The big bittersweet apple

I visited New York for the first time this spring break, fulfilling the life-long dream of a big city enthusiast and theater nerd extraordinaire. As you can imagine, I was embarrassingly excited, planning my outfits to the day and mapping out exactly what I wanted to see when I got there.

First thing after arriving, I decided to wander around Midtown to gather my bearings and floated down Seventh Avenue into Times Square without even
meaning to.

For those of you who have never been, Times Square does not make the best first impression. I would compare it to the likes of a beautiful, glamorous woman who walks into the room dazzling you breathless, but upon approaching her, you find that she smells like exhaust, urine and very bad Greek food.

Overwhelmed by the odor, the crowds and the obscenely overpriced McDonald’s, I fled the congested area, immediately disappointed by how loud and polluted everything was. I was never someone who was particularly bothered by litter and overpopulation, but I think my smell-sensitive, Broadway-plagued self had built the Big Apple to what I had seen all too many times in movies.

Escaping southward and further east, I drifted into the New York Public Library and discovered quickly that first impressions, although important, are not always true to character. I was wowed by the architecture, awed by the history and shocked by how wonderfully quiet it was. Thankful that I was able to go somewhere for free, I set up camp and stayed there for several hours. I fell in love.

I think at this point I discovered that the distinct uniqueness of New York that I had so frequently heard tell of was in the quieter reserves of the city, the places you could afford with pocket money and the beauty seen in its simple antiquity rather than its modernization.

For the rest of the week, this pattern remained true as I preferred Brooklyn over Manhattan, Little Italy over Soho and northern Central Park over what were the horrors of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

If you plan to visit New York anytime soon, my advice is this: stay away from where crowds are. Go either really far north or really far south. Take a look at the humbler neighborhoods of Williamsburg or Chinatown. Always explore the hole-in-the-wall boutiques. And never pay full price for a Broadway ticket when a $30 student rush is available.

Where I’m excited by the idea of a neon city that never sleeps, I think I’ll always be someone to veer away from tourist-heavy areas because Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” at the Museum of Modern Art isn’t quite so breathtaking when surrounded by a bustling crowd and nonstop flashing cameras.

— ftirado@indiana.edu