My second month: finally, New York!

You must be thinking why, although being so near, I still hadn't paid a visit to New York City. The answer is quite simple: I was waiting for my parents. They visited me on the second week of August, so I saved some days off for that time and spent a whole week with them.

What can I say about New York that hasn't been said yet? This city has everything you could ever dream of. To explore the city we booked a suite in a hotel near the Empire State. I am very keen on architecture, and the only idea of walking down 5th Ave. and passing under it just gave me chills.

Orientating in NY is very easy. As the city was urbanistically planned, it is crossed by perpendicular streets almost all the time, and they are all numbered. You just have to think of Uptown and Downtown, taking some reference like Central Park or the Empire State, and then start counting avenues. The island of Manhattan was so special for me. How such a small piece of land can have so much value inside it?

We climbed the main skyscrapers: The World Trade Center, recently opened; the Empire State and the Top of the Rock. This last one was my favorite in terms of views, as it is located in the heart of Manhattan, next to Central Park, and it's tall enough to watch everything from a certain distance but with precise detail. In comparison, the World Trade has more breathtaking views but it is so high that you can't really appreciate the life of the city. As for the Empire State, the building itself is worth a visit. It is an Art Déco treasure.

When it comes to museums, everybody should definitely get into the MoMA. I just didn't want to leave. I could have spent months in every single room. The Starry Night, although surrounded with tourists taking blurry and worthless pictures, stole my heart. I've always been a Van Gogh fan. I couldn't believe that I was actually in front of that masterpiece. Not to talk about Edward Hopper's paintings, Andy Warhol's, Picasso's, Basquiat's. Even Matisse's The Dance was in there.

We also went inside the MET, but to be honest, my parents didn't pay much attention, as they wanted to go shopping, so I came back later the same day with the sticker they put on my sweater, and stood there for 2 hours by myself. You should definitely have a must list of the things you want to see before starting, as it is enormous and you won't probably have much time if you want to do other things.

If you ever have the opportunity to go to NY, don't miss the chance to get in the Guggenheim Museum, by the superb architect Frank Lloyd Wright. I'm sure that you will be very surprised by its shape. Also, try to find the Seagram building, not far from the MoMA, by Mies Van der Rohe. Such a visionary of his time.

Central Park was just as you could expect. Like the movies. We spend a whole morning walking around, and we visited John Lennon's Strawberry Fields Memorial, and the Dakota building, in front of it. It was very impressive for me.

If there's something I didn't really enjoy was Times Square. It was almost impossible to walk two steps without bumping into somebody. It was too stressful for me, but it's normal, on the other hand. It's the place where everything happens: TV shows, Broadway musicals, main stores and adverts take place there. All these figurants begging for money while dressing up like some silly clown didn't catch my attention at all, but you can't conceive Times Square without it.

Eating in New York is a bit expensive, mainly because of the tips you have to give, but I had some of the greatest burgers I have ever tried in my life. We went to a restaurant with some old western vibes and I couldn't even handle it with my hands. Amazing.

We once had dinner in a Shake Shack that was located in a very nice square next to the Flat-Iron building. Guess what I ordered? No, this time it was not a burger. I had a hot dog, and it was delicious!

Another place that I loved was Chelsea market and the neighbourhood itself, and most specifically the High Line. It was an abandoned metro line, now rebuilt as a long walk with an environment between hipster and posh at the same time, full of life and small shops where you can sit and have something to eat, like an ice cream. You can find some Banksy murals if you look carefully.

Soho was probably one of the most interesting neighbourhoods I went to. We got a bit lost while looking for somewhere to eat and a very pleasant and clumsy boy with a boho style kindly approached to us and gave us some good recommendations. I must say that people in NY are very helpful and open in that way. I bought some paper sfuff at Muji, a design store that I hadn't found anywhere before, but of which I had heard about a lot.

One of the last days we went to the Harlem to participate in a gospel mass. We didn't have too much luck and we didn't find a real authentic one, but at least we got an idea of how it works. I took the opportunity, as we were near to Columbia University, and had a look at it. I was quite interested in going there because one of my favourite poets, Lorca, once studied in Columbia while writing Poet in New York.

Wall Street was not like I expected. To be honest, it is very small. It is in the south part of Manhattan (Finantial District), and next to Battery Park, where you can have a good view of the Statue of Liberty, one of the icons of New York. There, you can take a free ferry that goes to Staten Island (it doesn't stop in Liberty Island, but you get pretty near). I thought it would look bigger even from the distance, but it looks so tiny! Nevertheless, I didn't find it necessary to get closer.

That was mainly my week with my parents. I stood in NY for another week by myself the week before going back to Spain at the beginning of October. I booked a bed in a shared room at a hotel called Jazz at Columbus Circle, which is a cheap solution if you want to spend a small quantity of money and make some friends at the same time. I had the chance to visit twice some things that I really liked, like Rockefeller Center, Bryant Park (there's wi-fi almost everywhere and in this square behind the Public Library you can seat to eat very comfortably while checking your e-mail); Brooklyn (where I also stood at another shared room hostel, called NY Moore Hostel, and met two lovely guys from Colombia who helped me with my luggage); Chelsea Market and the Soho, the Chrysler building, Woolworth building, and even went to a Broodway musical: The Lion King! It was one of the best experiences of my life. I strongly recommend it to everybody.

If you have some spare time you can also pay a visit to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, or go for a walk through Williamsburg (There are some fancy and hipster shops and markets).

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