Is it actually possible NOT to be flashed by New York (especially before Christmas)? This giant city, full of people, full of buildings, full of stories. Every single street corner looks familiar, and probably is, because it’s guaranteed to have been in some movie, some series, some news program. A city as familiar as it is unfamiliar.
Astonished, I walked through the street canyons before Christmas, always with my head on my neck, looking left and right. Sometimes also stunned that my job as a flight attendant actually brought me here. Crazy. After 16 years of short-haul flying, it’s still surreal to get off the plane after work and suddenly set foot on another continent.
The ultimate New York feeling before Christmas
I always want to get to know new places. Nothing where I have already been. The few months that I fly long haul instead of short haul are too precious for that. I want to see something. Only in New York, it didn’t matter. Privately, I had been there before, so I knew sights worth seeing and not so sights worth seeing. I also only had 24 hours to sleep, eat and sightsee – always pretty tight, these East Coast layovers. And it was Advent, everything was already calling for Christmas and I wanted the ultimate Christmas-in-New-York feeling! So I roamed through the over and over Christmas decorated Manhattan around Times Square and Fifth Avenue.
Sea of lights in Times Square
Billboards over and over. Times Square is one big commercial and you are right in the middle of it. Everywhere it lights up and flashes, and even if it is basically just really penetrating advertising: the lights of the big city are still fascinating.
Christmas shopping on Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue is really nothing special, and then again it is. The new secret presidential residence – the Trump Tower, the largest Victoria’s Secret store ever, the historic St.Patrick’s Cathedral, famous skyscrapers like the Empire State Building andandand… Everything gathers on Fifth Avenue. Perfect if, like me, you don’t really have time. Start at Central Park, then just head down Fifth Avenue and you’ll feel like you’re in a movie.
Skating at Rockefeller Center
At Rockefeller Center, I actually wanted to go ice skating. But the prices actually put me off a bit. And my probably no longer existing skating skills from childhood days. But: Nowhere was Christmas more than here!
Flatiron Building
My favorite skyscraper, the Flatiron Building. Why? I have no idea. Probably because I always wonder what the rooms look like right at the very front of that narrow tip. A nightmare for interior designers.
By the way, I’m going to New York again soon and I’m curious to see where I’ll end up this time.
