NYC

Visiting New York has been a lifelong dream of mine… growing up in the lazy, snail-pace of hazy-glazed,sun-drenched afternoons in Harare, the lure of the big city never completely worn off… Now that I’m older, I couldn’t imagine living amongst that chaos, but what an incredible city to visit! After the intensive security checks, bag searching and shoe removal, happy tears lit my eyes as I gazed at the boarding sign glowing “New York City”! It was happening! After a 15 hour flight from JHB and FINALLY gazing over the Hamptons the tears started again… but by the time my incredible friend, who is now a New York Local, picked us up at the airport – the excitement set in! Who needs sleep in the city that never sleeps?! It was so special to be able to stay in the same apartment block in Brooklyn as our friends and have a rooftop (taco) dinner with locals – a truly authentic New York experience! Walking around for the first few days honestly felt like I was in a movie, where so many scenes I had watched on a big screen unfolded in front of me in real life…I feel that this city is so accepting of any shape, form, personality – you can be as eccentric as you want and nobody will bat an eyelid! Just make sure not to stop in your tracks on the sidewalk – that is the biggest no-no! This post follows our movements all over the show – (we lived in sneakers!) from the trendy, hipster neighbourhood of Williamsburg (I could definitely live there!), to the eclectic and vividly colourful China Town – where Dim Sum brunch is the in-thing – no matter how long the queue! Hailing down a yellow taxi got ticked off the bucket list! Exploring the high line, the old train tracks that now give you a nature walk whilst overlooking the city…Many Starbucks fueled our days! A highlight was cycling through Central Park… it’s like a mini city on it’s own – so much to see – wedding shoots, romantic proposals, tai chi and yoga, street dancing, food trucks, rowboats, sailing mini boats, a zoo and the list goes on! The way we love to travel is just by walking and soaking in the city slowly… getting lost occasionally, finding hole in the wall restaurants and just watching all the life unfold around us. Photographing our trip came secondary to that and to be honest – a lot of the people I really wanted to photograph were just too intimidating! But sooooo interesting! I had left my longer zoom lens at home so I couldn’t be as discreet as I would like, at capturing natural moments… I got busted more than a few times, but that look often makes the picture – you will see many “stink eyes” below! We discovered that Top of the Rock is actually selfie-central! But that view is mind-blowing – all those little lights, all those lives, all these people and all their unique stories… I loved walking across the Brooklyn bridge…If I lived there I would probably cycle across it to get to work every day rather than the daily subway submersion! What I loved about the subway though is that every race, every culture, rich/poor, every type of person you can possibly imagine could be found in one carriage. Some other random tidbits before I let the images tell the rest of the story – we lunched at The Spotted Pig – an absolute must! And don’t miss the queue to get into Central Park on the day the Pope was there! I hope these pics let you in to our little window of our New York experience and seeing the same little snippets of life that we witnessed… We will be back, without a doubt!