Our life here was just a momentary illusion, and someday reality would yank us back to the world we came from.
- Sputnik Sweetheart, Haruki Murakami
Wednesday 10 June 2015
Travel Vlog #2
Our life here was just a momentary illusion, and someday reality would yank us back to the world we came from.
- Sputnik Sweetheart, Haruki Murakami
Tuesday 9 June 2015
New York
Everywhere you travel to, it's true that you leave a piece of yourself in that city/country. A part of you lingers there -- maybe it's your soul, or maybe it's just a memory -- but it's still there, living, breathing, existing there as part of you.
The most memorable city for me was New York City. Staying in Manhattan for a week opened my eyes to the world out there. The bright city lights that sparkled throughout the night, but also the dark and dirty society that coexisted within the city. To say that New York is the city of dreams may be an overstatement, a utopia created for the naive and the hopeful. Walking through the streets of Fifth Avenue or Lafayette or Broadway you seen skyscrapers that tower above you, with stores like Barney's or Bergdorf Goodmans screaming "money! money!" left and right of your peripheral vision. People of every age, every nationality, strutting down these cobbled pavements hawking their branded wares, but then when you look down you see the homeless clothed in their winter wear on a hot summer day, dirty and without a care. Inequality reeks heavily in the streets, yet nothing can be done for it is too far entrenched to be salvaged. The underground is horribly unreliable and sewage is bad, yet for those that have never been there, all is amazing and sparkly.
People always shoot the beautiful parts of the city -- the juxtaposition of new and old in the muted palette of old fire escapes in Soho; but if you turn to the opposing street, it's the dirty and drab Chinatown where perhaps I don't wish that my apartment even had a fire escape.
Everything here is glamourised; the coffee, the food, the buildings, the people. Superficial happiness should I say. Things are over priced, people give you fake smiles, I don't really know anymore.
However to qualify, New York sure does have a certain charm of independence. It's not a city to start a family in, but it's a city where you find yourself or should I say lose yourself in. Imagine a day where you wake up and grab a coffee at the cafe down the street before heading to work. Perhaps having lunch in the park before heading home to go for a run along Brooklyn Bridge with the sun setting at late hours. There after enjoying a cozy night with friends at the nearby bar, or the uptown sushi restaurant, or crying over the new episode of your serial with a tub of Ben and Jerry's. Eating salad is the norm and you do lots of walking. When it's time to visit home you can spend hours in the car on your phone just because you're stuck in a jam on the way to JFK airport. On days off you can shop your woes away or you could lose yourself in one of the biggest museums in the world. Everyday, you can do whatever you want however you want, because it's an open society, it's New York, it's America. There are tons of people so nobody knows you, or the chance is low, but you can start anew.
Leaving off with a positive thought about New York, which is how I'd like to remember my stay as doing all those things as said above. It was truly an experience.
The most memorable city for me was New York City. Staying in Manhattan for a week opened my eyes to the world out there. The bright city lights that sparkled throughout the night, but also the dark and dirty society that coexisted within the city. To say that New York is the city of dreams may be an overstatement, a utopia created for the naive and the hopeful. Walking through the streets of Fifth Avenue or Lafayette or Broadway you seen skyscrapers that tower above you, with stores like Barney's or Bergdorf Goodmans screaming "money! money!" left and right of your peripheral vision. People of every age, every nationality, strutting down these cobbled pavements hawking their branded wares, but then when you look down you see the homeless clothed in their winter wear on a hot summer day, dirty and without a care. Inequality reeks heavily in the streets, yet nothing can be done for it is too far entrenched to be salvaged. The underground is horribly unreliable and sewage is bad, yet for those that have never been there, all is amazing and sparkly.
People always shoot the beautiful parts of the city -- the juxtaposition of new and old in the muted palette of old fire escapes in Soho; but if you turn to the opposing street, it's the dirty and drab Chinatown where perhaps I don't wish that my apartment even had a fire escape.
Everything here is glamourised; the coffee, the food, the buildings, the people. Superficial happiness should I say. Things are over priced, people give you fake smiles, I don't really know anymore.
However to qualify, New York sure does have a certain charm of independence. It's not a city to start a family in, but it's a city where you find yourself or should I say lose yourself in. Imagine a day where you wake up and grab a coffee at the cafe down the street before heading to work. Perhaps having lunch in the park before heading home to go for a run along Brooklyn Bridge with the sun setting at late hours. There after enjoying a cozy night with friends at the nearby bar, or the uptown sushi restaurant, or crying over the new episode of your serial with a tub of Ben and Jerry's. Eating salad is the norm and you do lots of walking. When it's time to visit home you can spend hours in the car on your phone just because you're stuck in a jam on the way to JFK airport. On days off you can shop your woes away or you could lose yourself in one of the biggest museums in the world. Everyday, you can do whatever you want however you want, because it's an open society, it's New York, it's America. There are tons of people so nobody knows you, or the chance is low, but you can start anew.
Leaving off with a positive thought about New York, which is how I'd like to remember my stay as doing all those things as said above. It was truly an experience.
Friday 5 June 2015
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