I arrived in New York on a late Greyhound and somehow figured out the way to my Hostel collapsed and sat in wait for my Soulmate* (who was working at a different camp and had just finished) to turn up... I waited a while but eventually she appeared weary and tired. That night we hit her camp leaving party in New York where I met so many new people, danced in a very crowded room, got blisters from my flip flops which kept sticking to the floor, walked round the block a couple of times and got hugged so many times I felt like a teddy bear. A wonderful night. The next day we went on the Staten Island Ferry, turns out there isn't much on Staten Island but the view of NY is beautiful. We then had an accidental nap and had to rush to get ready for the next camp leavers party she was supposed to go to. We figured as we had done the last night all we needed was an address and we'd be fine; that's the problem with things going so smoothly the first night.Somehow we ended up in Harlem late at night and the ticket machine for the tube wasn't accepting notes... luckily a lovely woman gave us change for a dollar (or we were seriously considering jumping the turnstile) and we got out of there. After some more random wanderings we gave up on the after party and went to starbucks (still open though it was getting on midnight) we then decided it was time we went into central park.
This is the moment I fell in love... with New York, maybe it was something in the coffee but before New York was noisy a little annoying and too big, then the sun went down and something magical happened. At night New York is the insomniac city it reaches that beautiful slightly restless calm, mimicking the state my brain gets to. For the first time I was walking round a city that felt like I did, it is truly a city that never sleeps.
We then found an open apple store and utilised there internet before heading to bed (I think we finally got in at 4 in the morning). The next day we packed and made our way to Central Park again to lounge on the grass in the sun and then we made our way to the train station for our 19hr train (that ended up a 21 hour train) to Chicago.
*she chose the name
