What made me fall in love with New York City

I LOVE New York City. I mean really love it.

My friends and family are sick of me talking about it all the time, but I can’t help it.

I want to watch movies and TV shows set in New York all the time.

I listen to songs about New York while working everyday.

I constantly look at Instagram accounts that show me the latest the restaurants, bars and things to do in the city (despite living 3,000 miles away in Glasgow).

I look up flights to go there on a weekly basis (well, pre-Covid).

I am 100% obsessed.

Film and TV had a big part to play.

Thinking about what started my obsession, I have to say that I think film and TV had such a big part to play.

Growing up, my family watched a lot of movies together. Every weekend we would have cosy family nights, and the films we watched were usually one of our favourites we had on video (remember those?!)

Perhaps just by chance, a lot of them were set in New York, so I was pretty much transported across the pond every weekend.

Given we needed movies that catered to all ages, some of our regular repertoire included New York City classics such as Die Hard 3, Coming to America, and Home Alone 2 (sophisticated choices, I know). There were much older movies my mum and I watched as well, like West Side Story and On The Town, and a bit later in life for me there would be Gossip Girl, which kept the NYC flame burning.

Maybe the biggest influence though, was Friends. Come 9pm every Friday night, after Fort Boyard, we would watch one of the greatest TV shows of all time (please don’t even try to argue with me about this).

Being young, and impressionable, I thought this group of six friends had the coolest life in the COOLEST city. How cool that they all lived across the hall from each other? How cool were their clothes? How cool that they chilled in a coffee place all day? Oh how I couldn’t wait until I liked the taste of coffee! There was just such a cool vibe…and I was 100% there for it.

I was hooked.

I wanted to go to this vibrant, incredible city, where anything seemed possible. I wanted to walk the long avenues, breathe the air, feel like I was in my own TV show, and just be…in Friends.

I want to go back, again, and again, and again, and again…

My mum could see my burning desires to visit from a young age, and so we made a plan to go for my 18th birthday. And the first time I stepped out of a taxi on to the bustling streets of Manhattan, I finally got just a tiny taste of being in my own movie.

I have now been four times(ish).

Three of these trips were great holidays, and one was actually to work at a Summer Camp in upstate New York, during which I visited the city on maybe 4/5 different occasions…so I’m actually counting that I’ve been way more than four times!

And I fully intend to go back.

What’s weird (to me anyway) is that it’s not everyones cup of tea. A lot of people think it’s too busy, too dirty, too hot, too cold, and so on. Each to their own…however just know….these people are wrong.

I’ll be writing more about each individual trip soon, telling you some of the cool things I saw, did, ate and drank.

Until then, I’ll just be sitting at my desk, refreshing Skyscanner and the US Government website, until I am allowed to travel to the greatest place on Earth again.

Cara

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