"NYC - Best City in the World" New York City by DueSer

That hasn't already been said a zillion times? It's exciting. It's beautiful. It's fun. The most important thing to say, I guess, is that you really can't imagine what it's like until you've been yourself.

Coming from Los Angeles, I didn't expect to fall in love with NYC. The West Coast image of the city is loud, dirty, and more than a little cramped on space. That's not what I found at all though. What I discovered was an amazing place - amazing because it *is* loud and dirty (in places) and cramped but it doesn't matter as much as all the good aspects of the city. The museums and the park and the food and the shopping and the energy and the...comeraderie, I guess would be the best way to describe it. I just loved all of it.

The best way to describe it is to explain my trip to England (no, really. Stay with me here). England was my first trip abroad. I was so excited to go and when I got over there it was freezing cold. It even snowed a little one evening on my way back to the hotel after dinner. I was there for 2 weeks and I froze every day except the last. Yet when I came home and showed people my pictures and told people about the play and shared my souvenirs, the cold weather never came up. The fun I had far outweighed the bad - outweighed it so much that it really became a non-issue. That's what NYC is like. Who cares that it's really noisy? They have these cute little shops that sell nothing but buttons or nothing but ribbons. Really! It's crazy and it's cool.

It's completely different from LA but that's one thing I really like about it - it isn't like any other city I've been to. New Yorkers know that and they LOVE it and it makes you love it too.

Amazing Architecture

The buildings of NYC are not to be overlooked in favor of the neon and the food and the lights of Broadway. The structures here cover all possible styles making a simple walk to the store or the subway a memorable one.

Sure there are the granddaddies - the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, Grand Central Station - but there are quaint little streets of townhouses with little porches and window boxes. There are Egyptian obelisks along your jogging path. Between the skyscrapers are old churches one story high. There are hot tubs and miniature Statue of Liberties on the rooftops. Rows of nondescript apartment buildings reveal a surprise when you pass - a hidden urban garden in the middle of it all. New York is full of secret oases.

Coming from the land of the mini-mall, this is a delightful feature of NYC.

Central Park

Every city has a green section - London has Hyde. Paris has Luxembourg. LA has Griffith. And NYC has Central Park. It's a good thing because with a city that busy sometimes you need a place to go where you can forget you're in a city.

I have yet to see even half of what CP has to offer and I'm constantly amazed and delighted. My first trip to NYC, we had bagels and cream cheese while we sat on a bench and watched the world go by. Fun! Truly, I highly recommend taking any Sunday morning that you're there, going to the nearest deli, picking up the bagel and then heading to the park. It's so much fun. After that, we walked through looking for the Egyptian Obelisk. We didn't find it but we did see a great pond with an entire regatta of toy boats, some serious bird watchers and did some actual boating ourselves with slivers in our hands from oars and everything.

The next trip to NYC, we headed for the park determined not to leave until we found that obelisk (we did finally, when we were about to give up). On the search though, we found a mansion, Shakespearean statues, John Lennon's memorial, raccoons, turtles, and we had more bagels while sitting on a bench.

Going to Central Park is like taking a vacation in the middle of your vacation.