History is happening in Manhattan/and we just happen to be/in the greatest city in the world
— “Schuyler Sisters,” Hamilton
July 29, 2019
New York City is probably the only city in America my West Coast heart has ever longed to see. 10 hours on a layover from LAX to Brussels is not nearly as long as I could’ve spent exploring this manic wonderland, but it was also a perfect taste of a city I could definitely see myself living in one day.
7:03 am. Touchdown in Newark, NJ. The plane comes into the airport heading South, so if you’re lucky enough to have a window seat on the left side of the plane, you’ll catch an orange creamsicle, hazy sunrise view of the whole city during descent (guess it was my lucky day). A quick change, breakfast and latte at the United Polaris lounge and we set off on a train to Penn station in Midtown Manhattan.
With highs of 90s projected for the day, we decide to hit Central Park before it gets any hotter. Its only a half hour walk from the station to the southernmost end of Central Park but also feels like 12 miles through Satan’s armpit. Halfway there we pass through Times Square and take some mandatory pictures with the giant neon screens. There are ads and signs for Broadway shows EVERYWHERE. My whole musical nerd heart does a backflip every time I see a marquee for a theatre on an offshooting street. (Quick question: when did Pretty Woman become a musical? Just asking for a friend.)
The walk began with extremely crowded sidewalks but after about a mile, the other tourists begin to wander off and there are fewer people targeting anyone with a large backpack or suitcase into buying a bus-top tour of the city. As we get to the park, they reappear, this time selling bike rentals and carriage rides through the park. Although we’re all sweating, I prefer to stroll through freely and we make our way to the only landmark I specifically want to see — the Carousel. I don’t want to ride it, just watch the little kids on the horses and hear the carousel music, and I am not disappointed. Other notable sights: the tunnel where homegirl gets attacked jogging in You as well as the steps where Blair and Chuck get married in Gossip Girl. There’s a fountain and terrace by the lake and an older gentleman singing classic love songs, as well as a guy making those giant bubbles with string and a bucket of soapy water.
My mom wants to go to Strawberry Fields and see the mural so we head west to the spot where John Lennon was murdered. I sat and people watched for a bit, and listened to “Imagine” on a bench. So many tourists from all over the world come here and I feel honored sharing a last name with such an influential musician and dreamer. I guess love was and is such a radical and scary idea to some that people die for believing in it.
After two hours of walking, we’ve only seen the bottom quarter of Central Park. But now the sun is really blazing down so we decide to head several blocks east to Serendipity 3 and cool down. I hail my first cab (just like the movies! except I was very conscious of trying to avoid looking like I was heiling Hitler) and am WAY too excited about it.
Serendipity, def.:
- the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. 2. my favorite (maybe tied with La La Land) movie of the same title, in which Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack meet, fall in love and return to each other in a series of happy accidents in NYC.
In the film, they flirt and share the above (1st) definition and their belief in it over a cup of frozen hot chocolate in Serendipity Cafe. I have 4 solid items on my bucket list and for some inexplicable reason, drinking a frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity Cafe is one of them.
The inside of the cafe is so eccentrically decorated, there was even a disco ball over our table. The drink itself was sooo good and taste exactly like hot cocoa that was turned into a milkshake. I’m excited to come back one day and try their actual food, which I did not know they had. *protip: don’t underestimate the size of the drinks, we still didn’t finish it between the three of us.
I asked the waiter about the spot/table where they actually sat in the movie and he pointed me upstairs and told me to check it out whenever. Definitely a highlight of the day.
Meanwhile, my mom’s favorite NYC-based movie is Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Half a mile from Serendipity, we enter Tiffany & Co on 5th Ave. I don’t know about diamonds being a girl’s best friend, but that Tiffany blue does look great on literally everything. Which is what they’re selling, all 5 floors of the huge store. One day I’ll take my mom to have afternoon tea at the chic tearoom on the 4th floor.
From Tiffany’s we catch a cab to the Empire State Building, which I only thought we were going to see from the street. 86 floor later, we’re looking down on New York in all four directions. For the first time, I truly understood what people mean by people looking like ants. The pedestrians of NYC in their crowd-weaving, hurried chaos really do look like ants on a mission from above. Looking at the United Nations building in the east, I realized that I could very well love and live in New York one day. Not forever, but for some time in my youth I’d like to claim this city as home while the hectic energy still excites me.
A short walk from the building later, we catch a train back to the airport where we shower and have dinner at the same lounge. I genuinely wouldn’t know what to do if I couldn’t shower the day off or didn’t have a change of clothes before the next flight. At this point, I’ve technically been up since 4 am California time and the long day is getting to me. As soon as the plane begins to depart, I fall asleep.
Only to be woken up two hours later as make an unplanned stop in Canada for a “medical emergency.” Not sure if I can say I’ve been to Canada without stepping foot off the plan but I’m sure this is just the first of many accidents and changed in plans that makes up traveling. Two hours and a refueling later, we take off once more for Brussels and thus begins my European adventure.
Everyday Escapes 