80 Days in America

Last year I read in a book that New Yorkers are really friendly people. After three days in the Big Apple I can only say that’s absolutely true. You only have to get your map from your pocket and someone will ask you if you need help. When I asked for help, so far everyone took the time to explain me how to get somewhere. I think it is neccessery to be at least a little friendly when you live with about eight million people in a city, but I’ve never seen people being so friendly and helpful as here in NY. When I talked about this with a New Yorker, he also told me this has another side: People in New York just like to tell you what to do. You can have different opinions about that, but for someone who’s in this big city for the first time, that’s really handy.

This morning I went to Central Park, expecting to have a nice restful walk at sunday morning. But there happened to be triathlon in the Park, so it was really crowded. Despite all those runners, swimmers and bikers it was still nice to walk around in the park and to have breakfast there. The park is really big and you can walk there for hours.

In the afternoon I went to Hillsong Church New York. When I arrived, there was already a line around the block (about 100 meter) of people waiting for when the doors of the church would open. I didn’t see that in Holland so far, people waiting in line for the church… The nice thing of the Hillsong Churches is that they are about the same in every country. So far I’ve been in Hillsong London, Hillsong Amsterdam and today in Hillsong New York and everywhere it’s the same style and kind of people. Young people that are totally excited about Jesus Christ 8-).

After church I went back to Broadway to get myself some new All Stars. Shopping here is absolutely not good for your health. Because while it’s about 30 degrees outside, I think it’s about 15 degrees or colder in the stores. So you go from hot to cold to hot etc. Same thing is actually happening when you travel with the subways. So I got a bit of a cold now, but I think that will get better soon, once I’m used to these temperature shifts. But the most important thing is that I found the Converse All Stars I was looking for.

Of course also on my list to do these days was to go to the top of a skyscraper. The steward I talked with on my flight told me that I could better go to the top of Rockefeller Center instead of the Empire State building (which I think is the highest skyscraper of New York), because you will see a lot more from there. I’m really happy that I listened to his advice, because the view was absolutely beautiful. As he suggested I stayed at the top till after sunset, which is really beautiful. While the light of sun is dimming, everywhere in the city lights pop up and every minute the scene changes. There is just so much to see that you won’t get bored.

A benefit of traveling alone is that you faster meet some new people and at the top of Rockefeller I met a nice couple from Italy with who I hang out there and took some nice pictures with. After the sun was down already for a long time we went to the streets again (the elevator in Rockefeller is really aweomse, because it has an open ceiling and the tunnel is lightened, so you can exactly see how fast you go and how high the building actually is, really impressive). On the streets our ways separated again, because they went back to the hotel and I still got some other plans…

I already viewed the skyline of New York in the morning, but I still wanted to see it at night. So I went back to brooklyn bridge and had a beautiful view of the skyline by night. After taking pictures for half an hour or something I suddenly realized I forgot my bag with my brand-new shoes somewhere! :O That was so disappointing! So I prayed a short prayer and walked back the same way I came to there. And suddenly on the middle of the street there was my bag with my brand new shoes! I must have left them there, while I was so occupied with taking pictures. I can’t tell you how happy I was at that moment! The rest of the night I didn’t loose sight of that bag anymore for one second! 🙂

When I went back to the apartment, the guy I was staying with was there with some friends. I forgot to tell you that I had the apartment all for myself the last days, because he wasn’t there 🙂 It was nice to meet each other and he and his friends had a lot more good tips for the next couple of days. After meeting all these nice people I went to bed, because it was already late again. It’s funny to see how my day-times are shifting slowly to my Dutch patterns. The first night here I went to bed at around ten. The second night around eleven and tonight around one. Maybe that’s also because New York is also so very beautiful at night.

Last but not least is here another video. The building I couldn’t get the name of at that moment is of course the Empire State building, which I realized directly after I stopped filming, but never mind. It’ll give you a nice view of New York: