It’s that time again. Time to say farewell to the city we fell in love with in 2010. All those years ago we thought it was a trip of a lifetime. It was. But once she gets into your blood, you can’t stay away. 2011 was a quick visit and by 2013 we were visiting for a month each year.
This time it’s 23 days and our last meal tradition is always a burger at Shake Shack. So we are up early and packed by 11.00am. We head out. One last call into Sephora for Mardi and we then loop back for our burger. We sit and watch the passing pedestrian and vehicle traffic on 8th Avenue. It’s a very grey wet and dark morning. The burger is good. Warm. Filling.
We leave the restaurant and walk back in the rain. Two AKA umbrellas over our heads. It’s time to say farewell.
New York isn’t so much a holiday for us as a life journey. As we change over time, so does the city. It evolves with us.
By 2019 we’d made nine trips – since 2010 we’d only missed 2017, due to work commitments. The pandemic delayed our tenth visit, but we always knew we’d be back. The big question for us this time was whether the magic we’d discovered between 2010 and 2019 would return.
The pandemic changed us all in different ways. It changed people, cities and how we all interacted.
We’d created traditions such as Bosie. The pandemic forced its closure. We loved our regular high teas.
A visit to Eleven Madison Park, a fine dining Restaurant. While Eleven Madison still exists the pandemic changed it. It is now a plant based space. We sampled it in a pop up in Sydney a while ago and it wasn’t our thing. So we didn’t visit this time.
But some things never change. The splendour of Central Park, the charm of Greenwich village, the vibrancy of Union Square and the arctic wind that blows right through when you’re walking the High Line.
We discovered new experiences. Tea at Harney and Sons. The Upper West Side. Walking without a plan. We’ve experimented more with food and enjoyed more steeet food, especially in Queens. And that’s part of our evolution. We’ve been a bit slower, a bit more relaxed this time. Don’t get me wrong we’ve seen and done a heap, but we’ve also taken a breath. We know the city so well. So getting anywhere is easy and not stressful. We’ve done so much in ten visits that this time we could walk around with our head up a little more and really absorb and enjoy the differences, enjoy the experience. We are also a little slower these days. It’s been 13 years since our first visit and we’re now in our mid-fifties.
The evolution will continue. As I said New York is a journey for us. It’ll last as long as we can, I suppose. Direct flights from Sydney aren’t too far off. Which while long will remove the hassles of a stop along the way.
Today as we leave we see first hand how changeable the city is. Yesterday it was sunny and 18 degrees. We leave with temperatures around 5 degrees and an inch of rain is currently washing its way through and across the city. Washing the city for the next wave, the next phase of evolution. In a way cleansing it for what’s next. The key thing being no one knows what’s next. That’s the ultimately beauty of New York and why we keep coming back. You never know what’s next.
