Up to NYC

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For the ones who automatically receive this email and don't know yet, I am on holiday! And don't say 'again', because it has been 1.5 years since the last one 😊.

This time it leads me to a country which I said I would not return to, unless I have visited the rest of the world and would have money & holiday left: USA.

But the goal of this trip made an exception: Lindy Hoppin!
The idea comes from Lindy Ivan: make a trip through the US while dancing/visiting different cities and Lindy Hop scenes, amongst which the Lindy Showdown festival in New Orleans (yihaa).




Saturday morning, after only 3h of sleep (my time management sucks) and running to catch the tram, all went fine to catch our flight to JFK New York. Met Ivan in Brussels Airport, he had even less sleep than me (= no sleep). Flying with American Airlines, on the first row economy (the only seats left at online check in :s): no window to lay my head against to sleep and bad seats 😞(. So I was not able to perform my normal ritual: sleep well the whole flight.
We did have a very sweet flight attendant that made the flight a little less uncomfortable.

Our flight had to do a short stop in Maine state (forgot the village) to put some extra fuel in.

No other things to mention on the travelling part, besides that the border control people are MUCH nicer in JFK than in Newark. This time I did not end up in a 'nearly' discussion but entered the US with a smile 😊.
We would be hosted by Mary, lindy hop friend of Ivan whom he met at the Amsterdam exchange. Her place is in Brooklyn, about 20mins subway'in from Manhattan.
After dropping our stuff off, meeting Mary and Vikash, refreshing ourselves; we did NOT went to sleep (it was only 2 PM US time, but 20:00 BE time) but bought ourselves a subway-week pass and took our first ride to Manhattan.
The nicest part of the subway ride, is where the subway crosses the Manhattan Bridge and offers you a fabulous view over Manhattan (day and night).

Some stuff about the NY subway: it runs day AND night (example for other cities!), in the passages between the different platforms it's quite hot, in some it's sauna-HOT and in the subway itself its freaking' cold! The more you move towards the city center, the less garbage in the subway-lanes.

I wanted to buy myself a new pair of the VANS I already have (specially left them at home to not end up with 2 pairs here). But they didn't have them in the stores we visited. So instead I bought some Converse All Stars 😊.
What a relief! Before I was walking on sneakers with very thin soles .. you can really feel the difference with good shoes! (I know my father would still say now "those are not 'good' shoes yet)

We arrived back in Mary's flat at 9.30 PM. Pretty late for our first day and jetlag (and for our plan to get up early the next day to go to a gospel service).

Btw, most of the pictures are from Ivan, I didn’t take many in NYC (and Boston) because I have been here before.

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Photos

Brooklyn!
Our first steps outside ..

Comments

[david]

nyc rocks
T amusement!!!!! De free freedom ferry naar statue of liberty is aanrader. Zeker ook harlem bezoeken. Coney island is schraal mr geestig. T st anneke v nyc. Grtjes