Only been in NYC for 2 days and already joined a cult! Haha (Rooftop bar at 230 5th Avenue)

New York is a different beast. This much is true.

I’ve started this post and deleted it, only to start again, and delete again. New York is a difficult place to write about because it’s always different. I’ve been here for six days now, and I’ve had incredible highs and crummy lows, captivating conversations with heaps of interesting people, and solitary afternoons spent walking along the boardwalk. I’ve felt like the luckiest person in the entire world looking down on the city from a rooftop bar surrounded by amazing people, and as if I’m too small to matter in the grand scheme of things while talking to a stranger over brunch. The city is made of an eclectic mix of people and you never know if you’re going to be sitting next to an opera singer at a juice bar, or end up dancing next to a rocket engineer from Italy at a cute bar / nail salon, going to a haunted house with a Jersey boy, having lunch with a partner of an asset management firm who just flew back from Bermuda, getting to know a lawyer / UN intern over drinks, or even making random street conversation with a Russian speaking African-American bouncer who is in the midst of writing a book about the city. You can’t even begin to expect any of these things, but I’ve found myself in all of these surprising situations, and more! So where do I begin?

Coney Island boardwalk

I tried recapping just my first three days in my journal and it took me eight pages! I don’t think you want to read all of that, so I’ll give you a quick rundown of the highlights:

Landed on Monday night.

On Tuesday I got a new phone and made new friends by making random conversation during lunch at a deli, in the waiting room before a meeting, and at a mingler event. I also did a bit of walking around Times Square and Central Park, and stayed up until 3am doing some work.

I spent most of Wednesday writing, took a walk along the boardwalk to Coney Island in the afternoon, and went to another event where I met someone in the lineup who introduced me to all of his friends (who are all amazing and loads of fun). After that, we all went to another event at the swankiest bar I’ve ever been to and then had a late night snack at a diner. I think I got back around 3am.

Terri Romeo, Fashion Consultant and Personal Shopper at Macy’s

Thursday was a rainy bum day. After spending the morning writing, I was supposed to tour NYU and then grab a drink with a friend but both were cancelled last minute. I wandered around the city and did some shopping before heading back.

On Friday I met up with Terri, who I met on Tuesday. In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t mentioned any other names so far because I’ve found that New Yorkers tend to be more private about their personal information (I found this out when I wrote my full name on an event name tag and eventually tore off the last half because everyone was telling me it wasn’t safe). I’ll mention Terri’s name though because she’s a personal shopper at Macy’s and if you ever want to book a free appointment to go shopping (and get a staff discount), she’s the one you want to ask for; Terri Romeo. After shopping, I was supposed to go for coffee with another friend from Tuesday but we ended up ditching that idea for a horror / magic show (Times Scared) and dinner at Carmine’s (HUGE portions!). Fun times!

Saturday’s original plans were cancelled due to the weather (winter fair), but luckily someone I met at Wednesday’s second event was back in town so we went out for lunch at Gravy and he gave me a tour of the surrounding areas. In the evening, I met up with the group of friends from Wednesday and we went dancing at Beauty Bar. Loved the music and the dancing! I didn’t get back until about 4am and pretty much crashed after that.

This morning, Terri and I had brunch at Harefield Road in East Williamsburg and snooped around the area. I spent the rest of the day catching up on errands and recharging my batteries (literally and figuratively — I’ve been running on about 5 hours of sleep each night and my cell phones both had to be recharged).

Looking forward to what this week brings!

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Times Square

All the TV shows are back on air and I’ve begun to notice a common theme: New York. It’s the city where two broke girls are now living together, where Pan Am takes flight for the first time (this season anyway), where a guy tells a long-winded story of how [he] met your mother, the place that Glee members dream of moving to, where six friends found each other, and home to a diner that Seinfeld frequents just about every day. It’s also the place where Spiderman had his first kiss, the Devil wears Prada, a shopaholic can’t get enough green scarves, you can have breakfast at Tiffany’s, a girl meets Santa at Macy’s on 34th street, and four women find sex [in] the city. It’s no wonder everyone searches for flights to New York at least once in their lives — both the big screens and the smaller ones in our living rooms have programmed it into our minds to go!

After receiving my social security card in the mail I’ve found myself especially drawn to the bright lights of New York because now I have an opportunity to actually see everything the city has to offer — something that takes much more time than a single visit. After seeing photos from one friend’s trip to MoMA, hearing another friend’s story about a chill underground jazz club, listening to another friend’s adventures trying to find the best clubs in NY, yet another friend’s trip to East New York for cool sneakers at a discount, and another friend’s research on graffiti in NY, and then even another friend’s vacation in Manhattan, well I’ve realized two things: 1. I have lots of really cool friends who have been to New York at least once in the past year, and 2. I have to go back to New York because I obviously didn’t spend enough time there on my first visit.

The first time I visited New York, I was with Ang and Morten on our circumnavigating trip around the USA and we were all still sick from having caught Morten’s bug way back in the southern states. We arrived at night and took the train to Times Square for dinner at a pizza shop with really rude servers (so rude in fact that I almost walked back over to them to tell them off). The next day, I had originally made plans to meet BJITW Angie Orth but felt so craptastic that I bailed (which I regret because I haven’t been able to catch up with her since). Ang, Morten and I spent the day walking around the city, Central Park, and ended up back in Manhattan with my old high school friend Dani who took us on a tour of his office right next to Times Square and we had dinner at a little vegetarian curry place in the Village. We left the next morning, but not before visiting New Jersey for cupcakes. Our little tour of the city felt rushed and now I feel like I’ve missed out on a lot. So friends, I’m compiling a list of “Must-Do!” things for the next time I go to New York and would really appreciate your feedback: What do I have to do the next time I go to New York?

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While I was in New York a couple of weeks ago, I got to see Jon Gosselin in the flesh filming an interview for The Insider in Times Square. I’m sorry my picture turned out so blurry but my camera is virtually useless at night.

Jon Gosselin on The Insider

While standing on the ledge to get a better view, a girl in front of me left with her friend saying “Yeah, I’ve had enough of Jon.” I thought “how true.” The Gosselin’s have been in such a strong spotlight — and a negative one at that — for so long, that I think everyone, fan or non-fan, is sick of hearing about them.

I guess it’s not a bad thing that the show has ended, but it’s still so sad that it had to end this way. Jon looked angry / gloomy the whole time I was there. It’s such a stark contrast from the clips of him from three years ago.

I’m in Moscow staying at Comrade Hostel, which is run by a really nice English speaking guy named Denis. He’s very young for an entrepreneur of a business like this (at least younger than most I think); he’s 28. I’ve been enjoying my stay here and like hostels MUCH more than hotels. They not only smell better but they’re cleaner. The best part of staying at hostels though is the fact that you meet so many cool people! I’ve spent most of the last couple of days here wandering the city and visiting The Armoury, The Kremlin, Red Square and spending oodles of money on ridiculously overpriced food and drinks with Mika from San Francisco and Ben from the UK. To give you a sense of the prices here: I had a small espresso (about 30 mL) yesterday for about 80p (~$3) and ended up spending 500p ($20) on a small soup, a very small glass of juice, and a larger cheesy pie appetizer the day before that.

Mika and Ben left last night. Mika will be going down to Mongolia and then China and will spend a year traveling. Ben is stopping in Irkutsk before Mongolia and will also travel all throughout Asia before coming back up and taking the Trans-Siberian from Vladivostok back up to St. Petersburg.

I will stay in Moscow until Saturday night because I’m dying to go to Izmaylova Market when all the stalls are actually full (on weekends). We went yesterday but only about 10% of the stalls were open. Mika and Ben were pressured into buying some Russian hats which are very cheap here in comparison to other cities — partially because the quality is much poorer here. Their hats cost 500p ($20) and 1000p ($40) respectively.

I was going to go to a fancy bath house today but I feel so lazy that I just don’t want to put in the effort to go. Denis recommended going at night because it’s so relaxing so I think I’ll go tomorrow night.

I met my pen pal from Moscow last night. Her name is Sasha. We walked to Christ the Saviour Cathedral (this giant white church by Moscow River), on this really nice bridge over the river towards the Red October chocolate factory, through GYM (a fancy shopping center) and had their creme brule ice cream (which they’re known for), and just around town where she explained a lot of things about the sites that I had visited which was great because I’ve been a tad confused about what everything means here. For example, the day before yesterday I saw some people standing on a spot outside the Kremlin and making wishes and throwing money. I decided it was some sort of wishing spot so I did the same and asked Ben to take a picture for me. Because he was facing the Kremlin with the camera, I turned away from the Kremlin to face him when throwing my money (I forgot to make a wish ) and this Russian dude said something about how I was facing the wrong way. I was afraid I had just given myself 7 years of bad luck or something by not facing the Kremlin. But, Sasha told me that it doesn’t matter which way you face. The spot doesn’t have anything to to do with the little church that’s by the Kremlin (which I thought it did because that’s what most people face when they make a wish). The spot is supposedly the 0 km mark where all the maps start from so people think that if you make a wish there it will be more likely to come true. It may be touristy but I plan to go back and remember to make a wish this time.

Right now my roomies include a young couple from Denmark (Christine and Rasmas), Essen from Pakistan (who hates Russia — it was his first stop and he was supposed to leave about 2 weeks ago but they won’t let him leave the country because of some Visa complications), and Louise from Australia who has been living in the UK and will travel through Russia and Asia on her way back home. Poor Louise has also been having some trouble because her ex-boyfriend decided it would be a good idea to send her cash and travelers cheques to her by mail to Russia and lose the tracking number. The package is now MIA and untrackable. I’ve heard many horror stories about traveling. Rachel from New York who I met in Irkutsk was pick-pocketed in the Moscow Metro. But, she has such a great attitude about absolutely everything so nothing seems to bother her.

I think instead of the bath today I will go to another market that Dan from Atlanta has recommended. I hope to get some of this marshmallowy candy he got the other day too ’cause it’s rather yummy. Funny, I find the thought of markets more relaxing than a bath. Maybe it’s because Louise has told me that everyone goes to the bath naked and I’m not too comfortable with that idea.