New York Nuances

📖 Note: This post is from the archives. It may reflect outdated views or a previous name.

I travelled to New York as part of my adventure to find a new city to call home. My journey began on December 4th 2014 when I woke up at four in the morning to travel six thousand miles by air from YVR → Sky Harbour → Newark. I arrived at my Airbnb in East Williamsburg, with help from my Uber driver at roughly nine in the evening. I was staying in a smallish sized Artist Loft where pizza is expensive and hipsterism is rampant.

I was in New York for a week, eagerly waking up every morning to venture out in the brisk winter city. My bedroom held a loft bed, with a rickety old ladder climbing up to the elevated oasis. Every morning I climbed down to a distinctive squeak, got dressed and packed my bag for the trek ahead. I can not really say that I loved the vibe, but I can definitely say that I loved the food scene. On my way to the M train, I would stop at a food truck on Flushing and Broadway for a bacon and egg sandwich. I found that New York has a distinctive gap between amazing+expensive and amazing+cheap.

I have to admit, I loved the music scene in New York and no… it wasn’t in some fancy venue. It was on a subway or in a train station. I must’ve given fifty dollars over the week to talented musicians and singers. It was amazing to see, especially when some of the musicians played with just a pair of drum sticks and a few buckets.

Whilst exploring Times Square I was approached by a lady selling tickets to a pair of comedy clubs for just twenty dollars. I coughed up the money and made my way over to the first venue and I have to say –– I cried… in laughter. Between the food and buskers, this was definitely one of my other favourite experiences in the city.

One of the reasons that I was not too fond of New York was the anger in the people. I have travelled to San Francisco, Seattle, Edmonton and lived in Vancouver, but I have never seen behaviour like I have in NYC. I was waiting inside the Flushing Ave station, to purchase a weekly pass when I noticed a man was making a commotion because the automated machine did not print out his ticket. The man angrily walked to the front of the line, budging in-front and asked the officer in a harsh tone “Why wasn’t my ticket printed?”, the transit officer behind two-inch tempered glass politely asked him to wait in-line “like everyone else”. He did not like this, because he formed a pair of fists and punched the window, the entire booth shook and then he proceeded to run up the staircase adjacent to the ticket machines to jump on a train. I witnessed two other situations similar to this one and I was not impressed.

I experienced New York in a couple of ways, but I am nowhere near finished. I have taken helicopter tours and climbed up to the eighty-sixth floor of the Empire State building, but I would like to return in the future to explore some of the other districts. I found the big apple was exhausting after the first couple of days. Cultural, exhilarating, but exhausting. For me, New York is just another vacation spot and definitely not my future home. If you enjoyed this article, I’d really appreciate a recommendation.