a new york kind of start

i have made it to berlin! the journey was quite uneventful and fairly quiet. (more to come on that)


on the west side of things, new york city was eventful. and the taking off point for this trip.
i always have mixed feelings about new york. it sounds fabulous, it is fabulous. it sounds chaotic, it is mostly chaotic. 

nyc is a playground for all types of minds and you will hear more than a handful of languages spoken if you open your ears on the streets for a day. i do very much like the city of new york, i have a good number of friends who call it home and say they were, "made to live in the city", i can believe them. while traveling to new york just three times to date and all times by default, i bump myself into completely different places each go'round. this most recent trip was just a few days ago and was the longest i have spent there, 4 full days of wander. i loved it. an entire half of one day was spent watching people stroll, dribble, jog, push babies, chase dogs and more of the like down a park boulevard, all the while i gorged on fresh ripe cherries and an oatmeal cookie the size of my face. that was it, nothing spectacular but just a peacefully wonderful and seemingly local kind of day. i even got to throw a baseball back to a game happening down below the park. you know that moment:
the ball flies out of the fence.
(this case we were a good 40 feet above the field)
it somehow lands nearest to you.
you look around for a moment at the others.
they look back at you.
you know you are the chosen one.
a light jog ensues as you collect the ball.
you say a quick prayer for no blunders. 
for that one moment you get the eyes of many while you wind up and do your best athletic throw.
yeah it was one of those.

anyways, my days were like that, mostly slow wandering.
new on the radar for places to check out is public space. seems odd, doesn't it? well yes, since studying urban design in school public spaces: big parks, pocket parks, streets, sidewalks, parkways, alleys, lawns, boulevards pretty much anywhere the public is allowed to go i wanna check it out. and if it's in the city, even better. i got to see a lot of these types of spaces in new york as they are plentiful there.

[this photo combo i took (same image) is from the highline and the amazing depth you can take in while being on an elevated park in the city ]