When In New York … - Valeria en el Mundo

oh, new york. new york. new york.
how do i begin to describe thee?
insane, fast, of astronomical proportions,
but simultaneously deprived of space.

just kidding, i’m not here to write you a poem about new york city. but instead i’m gonna give you a little insight into my short time spent in the big apple almost two weeks ago. yes, it took me forever to get my unicorn shit together; but what else would i be, if not the greatest procrastinator in the history of this wordly world?

two weeks ago, my best friend and i traveled from el paso to dallas, texas, then to newark, new jersey. after, of course, getting lost trying to find the shuttle that’d take us from the airport to the train station in newark, we took a surprisingly short train ride to penn station in new york city. walking out of penn station into the street was a sight i’ll never forget. coming from a smaller city and stepping out into the busy nyc street can be overwhelming. with the weight of a thousand small children on my backpack, i breathed in the smell of trash and some sort of corner stand peanut concoction and stated to myself that i was definitely not in texas anymore. people were every which way i could think of looking and magnificent buildings towered over me, to the point where i had to tilt my head all the way back to see the top of them.

getting the hang of how the streets worked and which direction they’re numbered in proved a difficult task, but not an impossible one. armed with siri and her gps skills and a handy pop-up map of new york city, we found the herald square subway station on 34th street that would take us one step closer to our abode for the night.

after riding the n subway all the way to astoria, we met up with my friend alex, the amaze person who took us both in for the night. that night, we had dinner at this cute little place called the sandwich bar and their roasted pulled buffalo chicken sandwich was completely amazeballs. we paired that up with an order of their greek-style fries, which were baked home-style cut fries with feta cheese and oregano, and a cold glass of la fin du monde to start out our adventure just right. my mouth waters depressingly at the memory.

we checked out a few contenders of the new york city nightlife. we went to the standard hotel that has an amazing rooftop bar with an amazing view of the city near the high line (a newly renovated train track turned into a very nice park in the chelsea area). cielo was a club highly recommended to me by an electronic-music enthusiast like myself, therefore it was a must-visit. the venue was nice and unlike anything we have back home. with a huge, glimmering disco ball and sudden bursts of smoke that filled the dancefloor, cielo did not disappoint. we saw anjunadeep’s matt lange play an amazing set at a hole-in-the-wall, underground-rave kind of club called slake. the sounds of deep house drowned me that night, as i danced in a sea of people who were definitely a lot more intoxicated than i was. last place we checked out was pacha, where the anjunadeep label hosted an after party for the main event, and main reason why i went to new york, ABGT 100 (Above & Beyond Group Therapy) but that’s another story.

food was one of the things i was most looking forward to in new york. the thought of the other-worldy, famous new york pizza made me salivate in disturbing proportions. granted, i had been in new york once already back in 2008 and had been dreaming of that delicious pizza i was lucky enough to have tasted four years ago, but this time around blew those memories out of the galaxy. so much so, that we ate twice at artichoke basille’s pizza even though it was kind of far from where we were staying. hands down, this was absolutely the most-heavenly pizza that my lowly taste buds have ever been given the pleasure to indulge in. shit, i’d go back just for the pizza. i mean, please, tell me you’re not salivating at the mere sight of this …

the city is home to an air of a never-ending fast pace. it almost feels like you have to always have a clear purpose to walk the streets, anything to not merge in with the huge amount of tourists everywhere. it’s beautiful and it goes 100 mph every second of the day. i couldn’t leave the big apple without trying a corner-stand hot dog and that i did … i must say i wasn’t entirely impressed, but as my best friend quotes, “no ragrets.” i was able to document short parts of the trip and i promise i will share that video as soon as youtube stops being a little shit and lets me use the damn song i want. mark my words, it’ll come. also, an entirely separate video regarding the actual event i traveled so far for, aka godly #abgt100, will come in addition … if youtube ever decides to cooperate.

we, along with hundreds of people, showed up to times square on friday, oct. 17 for the premiere of above & beyond’s brand new music video for their newest song, “we are all we need.” granted, it was rather anticlimactic since there was no sound to the video; but it was an interesting experience seeing how many people from all over the place showed up to times square for that sole reason.

things i learned in new york city:

1. walk fast and walk with a purpose; or be ran over, bumped into or forgotten about.
2. the subway is not entirely the unfriendly, dirty place i saw back in 2008, but a rather convenient means of transportation (get the unlimited pass, it’ll pay itself off).
3. anticipate the red lights, avoid the tourists and you’ll cross a street faster and almost hassle-free
4. ignore the people you want to be ignored by.
5. eat pizza; and eat lots of it without regretting it for a second … or 5ever live in oblivion (artichoke, artichoke, artichoke).
6. walk central park, even if just for 20 minutes. take in the great green nestled between tall buildings and a sky that’s hard to see.
7. get a high-vantage-point view, be it from the top of the rock or the empire state building, you won’t regret it.
8. stroll down the high line. better yet, go on a date to the high line.
9. visit times square at 3 a.m., you’ll have it almost all to yourself.
10. that peculiar smell of this very city will remain in your nose for about 24 hours even after returning home, you won’t forget it even after it’s gone.
11. new york city is not a city that’s impossible to reach … see it, at least once.