New York

New York is one of the places, big cities usually, where you need to know where to go. You either have good plan or someone to guide you around. If not, you naturally end up where everyone goes: The shopping districts that look the same everywhere, whether you’re in North America, Europe or Australia. The tourist traps with its gift shops, overpriced chain restaurants, and selfie opportunities. And the places that are made to look cool and exciting, like markets in industrial settings that sell overpriced street food and trinkets that collect dust at home. When I arrived in New York for a one-day visit, I stumbled around like an absolute tourist and ended up in precisely those places.

Large parts of Manhattan are devoid of any character now. I watched too many movies set in the New York of the 60s and 70s, and today’s New York—naturally—is very different. It’s now full bland modern buildings that have replaced the architecture I’ve come to know from these movies: Red bricks, art-deco features and fire escapes. Change is inevitable; I’m sure some people didn’t like the Empire State Building when it was completed in 1931, towering over Manhattan and dwarfing everything else.

If you’ve lived in a big city, you build a tolerance for these things; they are part of the city’s ever-changing nature. Still, when I go to New York, I want to feel like I’m in a Woody Allen movie.