Sunday evening, after traveling through the city the entire day, I was just tired and needed to be alone. Maybe those endless tall buildings and flashing lights and thousands of people all around were the reason for it, I can't say. I was glad to go to bed, knowing that the next two days where to be me with myself for the very first time in days.

This is what I felt being with me in NY:

Walking through the cold streets on my own, while showers of rain blended with light snow kept falling down, when it was too freezing to stand still, wrapping myself with the dark skies and no sun, the crowded streets, the mixture of old and new buildings, old and new people, locals and tourists, immigrants and visitors, Asians and Africans, Italians and Israelis all over - different looks, different languages, different mentalities - everything in one place!

The Metropolitan Museum - touring only 1 section - the Modern Art section - for 4 hours, seeing with my heart skipping a bit all the famous artists - Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, Mondrian, Matisse, Picasso, Pissaro, Renoir...

The Empire State Building, all those fancy designer shops on 5th avenue (reminded me of "Sex and the City" everywhere I went); Starbucks Coffee on every street corner; fast food all around - Pizza and Burger and Chinese. The beautiful building of the New York library.

The big church I entered one evening, a warm inviting place, heated and quiet, such an antithesis from the cold and crowded street, soft smell of incenses and candle light. People saying prayers. I sat there to one of the benches, looking around remembering that church I found one month ago in Germany, on an abroad Saturday morning walk, and again I thought about how I love churches, seeing them from the outside, exploring them from the inside, and covering myself with the gentle sense of spirituality and how strange it is when I am not Christian and I am not even religious at all.

Barnes and Noble - the huge book store, with a coffee-shop inside, where you can walk along the corridors, smell books, take the ones that are most interesting for you and sit and have coffee while you read through them - what a beautiful idea! As if it was made just for me... The church and the book store were like two warm candles sparkling in the middle of the tangled and freezing forest - as I was walking around this new place all on my own - while everything is cold and dark and isolated outside - these were two warm and inviting corners that made me feel like I belonged.

More passing moments: here in the poem One Place

Part 6: With a full heart and a mind in a daze

this travelogue is part of the subside travelzine
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