New York, New York

Describing New York City is the most exciting yet the hardest piece to write. I’d been to New York City 10x, and the longest visit I spent was 14 days. Everyone loves New York, literally a concrete jungle, and 24/7 alive and kicking.

My first visit was unplanned; we just woke up one day and decided to come along with my housemate who worked in NYC every weekend. Wow! was the first word I uttered the time we went out from the Penn rail station. Huge old buildings, tall buildings side by side, yellow cabs, walking people of all races, lights, lights, lights, lights and lights everywhere, even at noon time; street and subway performers were everywhere, it was a joy to see quick alternative from Broadway. It was unbelievably gigantic display of advertisements, lights and artworks. I was surrounded by gigantic UFOs, ETs; one cannot see the whole sky in New York. The spectacular display of how a first-world is was overflowing. When we reached Times Square, ohhhhh I was melting.

Everything in NYC is incomparably entertaining; the city itself is a real TV. I loved summer when people taking their business suits off and spend rest of their lunch time lying down in Bryant Park. Street live fashion-show-like is an everyday happening and sighting especially in 5^th Avenue. Central Park is even more romantic and livelier when covered by snow. Visual arts, music, libraries and theaters are widely awake from Brooklyn to Jamaica; and Spider Man is a real persona in New York.

It was unexpected seeing an old friend from Manila supervising Jolibee in Queens, while I was queuing for my first ever “state-side” chicken joy. Queens is a little Asia continent in NYC, where immigrants from Asia are residing, from the Philippines to Pakistan. Filipinos, of course are most likely to be seen, where they set up convenient stores, karaoke bars and restaurants. It actually looked like a clean-town version of Cubao. Meanwhile, the New York’s Chinatown exactly looks like China. I was in disbelief hearing people who lived in New York for ages and still don’t speak English. Signage in stores were in Chinese, the only American thing I observed was the $ sign.

New York is a walk-friendly city. Expect most people walking long-distance. One time, I and my roommate in a hostel walked from 9am until we were dead tired at past 5. It was a non-stop 8-mile sight-seeing around – we walked the whole of Central Park, and all avenues and streets in Manhattan, and from Chinatown to Brooklyn.

It’s just amazing that regardless the number of times I’ve seen NYCs boroughs, I am always overwhelmed and enchanted by its beauty. One thing I liked about New York was that people were busy doing their own things, yet they still tend to sincerely smile back. #

That’s me outside the New York Public Library

Me and my best friends in Times Square

Having fun with the Statue of Liberty

Me and friends at the roof top of stunning Empire State Building

Me and my hostel roommate from France having a lunch break from our walkathon day

Another unexpected reunion of old friends from Manila, after 10 years.

With friends at the famous Coney Island

The snowy Central Park during winter

Laughter moments with Pinoys in Queens

The only consulate in the middle of NYCs high-end 5th Avenue

Enjoying reggae music in Queens

Captured this lovely moment at the Rockefeller Center

A few meters away from NBC New York

The mermaid statue in Rockefeller Center

Statue of Liberties for sale outside Penn rail station

A street vendor selling key chains

A funny posted photo of the President eating Gray’s Papaya’s hotdog

Spider Man casually walking in Times Square at dawn

A scary number of tourists coming down every 30 minutes to see the Statue of Liberty

Kids waiting to see Ellis Island

My friend feeding free birds at the Liberty Island

We were lost!

The 9/11 Memorial in Battery Park

An Italian tourist singing Italian song with one of the many New York’s great street performers

Three lovely ladies in Subway

The Yellow Taxi, of course

This dog knew how to pose

One of the many bird species flying free in Central Park

A smiling Latino kid in Subway

Brooklyn Bridge

Bryant Park

Johnny Depp in Madame Tussauds New York

World Cup craze in New York streets

Rockefeller Center

The Strawberry Fields in Central Park, just across John Lennon’s Dakota Apartments where he had lived and murdered

The uber-famous in Hollywood movies, Bethesda Terrace and the Angel of Water statue  in Central Park

At the American Museum of Natural History

Another famous in Hollywood movie scenes such as Spiderman, the St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York

Central Park with snow