On the road to New York

“New York, New York! The city that never sleeps!” is what comes to mind when I think about my favorite vacation. I’ve been there a few times, but my most memorable experience was the first time I visited. I was eighteen years old, and my friends and I decided to go up for a weekend during the summer. One of my friends was a native to the city, so I knew that I would have a good time. New York was rumored to be the city that never slept, but I didn’t know that it would also be the city that made me never want to sleep as well.
We left Virginia Beach an early Friday morning, and were on the New Jersey Turnpike six hours later. We knew we were almost there when we hit the turnpike, because there was tons of bumper-to-bumper traffic and checkered yellow taxi cabs in every direction. As exciting as the vacation was about to be, I had to remember what a stereotypical New Yorker was like. I always heard that they were rude, impatient and had a strong Northern accent. The second that I stepped foot out the car, these were the same characteristics that appeared from the first person I encountered.
We arrived in the city at the peak of rush hour, four in the afternoon. I stepped out in front of a woman dressed in her business suit with a cup of coffee in one hand, briefcase in the other, and her Bluetooth in her ear. She was in a rush to be somewhere, because she screamed at me to watch where I was going and hurry up to get out of her way. Trying to hold my own composure, I stepped to the side and let her continue on her way. Instead of getting irritated over the situation, I laughed it off with my friends. We knew that we would be seeing people acting like that for the rest of our weekend.
After stepping out in amazement of the sights of Times Square, we grabbed our bags and checked into the hotel that we were staying at. We hurriedly went to the room, changed out of our traveling clothes, and went back outside. I knew that New York had three important components necessary for my type of vacation; excellent food, great shopping, and some beautiful people. Lucky for me, I was able to taste, experience, and see all three by the end of my first night there. After a long day of traveling and sightseeing in the city, we decided to call it a night.
After an overdose of the city life, we jadedly woke up the next day at about three in the afternoon. Realizing we slept half the day away, we quickly showered and dressed to take another bite of the “Big Apple”. We were up and down the streets of Times Square, visiting Foot Locker, Louis Vuitton, BAPE Clothing and many other fine designers and retailers. As the night approached us, we went back to the hotel to change for our taste of the night life in the city. Not knowing the dress code for the clubs in the city, I wore what I’d typically wear when I go out, a button-up and a pair of nice jeans.
2I’s was our destination for the night. It was a popular nightclub that had two different floors, primarily playing Reggae, Hip-Hop and R&B. It was a great way to spend our last night in the city. Our night ended at about three in the morning, and by some miracle our tired feet managed to get us back to our hotel. We all dived into our beds but were hesitant to fall asleep because we knew had to be up in three hours to hit the road and head back home. We reluctantly woke up the next morning and prepared ourselves for the six hour drive ahead of us. As we drove home we reminisced on the fun times we had and recounted the things we did that weekend. Though we had a fantastic time in New York we were all looking forward to sleeping in our own beds. About three and a half hours into the drive home I look back at my sleeping friends and think to myself, “I can’t wait to go back.”