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Scents and Sounds of New York City

“A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe, and fifty times: It is a beautiful catastrophe.” 
Le Corbusier

New York City, on most occasions, is that place I’m not from when I say I come from New York. It seems to be common assumption that if you’re from New York, you’re from the city, which in reality is only a tiny speck of land space compared to the rest of the state.

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Most new conversations start out something like this:

“So, where are you from?”
“New York, you?”
“Oh! You know xxxxx street in Manhattan? I love it there. And the last time I was in New York we went to xxxxx.” or “My sister/boss/dog is going to New York in September! Where should they stay? Where’s the best place for xxxxx?”

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And then they get a blank stare from me because I barely know NYC at all. Where I come from in New York is a six or seven hour drive diagonally across the whole state and about 10 minutes from the Canadian border.

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It’s another world.

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The first time I visited the city I was 18. I’ve been back a few times since and I’m getting to know Manhattan a bit better, but I’m still a complete stranger there.

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It’s a place I wish was more familiar to me.

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People ask me why I live in London if I’m from New York.

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The answer is partly because New York feels too claustrophobic, cold and unfamiliar at first glance.

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I think you have to embed yourself there for a while, wedge yourself in, choose a neighborhood and make it yours before it would feel like a decent place to live.

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Maybe that’s what I’ve managed to do in London and maybe that’s why the second part of my answer to that question is because I just love it here.

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The things I find I enjoy most about New York are actually the same things I enjoy most about London: The diversity and the people watching, the mixture of languages, the quirks of city life, the creativity, hidden gems, relaxing cafes, tiny streets to explore, green spaces and street art.

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Last October and this July, Jorge and I spent a bit of time in New York City.

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More about the October trip in another post.

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This time, in July, we arrived in the middle of a heatwave so hot that people we uncapping fire hydrants and playing in water in the streets to cool down.

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It reached up to a 41C / 106F real feel temperature.

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Shower in the morning, step outside and walk 10 feet and you need another.

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This was not the norm though and there are many great things about New York that I appreciate: rooftop gardens, the High Line, shopping, fascinating architecture and cheap taxis which we took everywhere on both trips.

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I love the warm Summer evenings of New York – both in the city and upstate.

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London cools down pretty quick.

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New York also gets a point for breakfast bagels.

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We perched on bar stools every morning enjoying ham, egg and cheese nicely layered and melted onto freshly toasted bagels. London has the Brick Lane bagel shops which definitely put up a fight, but there’s nothing like the bagel shops on every corner in New York City.

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Also on every corner, there seemed to be (super cheap!) nail salons (cue necessary manicure and pedicure to escape the heat), laundromats, dry cleaners and shoe repair shops.

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While all of these exist in London they are nowhere near as prevalent.

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What struck me most about New York City this time was just how loud it is.

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There’s constant traffic, honking horns, growling busses, motorcycle engines, sirens, music blaring from cars and shops. There’s construction, people yelling, metal clanging, garbage cans banging around. You walk into a shop and someone is instantly talking to you, greeting you, asking you if you need any help.

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The noise never ever stops.

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There’s silent noise too – the constant bombardment with advertisements.

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Also, the smells seem to linger in little pockets.

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There’s sweet flower shops with open doors, fresh fruit stands, last night’s 3am piss wafting from an alleyway, the chemical scent of a nail salon, a pile of rubbish leaking rotten food, an overdose of perfume from someone heading past in the opposite direction, cigarette smoke, Chinese food stalls, pizza joints and car exhaust.

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There’s pockets of hot air and pockets of cold from air conditioning shooting out of open shop doors, from vents in the pavement, the hot spurt of air from a bus engine and heat emanating from hot dog stands.

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Apart from the assault on the senses, there’s energy in the city. Plenty of it. Excitement. Things happening.

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It’s the least stagnant place I’ve visited in quite a while.

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Although oddly, there’s a distinct lack of wi-fi, which doesn’t matter to New Yorkers with American phones, but it makes life unnecessarily difficult for those of us who don’t have 3G and have to hunt down a Starbucks (ugh!) every time we need a map.

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It seems it would take a lifetime and then some to truly know the city inside and out.

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And that goes for Manhattan alone.

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One of my best friends lives in the city. She lives what appears to be the dream life you see on TV in a gorgeous apartment with exposed brick walls and a garden on the upper West side of Manhattan making her living full time now as a writer, telling stories of shoulder brushing with Sarah Jessica Parker, shopping and travelling in her free time. She also has a gigantic friendly cat who I envision likes to curl up in her office that overlooks the garden while she drinks her coffee in the morning.

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The first night, we visited her and her boyfriend.

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We sat in her back garden drinking homemade margaritas, eating fish tacos and an amazingly fresh, simple salad with mozzarella, tomato and basil from her herb garden.

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A few nights later, we met again at The Standard near the High Line for drinks. It was pretty empty when we arrived but filled up incredibly quickly with stylish people.

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We followed that up with pizza.

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Then we caught a glimpse of a beautiful sunset over the water.

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The best food, on both recent New York trips, was the chef’s taster menu at Sushi of Gari. It’s completely worth a bit of a splurge.

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Though we didn’t venture out to explore other boroughs on this short visit, we did take a train out to Long Island where my dad happened to have a job that week and met him for dinner.

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It was a far cry from the bustle of Manhattan!

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We also took a few hours to visit the 9/11 memorial garden which wasn’t really worth the trek, but it was free and we got to see a different part of the city.

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I’m sure we will be back before long. I had fun playing tourist and skimming but I’m ready to dig in and see more of the real New York.

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Despite a great few days, we were happy to leave the oppressive heat and be back home in comparatively quiet and chilled out streets of London!

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