jeremy in new york city!

in a matter of minutes, new york city demanded a few things from me...and i had no control (or good reason) to deny the renowned metropolis of its appetite for persistent movement...

1.  "forget everything you know about american cities..."
2.  "give me your full attention, and please don't blink...you'll miss a piece of your story here"

*(side note:  day 1 was spent inside, on a couch, recovering from a bout of exhaustion following a 5 day working binge of 20 hour days...)*

facing manhattan, from brooklyn bridge

to me, the brooklyn bridge and central park stood out as the most iconic structures in the city.  so from a friends apartment in clinton hill, on day 2 i made my way toward manhattan on the c train.  but first, making a stop off at high st. for a pedestrian marathon on and around the brooklyn bridge.

brooklyn

view of manhattan bridge, seen from washington st.
near brooklyn bridge park

i spent the afternoon mixing a healthy portion of foot and train travel as i made my way towards 7th ave. / west 34th st., near the empire state building to say hello to my friend and host, kimmie, at her work.  the city, it's streets and it's people were emphatically pulsing with diversity, activity and excitement.  there was a legitimate life and character here that i had only experienced small hints of elsewhere:  london, barcelona and prague to name a few, but none that match the genuine strength of new york's heart & soul.

5th ave.

the flatiron building:  seen from west 23rd st. / 5th ave.

my real obsession with nyc is magnified by the joy i get from abbi jacobson & ilana glazer's series broad city.  a show featuring known and little-known pockets of nyc, many of which i happened to stumble upon by accident (so shibby!).  a stroll down 5th ave. on my way to washington square park led me past the popular flatiron building (above).

one of kimmie's gigs as an e-commerce photographer.
that day she was shooting fabric swabs (top left).

and a literal jog to the broadway show the curious incident of the dog in the night-time (we were running late!) took me right through times square (above: top right).

brighton beach

brighton beach:  just south of brooklyn, near coney island

it was day 3 of my adventure and i had 4 hours to kill before catching the broadway show.  i looked at a map and followed my intuition to brighton beach.  i caught the q train from clinton hill in brooklyn and rode the 45 minutes south to touch my toes in the atlantic ocean for the first time.

central park

i saved central park for my last day...i think the anticipation i felt was built on the countless still & moving images that feature nyc's defining park.  but it was also built on my immaculate gut-feeling that there is simply something special to be seen there...little known fact?  everything about new york's central park is man made  :O

roughly 10 miles spent exploring the nooks and
crannies of new york city's central park

i had an entire day to take in the park, and i took full advantage of every hour!  central park stretches over 50 city blocks in length.  i started from the c train stop at 110th st. / cathedral pkwy and worked my way to the bottom at west 59th st.

walking up, down, left and right, i zig-zagged my way past the north woods and meadow, past the massive tennis courts and around the giant reservoir that separates the upper east and west sides of manhattan.  next up came turtle pond and belvedere castle.  and as i marched past the boathouse and bethesda fountain, i came across my central park haven...sheep meadow.  beautiful architecture lines the distance from every angle, with trees, grass and picnics filling the foreground.  it was a beautiful sight, and the meadow here was particularly difficult to leave...

me and kimmie exploring 'the plaza hotel' near the south entrance of the park  :)

an enormous thank you to my dear friend kimmie, who made this adventure of a lifetime possible!  i would never have been brave enough to tackle nyc alone.

this is the first american city i've reviewed in years, and it's indicative of the true strength the city has in it's well-refined crusade to continually grow and thrive.  new york city, quite candidly, took all the best things i love about the worlds finest cities, and packed it into the 2 small boroughs of brooklyn and manhattan...

to new york city and it's 8.5 million people, thank you for such an influential experience and adventure.  the pulse of the city will never be forgotten...

thanks for reading!

- j