New York, Ten Years Ago
Revisiting a three weeks solo-trip to New York.
These past days, I was reminded of my first trip to New York that happened exactly ten years ago. So, I dug out the old travel journal and pictures to travel back in time and space to three weeks in Brooklyn and Manhattan in May and June 2011.
Back then, I had just started my first “real” job that came with paid vacation days and this was my first proper solo trip. I had done internships in London and Stockholm, but I had never spent three weeks roaming a city without commitments and without a plan. This trip to New York would shape the way I prefer to travel: staying in one place at a time, preferably in an apartment instead of a hotel. Spending most of the days walking to get to know my surroundings, a city’s different neighborhoods. Exploring the side streets and places off the beaten track. Having enough time to spend afternoons reading in cafés or parks – and to revisit places, I fell in love with. Staying a tiny bit too long, maybe, so that the place might start to feel like home.
Having been back to New York once, back in 2014, I can only assume how much New York must have changed in the past ten years. According to the “Not For Tourist”–Guide from that year, Williamsburg had already turned into the center of New York’s Hipster Scene. Yet, in 2011, the waterfront towards Manhattan was still mostly untouched: Brooklyn Bridge Park had only reached Pier 1, the Domino Sugar Factory stood empty and undeveloped, with no Domino Park insight. Bushwick, where I lived in an artist loft for three weeks, was still scruffy on the edges, only on the verge of gentrification. The filming of the first season of the HBO series Girls left traces all over Brooklyn, some of which I would recognize watching it much later.
In Manhattan, the second partition of the Highline had just opened and the first building of the Hudson Yards development was still more than a year away from its groundbreaking. One World Trade Center was under construction, the Occupy Wall Street movement in its early phases.
Yet, so many memories, feelings, details, even smells are still vivid in my mind, even after a decade – others I was happy to recall while going through my photographs and a notebook filled with thoughts, impressions, and scraps of paper from that trip:
How my heart jumped when Manhattan came into sight through the airplane window. The anticipation and sweat when I dragged my suitcase onto the bus to Brooklyn – the first of many MTA hiccups I had to experience. The soundscapes outside that Bushwick apartment – chickens on the roof, an outdoor tattoo parlor, Mexican music at night. The long walk from Williamsburg all the way to Central Park on the first day. The chance encounters with old and new friends during the whole trip. Rooftop barbecues, club nights, concerts, and parties. Discovering and falling in love with Dumbo, mostly because of the two bridges. The rattling noise of the subway trains above the Hudson River. Walking across those bridges. All the walking. The view of Manhattan from Brooklyn, soothing somehow, like a mountain range.
Rides on the L-Train with all the beautiful people. Missing more than one stop thanks to daydreaming and mild flirtations with life in this city. The noise on the streets, the overground lines, fire engines, people screaming, cars honking. Real-life versions of movie scenes playing out in front of cafe windows. The giddiness to get the last ticket to an almost sold-out Death Cab For Cutie show. Browsing through the most amazing junk stores and flea markets, furnishing my imaginary Brooklyn apartment. Visiting galleries, seeing The Books play in Prospect Park. Starting to feel at home in Bushwick and Williamsburg after only one week, moving along the neighborhood with more confidence every day. The wtf-moment when I had my picture taken for Vogue Girl Japan somewhere around Broadway for a street-style spread. Still constantly feeling underdressed amongst all the stylish people. The exhaustion I felt every time I walked around Manhattan, the comfort Brooklyn provided.
Great coffee in so many places, but specifically at El Bait on Bushwick Avenue and at the Blue Bottle Stand at Smorgasburg. The first decent Tacos of my life. The fascination of Coney Island, somewhat forgotten and desolate. Beers on the Staten Island Ferry, going back and forth twice because the view was so nice. Feeling swanky having drinks and cheese plates at the bar at Superfine. The cheap cream cheese bagels from the Bodega around the corner. Watermelon and coffee breakfasts. Summer in spring. How I fell in love with the Whitney Museum (back then still at the Marcel Breuer building on Madison Avenue) and frustrated with my camera’s inability to capture it. Reading in Central Park. The first heatstroke of my life and a night from hell, feeling scared and alone. Mistaking addresses in Brooklyn for addresses in Manhattan. Spending what felt like hours in subway stations due to railworks and other hiccups. How I felt so out of place in some parts of the city and so at home in others.
The contrast between the streets of Midtown Manhattan and their underground stations – upstairs people shuffling between their offices and fancy restaurants, donning expensive designer clothing; downstairs the peeling paint, tired faces, obscure fluids dripping from the ceiling, stale air and muffled announcements on a very outdated PA system. Upstairs the facade, downstairs the real New York. Getting absolutely soaked in a rain shower, finding shelter in Macy’s, leaving puddles on the floor of their cosmetics department. The very old lady next to me at the inhouse Starbucks, ordering “a Mocca blend cappuccino, decaf with three ice cubes and whipped cream”, looking at me, all wet, sipping on some tea, with so much contempt. Back across the river, the view from “my” rooftop in Bushwick – and me, standing there on my own, but not feeling lonely at all.
Back in Berlin, for quite some time, I imagined a version of myself still walking along those streets, mapping them out, making them her home. I still wonder what she’s up to and where she is hanging out these days.
