Stepping outside the box in NYC

For a claustrophobic person like me, the concrete jungle was sometimes unnerving when I was unable to see the horizon or orientate myself amongst all the similar buildings.

I grew up in the countryside of Latvia—the very remote countryside, where there were very few people and the closest shop was seven kilometres away. Despite being quite shy in this sheltered environment, I was very ambitious and goal oriented and knew there was a lot of the world I had yet to discover.

I’ve loved travelling since I can remember. Starting from day trips with my classmates and weekend trips with my parents, followed by international travels with my friends and my first solo trip to Italy and Switzerland. It took me around a year of exploring Europe before my wanderlust heart started to crave more.

My best friend and I decided to make our first trip to another continent.

Like many others, I held a few stereotypical beliefs about New York City and the United States in general. I had a picture in my head of what it would be like and my imagination ran wild until finally, the trip began and we landed at one of the biggest airports in the world: JFK.

​Arriving at JFK

The first thing I noticed was that the security systems in US airports are very advanced and well-organised. After sharing my fingerprints, having a photo taken of my exhausted face, and getting my first US stamp in my passport, we moved over to another station where everyone had to get their luggage checked and throw away veggies, meat or other edible things. The officer was very surprised when he noticed that we didn’t carry any luggage apart from our backpacks (got to travel cheap, light and fast). This came in very handy once we realised it was taking us several hours to get to our Couchsurfing host in Brooklyn.
 
Tip No.1: Do NOT take the Long Island Rail Road train. These trains are much more expensive than usual metros and it’s very easy to get lost on them. Don’t fall for them, despite them being the first available form of transport into the city once you get out of the airport.

Transportation

The highlight of our journey to Brooklyn was getting on a Rastafari bus for US$2 at Flatbush Ave. As our host told us, Flatbush Ave is the only street in NYC where you can find these buses. They are used mostly by locals, so when we got on the bus (with very obvious ‘European girls with no clue about where they are going’ looks on our faces), we got our first introduction to the culture.

As we drove through the streets and sat with these New Yorkers, we noticed the immense scale of this densely populated city, and how many people are competing within it—many of whom struggle with everyday life. Cars are on the streets day and night, and the sounds never stop. Despite all that, my first night’s sleep in NYC was deep and, surprisingly, undisturbed by any noises.

Tip No.2: Buy a weekly MetroCard (costs around US$30) for unlimited access to all metro stations and download the offline metro map. There is free WiFi in all underground metro stations so whenever you get lost, just look for a close metro station.

​Walking the city streets

The next morning we realised that true to what we had heard, garbage is everywhere—inside plastic bags and outside of them, cans, bottles, food, etc. I never knew people could throw out so much food every day. You might think that Manhattan is much cleaner (depending on the place of course), but garbage bags are everywhere in the city. And random smells. In some ways disgusting, but other ways unique and so different from European cities. Imagine yourself walking along the street to have lunch with your friend and bam—random smell—like a dead mouse, rotten burrito, gasoline and Chinese food all together. Everyone should experience something like that... or maybe not.

Money matters ​

Getting acclimated to the city meant accepting some things—like the fact that in NYC almost everyone tries to get your money. Homeless people, street musicians, street actors (or tourist catchers?!) who dress in costumes and pose for selfies at Times Square. There are so many places to spend your dollars too—so many places to buy things and pay for different types of entertainment, but also lots of places where you can donate money to help someone in need and feel good about giving something back.

City life and NYC landmarks

New York architecture is so different from European cities in so many ways. Looking at the skyscrapers alone, especially the most iconic ones like the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, etc., makes NYC’s skyline so unique. For a claustrophobic person like me, the concrete jungle was sometimes unnerving when I was unable to see the horizon or orientate myself amongst all the similar buildings. And then the weird feeling of looking at Manhattan from Staten Island, and all the buildings looking so small. The whole city almost looked like a Lego city with a few million Lego people living in it.

Of course, certain aspects of a new place sometimes fall short of our expectations. The Statue of Liberty, for example, eaten by a giant dinosaur or destroyed in an apocalyptic flood in US movies, looks quite small and innocent in real life. One of NYC’s most famous landmarks and biggest tourist magnets seems almost exhausted by all the crowds and ongoing attention. It’s like a beautiful girl, loved by millions of tourists and depicted in all possible forms of souvenirs, but tired of the fame. So we left the girl alone and waved at her from the ferry.

Tip No. 3:  Try to get on a Staten Island ferry. They operate very frequently and can be used for free.

​NYC eats

NYC food is something else. Gaining weight is as easy as eating a doughnut, or two. Burgers in the US are definitely better than in Europe. There are also various kinds of healthy foods available, although fresh and healthy usually means expensive and results in, “I will just have a pizza instead.” I recommend trying most American foods—red velvet cake and cheesecake, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream (a dream!), burgers (especially Shake Shack), even Chinese food from Chinatown, and many other things. We only live once, so I would rather have a bigger booty as a reminder of my amazing time in NYC than regret not tasting all the wonderful things it has to offer.

The people of NYC

I want to highlight one more thing that is very different from Europe in the best way—people in NYC are the most polite people I have ever met. Strangers on the street or in shops apologise even if they barely touch you by accident, smile at every customer, and happily help you find your way. This is one thing I would like other cultures to learn—to be more open-minded, helpful and polite to each other. I felt really welcomed in this city of over eight million where, despite the crowded spaces, so many people seem quite lonely.​

Getting back to my home continent and seeing the calm everyday life in Oslo, Norway (our stopover on the way back to Latvia), made it almost hard to believe that just an ocean away is such a different and busy, non-stop chaotic existence: noise, lights, people hurrying to live and struggling to survive. It makes me wonder how diverse this world is and how much we can all learn from each other.

Author - Ilze Geke

Tourism student with the most beautiful and exciting addiction – traveling. My passions are nature, food, mountains and people from different cultures. You can find me at https://www.facebook.com/ilze.geke and  http://whilewearehere.com/