacket, jeans and trainers. I had just 4 days to spend so I needed to get on to my to-do list.
Here is what I got on to:
Day 1: Shopping
Since we are being honest, my boyfriend had told me about an outlet mall where I can shop at a discounted price, so we headed there on the first day. That was where I spent the whole day, browsing the shops and buying. The mall is an hour drive from Manhattan but it was worth it.
Day 2: Exploring the city and theatre
I had no idea I could walk that far, it’s the longest walk I have done till date. we started off at Time square. We saw the Twin towers, walked on Liberty street, Broad street, Wall street, saw the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn bridge, Empire State Building. Literally all the landmarks I had seen on the television over the years. It was a fantastic experience. We just kept on walking and reading about the historical moment about these places.
Later, that day I went back to the Hotel had a change of clothes as the weather became cooler then we headed to the theatre. It was chicago the musical . I Absolutely loved it.
Day 3: Rockefella, Madisson Avenue and Freedom Tower
Then, I decided to continue my walk around the city the following day. Had a nice lunch at an Italian restaurant next to St Regis on Fifth Avenue after which we then headed to Madisson Avenue, Rodeeo drive, and Rockefella center. We ended the day on the roof top cheering to happiness with unlimited glasses of wine and cocktails. Actually, we left for a Spanish restaurant afterwards where I had the sea food Paella, my absolute favourite.
I was too drunk to remember the name of the restaurant, it wasn’t planned we only stumbled across it. I remember it was few blocks from the theatre on 49th Street. It was the best Paella really.
Day 4: Wining and Dinning then, an Early Night
I didn’t really do much, went to a nice steak house and had a couple of drinks while my boyfriend and I just chit chatted the entire time. I later picked up some souvenirs. Had an early night as my flight back was in the early hours.
Overall, I had a great experience in NYC. I had no bad experiences with food. Although, the life was fast in New York but i’m fine with it as a tourist. Would i like to live there like I dreamed of when i was younger. NO!
