We have just been in New York City for just over a week. It was mostly as expected: huge buildings, millions of people, a too-American society (in a way, at least). We have seen the usual things, the “WTC Site” (ground zero), Lower Manhatten with its financial district (huge shiny office skyscrapers) and Battery Park with a view on the Statue Of Liberty (because of the amount of tourists we didn’t take the ferry to have a closer look), the popular modern art museums (MoMA, Gugenheim and DIA up north), Time Square (awfull, but impressive for its amount of people and advertisement), the hip neighbourhoods in Soho and “The Village”, we some some of the major churches (Thomas, Trinity, Patrick’s, etc.), strolled through Central Park (tip: take the Northern half), shopped at Strands and the Virgin Mega Store, etc., etc. You surely need a guide in the city, because it’s not like everything is nicely in an overseeable area and even with the subway you sometimes have to travel long, but I think I’ve got an idea of the city. It’s amazing how prominent the (what I call) hiphop livestyle is, especially in neighbourhoods in Brooklyn that are mainly black (for a short time to come, since they are being taken over by hip white people). Also it is weird to see that there are so many different cultures (Afro, Latin, Hispanic, Jewish, you name it) with all their own culture and their own language, while in my country everybody is more or less forced to be the same) and these cultures mainly live right alongside eachother without much interaction. The latter goes for the city as a whole. Everybody is so stressed and in a hurry, that they don’t even have/take the time to argue or have a fight, so generally speaking, NYC is a very modest city where you don’t have to worry about looking the wrong way to someone. When in traffic, a New Yorker becomes a madman though. Pedestrians wait for that tiny hole in a long line of cars in the middle of the road and just to get on the other side when the sign still says “don’t walk”. Cars zigzag over the streets with massive speeds, avoiding the few pedestrians that did wait for “walk” and if half a second of delay seems at hand, its honking, honking, honking. Honking all day long (imagine that with thousands of police cars, ambulances and fire trucks driving through the town). NYC is so noisy that your ears start to hurt and you are forced into one of the larger parks, or even better: leave town. A city that never sleeps, where you can get anything you want, 24/7. A city full of surprises, but I’m glad I’m just back behind my computer in my own, tranquil neighbourhood.