Being In New York

A few weeks ago, a few friends and I visited New York. It was our first trip to the United States. This had been planned for quite some time, so, between the hesitation, the current geopolitical situation, and all the scary news, we still went. And what a trip it was!

We planned flights and hotels quite some time in advance. A few weeks before the trip, however, while showing my coworkers where we were going to stay, I discovered the hotel was “permanently closed”. Apparently, it had gone bankrupt a few days before and they didn’t tell anyone. They’d just hung a paper on the front door.

After calling Booking a few times, we got the money back, booked another, more expensive - not as if we had a choice - hotel, and still managed to get almost 700 USD in compensation from Booking to partially cover for our hotel option. They would only cover their alternative, whose reviews were even worse than our initial hotel.

Flying from Schiphol to JFK was easy, but that’s where I encountered my first “scare”: I got what they so-called a “random” check at the gate. After getting my ticket checked by the gate agent, a guy from the ‌marechaussee came tell me I was picked for such a random check. The ‌marechaussee did their thing: swiped my hands, belt, shoes, socks - I had to remove my shoes - and the interior of my backpack and carry-on luggage, to check for what I think was explosives.

Apparently these random checks are only done for US-bound flights. And this happened between the gate agent that checks the ticket and the jet bridge to walk into the plane. Bit awkward, but well, can’t do much about it.

In NY, getting through immigration was straightforward, but considering I was flying alone and I had just gotten “randomly” checked a few hours prior, and all the news in the world, I was a bit nervous. Apparently, traveling alone, without a checked baggage, and just with a carry-on are some of the criteria to be more “suspicious” from what I read online. Don’t quote me on that.

“Why were you traveling alone?”, you might ask. Well, my friends from Portugal traveled directly from Lisbon, while I traveled from Amsterdam. We arrived literally at the same time, and landed with around 5 minutes difference. Quite funny to think about it. Yet, it was at different terminals, so we still went alone.

Anyways, we arrived. We were there. In the city that never sleeps. During that week, we did all the touristy things: we saw all the sights, went to multiple attractions and museums, walked a lot, etc. We saw Wicked on the Broadway, which was an amazing experience on its own. We also ate so much food, we tried so many different cheap, unhealthy, yet deliciously tasting, street food, like 1.5$ pizza from 2 Bros, and the platters from The Halal Guys. Delicious!

It was incredible to be in this city we constantly see on movies, on series. It felt a bit crazy to be in there. I think that, in some ways, it was exactly what I thought it would be, while in others it wasn’t. All in all, I enjoyed it and I don’t regret it. We were a bit reticent about this trip because of everything happening in the world, the news about some tourists getting detained, but it was definitely worth it.

On the other hand, you’re constantly reminded that you’re in a country where weapons are allowed. Despite not being allowed in New York City, there’s signs everywhere pointing to this fact. That’s something we’re not used to. And also the constant automatic announcement at the airport saying that guns are not allowed past the security checkpoints. Who would even try bringing a gun into the airport!? It must’ve definitely have happened, since I heard that announcement countless times in the less than three hours I was at the terminal building.

Now that I’m back, I got some film photos developed. I shared some of them, and I have plans to post some other photos I made I think are quite nice. I think I’d like to visit the country at some point in the future, when - and if - things are more stable. There’s so much to see!