To say that I walked a lot in New York is an understatement. You can't avoid the crowds during the day, but when night falls the city is a different creature. This was taken from the Empire State building, nearing 10pm on a weeknight. I practiclly danced my way in through the invisible queues and barren lifts up to the top. 

I wander when I travel, and in New York I travelled alone. To be free to roam the night like a jungle cat, sauntering and slipping between the shadows of SoHo and Chelsea, from Union Station and 14th Street to the shores of the Hudson, is perhaps one of the greatest pleasures of going solo. It's lonely, but if you look for company, you'll find it. Like that journalist from Columbia in Greenwich Village, with his occasional friend from the New School. 

We stopped to ask for directions, they led the way, I followed. We saw things, we did things, things past our bedtime in the subway platforms with hoodies pulled up, we left and went back to our dorms. 

Things happen in New York if you look, and look closely, observe and when you feel lost, stalk. Stalk with your 12x optical zoom, click and you've captured an indiscriminate moment of someone else's day. And you become part of that person's day, and perhaps by association, of the city itself. 

Labels: Wanderlust