I Heart New York.

Hello and Happy Monday! 

“In New York,
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of
There’s nothin’ you can’t do
Now you’re in New York
These streets will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you
Let’s hear it for New York, New York, New York” – Jay Z

My dream was always to live in New York City and when I finally made the decision to the Big Apple from Jersey I fell in love. I needed to move there. I needed to finally do it. I needed the change. I needed Midtown Manhattan. It was love at first sight. No ifs, ands or buts! I moved into a tiny apartment but I did not care. I just needed the place to sleep, write and store my few things.  My new goal was to discover this amazing city one day at a time. 

All the museums and galleries, restaurants and areas in the lover east and west side that have so much to offer were on my agenda. In New York you have it all – in any aspect, but especially culturally. You can go eat to a Vietnamese Restaurant, then take a walk to China [Town]. This city is one of the most culturally mixed places in the world and never ever sleeps. It maybe rests a tiny bit here and there with a somewhat fast-paced heartbeat. 

New York is multicultural and has this sweet versatility that you can see and feel wherever you go. Here you sit in the park next to the poor, the rich, old and young. Artists, next to bankers, next to the sweaty Yoga girl who eats her salad on her lap. Here, people pray to different gods; or none. They go to different churches; or not. Some people seem to rush everywhere, some try to take their time but then usually get run over. Some talk to each other, some laugh and other look sad or angry. Everything seems normal once you lived here long enough. Nevertheless, it never becomes boring. Walking around downtown I always feel this electricity in the air, this craziness, the old buildings, vintage stores, little cafés with strange opening hours; usually pretty early to pretty late. All this electricity that is constantly in the air makes room for opportunities  and changes. Every day a new gallery opens up somewhere, a new restaurant or new café. So many hidden gems that still want and need to be discovered. Where does this little staircase lead to? Nowhere? Maybe to an underground jazz bar with live music, maybe to a hookah lounge with awesome food. It seems that everything is part of my life, everything means vitality. 

I just want to share two places that I love dearly. There are two restaurants that I love and always make me feel like home when eating/drinking there. Les Enfants de Bohème and Les Halles. [Les Halles Review here!] Seriously, as soon as I enter either of those restaurants I feel so special and happy to be at a place so calm and intellectual at the same time.  Such great memories! 

I am damn lucky! Sometimes I forget, but usually I remember and I am grateful. Many times my husband and I talk about how lucky we indeed are. How lucky to live in the middle of the Big Apple, so see and experience it all and call this city “Home”.

In a couple of minutes we are at Central Park. We walk around  with a big cup of latte from Starbucks, two books and a blanket. Looking over my shoulder I see the Empire State Building; the colors: blue, white and red. We observe two old gentlemen playing chess in the park. Next to them two people are dancing. Further along, someone is practicing playing his saxophone. There is always something going on! They might dance and play chess until 1 am in the morning. This colorful mixture of old and young is great to observe. 

As it starts getting colder we walk back home and decide to buy some groceries and whatnot for dinner. This little supermarket has it all we think and browse through the aisles. I ask an employee who put cans in a shelf and wears a “How can I help you shirt” where I could find olive bread. She looks at me,laughs and leaves. “Okay,” I thought while looking at my husband who smiles. The woman came back shortly with a bag full of frozen shrimp. They were on sale. “Olive bread?”, I asked again. She’s takes the bag of frozen shrimp and leaves again to come back with a bag of frozen burgers. “Everything already on it!”, she says and smiles at me. She must have detected a somewhat surprised, annoyed look on my face and offered me four burgers for the price of two. I walked out of the store with husband and burgers. We passed a little fruit cart on the way. Nobody was there to sell us anything. “Should I maybe just take some lettuce? It would be perfect with the burgers?”, I thought. “Oh, yeah, I don’t steal things!”, I say out loud and we kept walking home. A cab honks consistently and the driver curses like there is no tomorrow. “I love New York!”, we both say while the plastic bag with our burgers swings back and forth on my arm.