The New York City Experience

All about my trip to New York City

On my 24th bday, I got the unexpected gift of a trip to New York City (thanks to my team onsite) and so I thought I'd write about the whole trip and all the things that I did there.

Premise

A lot of my favorite youtubers stay in NYC (including Casey Neistat) and so even though I had never been to the city, I knew a lot about it.

The thing that I was most excited about was the NYC marathon route and ofcs the Central Park. It was my bday week and so I had already planned to do a 24Kms run around the city and so I was super excited to do that.

Now right before I left for the trip, Monisha sent me a bunch of hand written letters that she asked me to read day by day as it would have things about the trip and my bday and so it'll be a fun way to stay connected while we were literally on the opposite ends of the world.

Flight to NYC

At first the idea of sitting in a plane for 18+ hours straight seemed daunting and I knew I would need something to keep me occupied. So before my flight, I made a random tweet asking people to suggest things to do while im flying.

I'll skip through those comments but what I chose to do was to code my own web browser from scratch without using internet :)

Now this would need a blog of its own but not this one. Though I must say the flight took all I had and at one point I just wanted to get off the plane. Wherever that may be. It's horrible. I hated the last 6 hours of the flight sooo much. Anyways, lets skip to day 1 of the trip.

Day 1

So I landed in NYC at around 9AM and took a taxi to our hotel. I freshened up and then went out to explore the city. This is where the fun started. So remember those letter Monisha sent me? Well in the first letter she sent me a map of the city with all the places that I wanted to visit marked on it and asked me to visit them without using internet.

This was honestly the smartest move. It helped me get out of my comfort zone and talk to people while figuring my way around the city.

I went downtown and visited the 9/11 memorial, the museum, wall street and then joined my team for the rest of the day. We had a team dinner and then I went back to the hotel to sleep early cause day 2 was going to be the half-marathon day.

Day 2

Just like my Almaty trip, I planned to run a half marathon on second day. Funny thing is that in Almaty, it was me and Monisha running 21kms around the city to celebrate her bday and here it was me running 21kms around the city to celebrate my bday (with her being on call).

I started my run at around 5:30AM and followed a straight line to central park where I did a couple of loops before heading to the hudson river side and completed the half marathon.

It was super special. Loved the NYC weather and there were a lot of runners around me which motivated me and I ended up doing my fastest half marathon till date.

Rest of this day would be work related cz surprise surprise... it was a work onsite.

Day 3

Once again I woke up early. For day 3 I wanted to visit my favorite part of this city -- The brooklyn bridge. So I took the subway to neareset station and walked to the bridge. It was early morning and so there were not a lot of people around + it was also raining a little bit. I video called my parents and Monisha and walked around the bridge for a bit. It was the most amazing experience ever. I had never imagined being able to do this so early in my life lmao.

After that the afternoon was mostly work stuff again. We had a lot of team meetings and then in the evening I took some time to once again explore the city. This time I took the NYC ferry from hudson yards to downtown. The goal here was to enjoy the sunset and the amazing NYC skyline.

At this point you might be wondering when am I going to visit the Time's Square. Well I did. For a whole 5 mins. That's it. It's just Time's Square isn't among the things about the NYC that attracted me as much so I didn't stay there for a long time. I was in and out in 5 mins lol. But here's a video as proof that I did visit it.

Day 4

This was the last official day of the onsite so we had a few activities planned for the day with the team. After the morning meetings, we had a team lunch and then we went to Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) where I bought some souvenirs for my family and friends. Nothing too crazy for this day but I did spend sometime in the NYC library, walked past the HIMYM bar and the friends apartment building.

I also clicked a lot of photos that day. Some of favorite ones are below.

Oh btw in the evening when I was roaming around the city, I took the wrong subway and ended up in Brooklyn for an hour lol. Not gonna lie, it was a bit spooky and so I returned back to Manhattan asap.

Day 5

This was the last day of the trip for me so once again I woke up early for a quick 10Km run around the central park. After my run, I had breakfast and said goodbye my team. It was around 1PM when every body left and I had another 6 hours to kill before my flight.

So for this final part of the trip, I decided to go over the same things that I did on day 1 and just take in the city vibe one last time. I walked on the high line and around the hudson river side and then took the cab back to the airport.

It was a bittersweet moment. I was sad to leave the city but also excited to go back to my life in India.

Flight back home

I hated my flight from India to NYC sooo much that while returning, I took a melatonin pill and went into ecstacy for 8 hours straight. It was the best decision I ever made. I slept like a baby and woke up feeling refreshed and ready to face the world back again in India.

Final Thoughts

There's not much to conclude to be honest. If someone would have told me early this year that I'd be going to a Coldplay Concert, doing a half marathon in Kazakhstan and also walking over the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC, I would have thought they were crazy. But here I am, doing all of those things and more.

No this is not the year end blog so I should stop rambling and end this blog. Byeeeee!

PS: I'll leave you with a food pic hehe.