|
Reflections
from New York
Part 5: All on my own
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
about bookshelf
links contact
submit
|
|