"It's the best weather we've had here in months!", Nir said as we were leaving JFK airport in his car, heading for my first encounter with New York city.

It was Saturday afternoon, cold but very bright and cheerful, the sun was about to set, and I was excited and numb both at the same time.

Just some hours ago I had packed my bags in an hotel in San Francisco, where I had woken up bright and early when it was still dark outside. After checking out I had sat at the empty half-lit lobby waiting for the airport shuttle to arrive, saying goodbye in my heart to all the people I had met here, breathing in deep trying to get myself prepared for the next adventure.

In the plane, I had watched the take-off through the small round window just when the sun was coming up, remembering the Golden Gate Bridge right at sunset, when all skies were painted red, and had fallen asleep to these memories... a good two-hour sleep to get me from one end of the United Sates to the other - San Francisco to New York. East Coast to West Coast.

And now I was there. In New York.

"You know me", I said to Nir in response, not looking at him but gazing through the car window, exploring my new surrounding. "I always travel with the sun... or better yet - the sun is traveling with me."

We drove through the ghettos of Brooklyn, endless rows of train-buildings, all looking the same, long rectangle buildings built with brown bricks and square windows, one after one, it looked so grim to me, somewhat disturbing, suffocating.

"Let's go see Manhattan," I pleaded. At normal times I would be interested in the dark gloomy side just as I would be in the flashy, beautiful and touristy one. But at that moment in time those sights were a little too much for me to bare.

So we made our way to the heart of New York - Manhattan.

Part 2: Just another dot

this travelogue is part of the subside travelzine
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