It’s inspiring, It’s New York

“This streets will make you feel brand new” and will make you feel like you are walking in a movie scene.
In a city where there are as many city lights as people, the magic happens. From lower Manhattan to Upper East Side, we walked the streets with curious eyes, moving from China Town to Chelsea, from shopping to parks, admiring the royalty of the skyscrapers and absorbing the atmosphere of what’s going on at ground level.

It is hectic, an organized kinda hectic. It’s inspiring. It is New York.

Every morning we were woken by the first rays of sun coming through the bedroom window in our Brooklyn flat. We rented this flat through Airbnb and we found ourselves in a cute family area, where we would be greeted by people in the streets and every morning we would go to different places for breakfast before heading to the island of Manhattan.

On our last night in New York we walked over Brooklyn Bridge, through China Town and back to Brooklyn over Manhattan bridge, the city lights are turned on as the skies changed colors to a dark and yet illuminated night:

The story behind the trip to New York
In early May 2015 I treated Michael for his big 30th birthday with a surprise trip. He knew we were going somewhere as he had to request time off of work and I gave him 2 tips on the destination: we are going to an island and we depart in the morning and arrive at lunch time. He thought of some island in Europe. He never thought of the time difference and never guessed we could be going to the other side of the Atlantic.

It was only on the first flight heading to London, where we had our connection flight to New York, that he was handed an envelope by the air hostess (that I sneakily pre-arranged). As he opened the envelope and started looking at the tickets to the Empire State Building, his face changed expression a few times: confused, non-believing, astonished, surprised, acceptance and happiness-kind-of-shock. He looked at me, back at the paper and me again, in a whisper he asked me New York?!

The next 7 hours on the flight he was constantly repeating “we are going to New York?!”, as if to help him believe this was true. This is why I love preparing surprises, it is priceless to overcome the expectations of the loved ones.