'My First Day in New York,' from my Travel Diaries, Date Entry 25.05.2010
New York! New York! Finally I am away travelling on my own, after graduating from Camberwell College of Arts (3 years of confusion and not really learning that much at all) then spending time working in a series of crappy and incredibly dull temp jobs and trying to sell my art not that successfully. Anyway now that is all over because I am in New York, I feel fresh, and excited about the adventures lurking ahead of me and the people I am going to meet.
I’ve always wanted to come to New York, although in many ways it is just like London, except more intense, more cobbled together, bigger and well… a little bit friendlier. The people seem like they want to talk to you here, they are interested to help you out and find out about you. The only person who wasn’t friendly was the visa man at the passport control who asked me about 10 million questions because I forgot to fill out the visa card- stupid me! To be honest I felt a little bit intimated, I have never been travelling on my own before, and to have someone ask you a question like, ‘what brings you here to the United States?’ makes you feel a little uneasy. I felt like I was doing something wrong. Okay I was just going travelling, but then that made him ask, ‘wow you’re lucky to have so much time off, what do you do?’ And I don’t actually have a defined occupation so I just said ‘artist’ which is kind of true, but kind of not. This led him on to ask further questions about what type of art I make, how much money I’m taking on the trip, which all felt just too much of a personal conversation to have with the passport/visa control man.
Anyhow I am just so surprised how easy it is to meet people when you’re on your own. After getting off the aeroplane at JK Airport I was waiting for the train to New York and started talking to 2 people. A girl from Australia called Ariel and a guy from Florida (can’t remember his name) who went to university here. They were both really nice and it turned out Ariel was staying in a hostel near me so we decided to meet up and hang out today, so it has been good to have some company on my first day in New York. Although in a strange sense I kind of just wanted to be on my own so I could do what I want but I guess that I came on this trip to meet people not be a recluse and hang out on my own.
I started the day off by sitting down in the breakfast room in the ‘Jazz On the Park,’ hostel in Upper West Side staring at a painting with mod rock hands reaching out towards me on the wall. I had arrived about 11pm from my flight the night before and had felt a little uneasy about what to expect from my very first hostel. I had been a little pissed off when I had initially arrived there because I had paid $50 online which I had thought covered the cost of the two days I was staying there. But THEN I was asked to pay a further $70 because apparently that had just been the deposit. Honestly I wish I had just got there and found somewhere to stay then.
The hostel was quite dingy and dark, but was somehow illuminated with huge abstract paintings maybe depicting the streets of New York filling up the walls. It felt very edgy and ghetto but I knew when I got there that I was in a ‘super cool traveller hangout.’ Everyone seemed quite ‘with it’ and in super traveller mode ‘like yeah I’ve just got off my flight from Melbourne, been up and down the Gold Coast for 6 months, now spending time doing my internship in the city.’ Anyhow the rooms in the hostel weren’t particularly great, the room I stayed in was probably the size of a big wardrobe and could just fit 2 bunk beds and metal lockers. Also I had asked to be situated in an ‘all girls’ room instead I got 1 girl and 2 other foreign guys who were in and out constantly throughout the night. I didn’t mind too much though I slept soundly.
Met Ariel the next day after having a breakfast that included some cereal that resembled Kellogs K, toast and a hard-boiled egg. I spoke to a girl from the Czech Republic who was studying Anthology at Goldsmiths who lived in Camberwell (even in New York I can’t get rid of the place!) She said she recently went to an art exhibition by second year Camberwell students and ‘it wasn’t particularly great,’ which doesn’t really surprise me at all. Couldn’t wait to get away from her in a way because I couldn’t be bothered to talk about London anymore, that’s all behind me now. Anyway Ariel was looking very dressed up when I met her, but mind you she was only staying there for 2 weeks, she was doing a week in New York and a week in LA, and me well I was travelling around America for 2 months, so I was wearing my rubbish travelling clothes.
We begun the day by walking around Central Park and lapping it up, taking photo’s, we spoke about home and our lives, our friends and she spoke about her boyfriend A LOT. I didn’t really mind though, she lived with him and was in a serious relationship, so she said that she was going ‘to miss him badly.’ She kind of reminded me of my old housemate Gemma though so I quite enjoyed talking to her and apparently I reminded her of one of her friends at home. Felt slightly euphoric walking around Central Park and I really wished I lived here, spending the morning waking my dog, or jogging, I don’t think I would ever grow tired of walking around Central Park! And everyone smiled, and I smiled back, or maybe I just had the warm glow aroma shooting out to everyone who passed me in his or her tracks.
We made a stop in a cosy little bakery around the corner the Guggenheim museum, it was buzzing in there and the smell of coffee was beautiful. We sat by the window drinking our coffee and munching on pastry cakes while watching the quite busy world outside and all the dogs. There was so many dogs, there was one person walking about 9 dogs, crazy! The Guggenheim museum was strangely a bit of let down, the architecture was wonderful, as you walked in and stared up to ceiling you could see void of spirals leading to the glass top. But sorry to nag, but it was expensive to get in, $15 and it didn’t have even half as much in there as what you would see in the Tate Modern and that was free, except for the special exhibitions. And the exhibition was dark and gloomy, I wasn’t in the mood to look at Christian Boltanski or watch Maria Abromovic filming herself playing with skulls, as much as I love art, I just wanted to see something at bit more bright and upbeat.
It seemed our day went pretty fast, after going to the Guggenheim and walking around Times Square, I was just reminded of London, bright lights, chaos, lots of eating places and shops, except maybe the people were a little bit fatter, not to be stereotypical of Americans of anything. And things were just a ‘bit more’ over the top, the McDonalds sign for example was huge, you could probably see it about a mile off, it was screaming at you in a sense, it was the biggest brightest sculptural form illuminating the whole street. I do not know if that is a good thing or not. We had lunch in a BBQ place and sat on the second floor with a window view overlooking Times Square. I ordered a chilli dog, I remember eating one in a restaurant in London down a lane near Carnaby Street with the girls after work, it was pretty scrumptios, so that’s what I thought I would get…. And wow did I get that and a whole lot more…. It was just gigantic, and with chilli fries. I tried to eat it all, but I couldn’t, I think Ariel struggled with hers a little bit too. For drinks we decided to be very Sex and the City and ordered Cosmopolitans, in-fact we had 3 because they were so yummy and pleasurable.
Feeling a little bit light headed walking back onto the street, it occurred to me that I was on my first day of travelling and thinking about the magic and excitement and the people I was going to meet sent my head into ecstasy overdrive. I felt like I was about to get stuck into a Jack Kerovac novel and live it out in real life. Anyway Ripleys’ was opposite us and we didn’t want to walk far and were fed up of talking about where we wanted to go so we decided Ripley’s it would be. Now I know that you can find a Ripley’s anywhere but because of that fact I have never actually been to one before. And it was just what I was in the mood for after alcohol consumption. It was enjoyable wandering around looking at the intriguing wonders of the museum. I don’t know how one could have collected so many quirky artefacts in his life. It really was quite something but very sinister at the same time.
We caught the subway back about 7 because Ariel, my new best friend was going to do a singing gig in Chinatown. Well she had made contact with someone she vaguely knew who had set her up with someone they knew, all a little bit fluffy. She had tried phoning and texting them about it but they weren’t picking up. I know it wasn’t particularly late but I was beginning to feel quite knackered as we walked back to our hostel. I think she had quite wanted me to come, but my body was screaming, ‘sleep, sleep.’ I know, how terrible, I wanted to sleep on my first night in New York but I only had 1 more day in New York before I was meant to meet the Trek Group and didn’t want to waste it being hungover. I think she kind of sensed that I didn’t want to go and the mood changed between us so we said our goodbyes, I wished her good luck and said ‘I’ll text you later,’ but I probably wouldn’t. It had been a nice day, a lovely mixture of memories and that is what it needed to be left at. So here I am in my bunk bed at 9pm writing my first diary entry and I absolutely cannot wait for tomorrow!