The City

8 million people and me.

Big. Loud. Busy. Colourful. Exciting. Awe Inspiring.

I got the chance to visit a friend this weekend. I had a great time and I can't say thank you enough to them for taking the time out of their busy schedule to show me their home town. New York City.

The first thing that got me was the size. Just how does something get so big? Its amazing to think about how it all grew up from just a few colonists, a few boats. Perhaps a fishing outpost, then maybe a boat yard. I need to buy a history of New York. I still can’t believe something can become so … mind bogglingly out of this world big! I think you could take a year out in the City and never even come close to experiencing all there is.

Shanna tells me she never wants to leave. I can see why. When the world comes to you - why travel?

The architecture is a mix of this sort of mean looking industrial style from the 1930’s, moving through to a sort of silver office block 70’s craze and finally onto some very funky architecture as you reach the 1990’s and 21st century.

It’s also a maze. They say the people are so busy, but the landscape is just as busy. Nothing is left untouched, everything is utilised and crammed in. Buildings over lap buildings and roads twist and turn amongst them before merging into thicker highways that channel a ceaseless traffic of colour, noise and life.

The area around Times Square is something else all together. Moving images flicker over the sides of buildings, news bulletins scroll above building entrances and the colour. The colour is amazing. It’s like being in the future. Star Wars, Blade Runner and the Fifth Element – that isn’t science fiction – it’s just Times Square on a wider scale. (minus the odd flying car)

And the money. The money is breathtaking. It is actually difficult to comprehend how much sheer capital exists within those buildings, within the computer banks and within the black suited men and woman that pass between the buildings.

It is hugely impressive. Worthy of the most powerful nation in the world. It is almost the spiritual heartland of capitalism.

Crime, poverty and decadence? I saw some. Yet not all that much. There are some very desperate people in the city but one of the great things I noticed was how people from all backgrounds - Black, White, Hispanic, Asian and Oriental, the supremely rich and sickeningly poor all walk side by side in the streets as if neither of them has noticed the injustice.

I finally understand what all the fuss is about. New York life is a dream; we see it on television and in magazines, but it is also real. It is what millions of people aspire too. It is where the whole world comes together in one place. For better or worse.

I’d like to thank my friend for taking the time to show me her inspiration.