bicrom abroad

new york is a city that carries the burden of impossibly high expectations but does a surprisingly good job of not disappointing. various visual cliches come to life in front of your eyes; gaudy yellow cabs staffed by surly drivers with tenuous grasp of the english language, joggers pounding the dusty tracks traversing the vast green expanses of central park, the swooping curves of the guggenheim, park, madison, scenes from the small and the silver screens constantly pierce through the membrane into reality as you meander through the city.
we marvelled at manhattan reflected in the waters of the east river flowing under the brooklyn bridge, went one hundred floors up the empire state building, circumnavigated the statue of liberty and generally saw all the attractions that we felt obliged to see. what made new york particularly satisfying however was the enjoyment to be garnered between the sights, the unexpected surprises that would never make a guide book but lurked around every corner.
from wandering around the meatpacking district to having a late lunch in chelsea and watching the out of work models and hipsters flounce by, new york had the intangible quality that you want a city to have and that you want to be a part of; much like london and paris, it is a city that would be great to live in so as to allow you to feel a smug superiority over all the gawping tourists. add to that three hot kati roll outlets and it is hard to imagine that we will not be back soon.