When you travel, do you often want to see so much of the place you are visiting that you end up needing more than 24 hours in a single day?
I spent 192 glorious hours in Manhattan with my dad over a decade ago. It was Summer, the days were swimming in sunlight, the evenings were mild and time passed so steadily, it felt natural to wander in Central Park and take time to sit on a bench and watch the world go by. There was no city rush, no queuing for sightseeing and certainly no huddling in busy restaurants and bars.
This was a time to pound the streets, see everything outside and alive. It was a time to let the city envelop you, kick your senses into gear and press you onwards to the next sight, smell sound and sun drenched statue.
One particular Statue, the Lady of Liberty herself, was the particular subject of our wanderings one blissfully beautiful day. We had risen reasonably rested and made our way downtown to Battery Park. Jumped onto the Circle Line; gazed back at the dock, the island, The Big Apple as we made our way out onto the Hudson River towards Liberty Island.
Having seen her some two years before, I returned as a friend does out of fondness and familiarity. But, as it so often does, Manhattan had much more to share, and my quick visit turned into more than 3 hours of walking and talking on that wonderful island. Gazing up at the green lady in all her splendour. Turning back towards the water and seeing the skyline of Manhattan stretched out before us and watching seagulls following ferries here and there. Ferries going to Ellis Island, to drop wanderers off and picking the newly educated up.
We took another ferry that day. From the tip of Battery Park, you can, for free, take the Staten Island Ferry from Manhattan to its namesake 30 short minutes away. Tourists often do so to view New York’s harbour from a completely different angle and perspective. The angle is much different because you are able to see the much broader scope of the entrance to the Hudson River, and in the same view both Liberty Island (very small of course) and Manhattan and it’s harbour. You see, the Staten Island ferry is a commuter ferry, and it transports millions of workers each year to work on Manhattan island. The fact that it is free has it’s obvious merits with tourists too. Once on the Staten Island side you can go and explore, or as most do, wait until the ferry is ready to depart again and hop back on. And that is what we chose to do, a decade ago. It all seemed very cool and as if we were in a secret club.
Once back in Manhattan, we found it was already mid-afternoon. We strolled through the big city streets and found ourselves at the site of the fallen World Trade centre. At this point in time, it was a large square pit. Empty. Wire mesh fences surrounded everything. There were memorial pictures hung everywhere. It was, in truth, both humbling and devastating to behold. It will stay with me for many years to come.
Now, as we had found out early on in our New York escapades, time was not our friend. Our days were crammed with ‘we want to see this and we want to do thats’, our addiction to strong coffee based concoctions was by then as strong as the need for blood in our veins. With the walk to Chinatown and Little Italy still to make, a hit of the good stuff was needed, pronto!
We found a Starbucks, round the corner to one of my favourite stores in all of Manhattan (Century 21) and ordered the necessaries. I don’t remember what was said, drank or what but I remember the doors, they were the revolving kind, the table we were at was small and there weren’t many other tables or sitting patrons. People flooded in and out going about their day. Their routines. And all of a sudden something got us right in our bellies. A laughter, for a reason forgotten to me now, took us and shook and shook and shook us until with eyes streaming and faces red we found it difficult to breathe. Even upon stopping, we only had to look again at each other, and the laughter erupted once more. As people came through those doors the look of confusion at these two crazy people only spurred the laughter on more. Eventually, and I truly mean eventually (!) the laughter subsided and we went onto to explore the pockets of Chinese and Italian cultures.
We only realised later that exhaustion had found us in that vast city. It had hunted us down and although we clung to that beautiful caffeine for strength, it bore us down and claimed our sanity as its own.
And in all honesty, I didn’t care, and nor do I now. Wherever you go, whatever you want to see or do. Take the insanity. Shake shake shake every second out of the time you have when you have it. It’s yours. Yes we made it to Little Italy that day, our feet hurt, we were tired, the caffeine couldn’t help us anymore. But we did it. It was beautiful. Blossoming out onto the streets were families eating dinner together, it was early evening, the sun was low in the sky, gorgeous smells wafted from kitchens and laughter serenaded the breeze.
The next day my feet no longer hurt, I had slept, I was no longer tired, all I remembered were the good moments. Liberty. Laughter. Love.
Best believe me, the next chance, the very next chance we got, we were gulping down a coffee concoction and racing off to see more. Insanity or not. Time’s not to be wasted.
Framework Travel 