MY.NY. I’ve called it that for the past 8 years, lived in it for the past 32. It’s home, it’s always been home, I’m pretty sure it’ll always be home. I’ve been in love with the whole state, but mostly my city, my whole life & when people speak of their excitement or their “dream” to visit NYC one day, I get it. I feel lucky that I’ve lived in the center of the chaos; I feel lucky that now I’m only tens of minutes away on the outskirts of the hubbub. However, recently, things have had a subtle shift. The geographical love of my life has begun to fray at the edges, blurring my vision from behind my rose-colored glasses, adding an anxious thrum to the usually enthralled pulse that runs through me at just the sight of the concrete jungle.
New York, NYC, MY.NY., The Big Apple, The City That Never Sleeps is..amazing. It’s awesome. It’s incredible. It’s a world of its own with the population of the city being so diverse, you might as well have a passport for the island. You can be proffered a taste of a little bit of everything, a little bit of something, but sometimes that can transform into a little bit of nothing. New York has an inherent electricity far different from the literal Times Square sense. Even the subways have an energy, even the sidewalks have a story. New York, the emotional oxymoron; a place with over 8 million people that struggle to find just one or two true connections. The palpable nature of the city can either be arousing or overwhelming, sometimes both. Opportunities call kindly to you from every neon sign, from every sky-scraping window, from every glittering marquis; but they also dangle temptingly in front of you like a carrot, making you walk blindly & aimlessly that one extra step after another in the hopes that you’ll be allowed to take a bite someday. Someday. Nightfall in NYC can be a startlingly different experience from one 12 hour gap to the next. One night you’re out at a restaurant, a jazz bar, a club, & life is good and jubilant and you’re a firecracker about the town without a burden to shoulder. The next, you’re home in your shoebox studio that’s costing you your pension eating Ramen noodles & watching Sex & The City’s glossy glammed up version of a very different reality, & wondering why you feel alone in a city full of promised promise.
Don’t get me wrong, I am still thoroughly obsessed with my town. I love the “melting pot,” the variety, the camaraderie (it does happen sometimes!). I live for feeling alive when I walk through Central Park in the summer or 5th Avenue in the winter, Union Square in the fall, The Met in the spring. The sparkling lights still set something ablaze in the pit of my stomach (that is not attributed to the spices from an NY slice), my colorful memories leap out at me from every psychic-resided corner. I roam my undergraduate hallways of Washington & Waverly, gazing at the billowing purple NYU flags that are now ubiquitous at every turn from FiDi to SoHo to The Village to Midtown, reminiscing about that first day that my address read “New York, NY 10003” & how I was ready to embrace the place like a long lost love that I never knew I had. The creativity, the individuality, the temperament that is solely New York still tugs at my heartstrings like a child determinedly pulling a mother into a candy store. But now & again, I wonder if “MY.NY.” will forever be in the throes of a lifelong identity crisis.
“I carry the place around the world in my heart but sometimes I try to shake it off in my dreams.”-F.Scott Fitzgerald
Today’s Interlude(s): “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra & “Empire State Of Mind” by Jay-Z & Alicia Keys
I couldn’t begin to tell you when my obsessive love affair with travel began. I credit my parents who always made it a point to take the family to a new place annually, & from then on, all I ever wanted to do was to be in a new place every week. Out of all of the places I have traveled, & I’m discounting New York & Mumbai/Bombay because they are home, two of my most j’adored cities are London & Paris. Now I know you’re all saying, “Ok, what a cliché, you loser. Everybody loves those two.” And I’m replying, “Relax, that’s mean, and when I mean favorite I mean if I could live in 3 cities at once, I would, & if I could marry a location, I’d say ‘Oui Oui’ to Paree & ‘Hip hip’ to London” (couldn’t make that last one rhyme).
I’ve been to London & Paris 3 times; once in the summer 1994 when I was 12, once in the summer of 2010 when I was 29 as part of a 2 week European excursion, & once in the winter of 2012, when I was 31. Each time I experienced the same thing in the form of adoration & elation, and different things in the form of feelings, things to see, and perspectives. I was born an Anglophile (causation could be that I was conceived in London on Valentine’s Day-sorry for the TMI but I had to know it & so now, do you) and everything about England makes me unabashedly happy; the accent, the whole magical land, the history, the architecture, the people, & so long as the Brits are okay with it, the monarchy. The amount of Union Jack clothing I own is becoming concerning, & my crowning glory in life is when multiple real life British folk told me that my British accent is, & I quote, “quite posh & not terrible.” The fact that I refer to this as my crowning glory tells you something about me that we’ll save for another day.
Though I can’t articulate my love for London (& the rest of the country), I can tell you where I had some of the best times of my life & where I think you should do the same. Do the touristy things, but don’t hop on that hop on-hop off big red Clifford bus! Grab a map, get familiar with the Underground/”tube,” & off you go. You’ll save pounds while losing pounds (haaaa) and you’ll see everything in a brand new light. If you want the history and all that, grab a guidebook or read something from the library. The only way to experience London is by exploring it. The usual tourist spots include The London Eye (highly recommended if you don’t have a fear of heights or motion sickness), actually going inside Westminster Abbey, standing in front of & hearing Big Ben chime at 12, trying to talk to a guard at Buckingham Palace before or after The Changing of the Guards (which my brother did when he was 5 & pretty much drove the poor man nuts). Watch a play or a musical on the West End (I saw Les Miserables the day I landed with jet lag when Nick Jonas was in it & I loved it for many reasons), have dinner in Leicester Square & then grab drinks at The W there, go see the Kohinoor & the Tower Jewels (just don’t start yelling that the British stole it from India & the Taj Mahal & you’re going to get it back a la, again, my brother & that way you won’t be arrested). I could’ve lived at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre simply imagining every historical character that was created/performed there. CAN YOU IMAGINE SEEING THE ORIGINAL A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM!? Walk along & see that London Bridge is still, in fact, intact & no one is locked up in there as the creepy children’s song suggests. Go to Nando’s & eat chicken with the hottest Peri Peri sauce they have because that’s the right thing to do in life, saunter down Regent Street & either think of your hometown mall that has all the same stores like I do (also because 1 pound is approximately 3 million dollars) or be that cool person & actually buy stuff from there because you can. Stop in the middle of Trafalgar Square in the evening hours & just look around and think about how lucky you are that you’re in London & how much cooler it would be if I were with you! The cruise on the Thames is kinda fun & boozy, so definitely do that. Hop on over to the Warner Brothers Studio in Leavesden and see all of the real sets and props from ALL EIGHT HARRY POTTER FILMS. And never show me those pictures because I have yet to do that & it would be depressing if you went before I did. If you’re creepy like me, the London Dungeon is the most fascinating place ever & whoever the sicko is who decided to charge people to go there is a mild genius. If you’re really bored in London, although why you would be is beyond me, go to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum & compare/contrast it to the other billion Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museums. If you’re in the mood to feel Indian (whether you actually are or not), you can go to Southall or Brick Lane and partake in the culture within the culture. In the mood to set fire to your stomach lining? Try the infamous Bollywood Burner challenge at The Cinnamon Club or the Curry Hell challenge at the Rupali Restaurant. This is not an endorsement because personally, I’m emotionally attached to my intestines. Visit Sylvia Plath’s house if you’re into morbid literaries as I am, & then cheer yourself up with some retail therapy under Harrod’s iconic green canopies. And finally, hobnob & have high tea and watercress sandwiches with the high & mighty over in Hyde Park & let me know how that goes; I’ll probably be over in Notting Hill looking for Hugh & Julia. Actually, I’m always looking for Hugh, London or anywhere.
Go in the summer & go in the winter (we went for New Year’s Eve & it couldn’t have been greater). Go whenever you can. The city is rich with culture, history, modernism, and life. London’s Ministry of Tourism should really consider hiring me, although I’d much rather prefer The Ministry of Magic.
And, one 2.5 hour Eurail ride later, we’ve arrived in Paris; the city of love, lights, croissants, & Chanel. I love Paris a little less than London because some of the people there aren’t quite so friendly (the rumors are true, in my experience at least), but I j’adore it nonetheless. I had always imagined sitting on the grassy banks of the Seine jotting away in a journal, gazing at the Eiffel Tower, & sipping my hot chocolate since a latté would have me zig zagging through the banks of the Seine. Though that particular fantasy has yet to occur, I’ve fulfilled many another in my Parisian trips thus far. As I watched the Eiffel Tower come into view my first time there at the age of 12, I couldn’t bring myself to believe that I was even there. I remember just sitting there, mouth agape, wanting to hug it (if you’ve gotten the impression that I’m extremely strange from the posts you’ve read on Champagne & Cookie Dough so far, you are absolutely right & I’m completely ok with you judging me). 😉 I was in Paris & Paris was in me and all I wanted to do was everything, which is what I want you to do too. Go to Nice. It’s nice (I’m killin’ it today, guys). Stroll down the Champs de Elysees from the Arc du Triomphe all the way down to the ferris wheel (I suggest summertime for this, my friends). Hang out at the bar at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, stay there ’til evening when the lights go on & sparkle on the hour. The day Disneyland Paris was announced to open, 11 year old me vowed to get there at some point. You can’t put two things like Goofy & Paris together & expect me not to get there. 20 years later, on the 20th anniversary of Disneyland Paris, the dream came true & it was spectacular. GO THERE DURING CHRISTMASTIME, IT WILL BE THE GREATEST THING YOU EVER DO! [warning: slight embellishment there, you will definitely do greater things] Get a pass for the métro & go roam the city of dreams, see the museums aside from the very beautiful but very obvious Louvre (But don’t forget the Louvre! It’s so much more fun to walk back & forth in front of the real Mona Lisa to see her eyes eerily follow you around while other tourists wonder wtf you’re doing)! Please, oh, please, go see the Notre Dame, marvel in its beauty & architecture inside & out, and then go to the Latin Quarter. This incredible area of bars & restaurants is one of the most fascinating and fun places I’ve ever been to. Various cuisines, a multitude of music, humongous portions of food & drink, and an eclectic mix of locals and tourists make this the go to hotspot for, well, people who like fun. Georges Café & their every-30-minute sparklers forever. Ride the carousel near the Eiffel Tower after you (physical ability permitting) climb up the stairs to the top of it, the sommet if you will (see how cultured I am, I remembered the sign from when I was wheezing past it). Go on a booze cruise on the Seine in the summer (clearly, you see I’m a fan of booze cruises if you’ve been reading the travel posts here). If you go during the Christmas season, nothing is better than the Christmas markets in front of the Eiffel Tower (please see my cool beer picture) & on the Champs Elysees (please see my macarón/homemade chocolate/flying Santa pictures). The market has everything from what I mentioned above to hot wine, fresh fruit, children’s rides, hot toddies, spiced ales, ornaments, blown glass, & more. The spirit is well & alive in Paris during the December days. Can’t forget to peek into Moulin Rouge because if you don’t, then why are you there anyway!? For a stellar view of the Eiffel Tower/Arc du Triomphe combo, try & stay at the Hotel Concorde Lafayette in the La Defénse area. If you don’t want to stay there, but still want the view, make sure to make window seat reservations in advance (& bring a fat wallet) for Bar La Vue on the top level of the hotel. Hot pink interiors, DJed sounds, & the most scenic view you could ask for (reminiscent of Robert @ MAD in NYC). If you leave Paris without eating fresh baguette sandwiches, giant chocolate croissants, & sumptuous Nutella & strawberry crepes, you are not a human being. I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you. They will all melt in your mouth & make you wonder why you can’t date food and you will go home 291 pounds heavier but the bond you forged with that meal will last forever. Tired from all of the meandering? Pop into Shakespeare & Company and sit in their cushy little armchair with a tome to pass your time. Read something by Marcel Proust, Victor Hugo, George Sand, or Honoré de Balzac..& then go visit their homes that are now museums open to the public. Fashion fiends like me can at least see the exterior of Coco Chanel’s apartment at 31 Rue Cambon (the Chanel store is on the ground floor so go [window] shopping or something while you’re there). In the mood to drink where plenty of famous people just like yourself have? La Fouquet’s Brasserie on the Champs de Elysees. Brilliant brews, fine wines, tasty bites, and the most fascinating people watching ever! I had wanted to go every time I went to Paris & in 2012, I finally got the chance and it was completely worth it. Want to just relax and embrace the surroundings? Make a pit stop at the Tuileries Palace & Garden with a book and a baguette in 1st arrondissement. If that palace ain’t big enough for you, Versailles is only a 20 minute train ride away for you to relish in your royal reveries. Not enough reign for you? Take a 6.5 hour train ride, & there you are in Monaco/Monte Carlo. Enjoy the French Riviera, take in the classic view, & head an hour further to Cannes & walk your red carpet fantasies into reality.
Now that I’ve waxed poetic about Paris, you think France will reinstitute an actual monarchy & make me Queen? I look good in a crown & it can be my new, more literal crowning glory of life.
I’m not a local so of course I’ve left out plenty of things to discover in London & Paris (if you’re a local, please send me a list so that I can do them myself the next time I go, & there will be a next time)! However, I sincerely hope you can get to these cities one day, whether by yourself, with a significant other, or with your families. If you’re lucky, you will be able to do all three & treasure a completely unique experience from each one. Until then, keep calm & carry on, mes amis!
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For an even more COMPLETELY ABSURD amount of pictures of two of my favorite cities from 2010 & 2012, you can go here, here, here, & here!
Today’s Interlude(s): “Les Champs Elysees,” Joe Dassin& “Maybe It’s Because I’m A Londoner,” Hubert Gregg (video sung by Yavuz Ozisik)
One of the greatest things I’ve ever done to facilitate my own independence and feed my desire to connect with as many kindred and non-kindred spirits as possible was to start taking “Me Trips” back when I started college. I know you’re waiting with bated breath for me to explain (because the name isn’t self-explanatory at all), so here we go. When I was a freshman, many of my closest friends were at different schools, so our spring breaks never coincided. I’m one of those rarities on the planet that has never been to Cancun for spring break. I never had a wild week of unadulterated all-inclusive fun; at least not in college. When faced with the option of sitting at home for a week doing nothing but morosely imagining the others on the beach (pre-Facebook photo days, you guys aka TORTURE), I decided to just up & leave and go on a trip by myself. It was nothing spectacular the first time (Virginia and Washington, DC), but the whole idea of leaving for a different city by myself with no concrete itinerary was so enthralling, even the mall seemed spectacular because it was in another city. Now, back in the day, before I went delinquent for a while, my parents were hyper-paranoid and I was an angel child. Trying to convince them that I was going to drive to Virginia from New York alone, stay in a hotel alone, and hopefully return (alone) was one of the most difficult processes that no human being should ever have to go through. But, I’m a Scorpio and I’m stubborn and I’m determined and I guess I was convincing (“Mom! You always say you want me to be independent! How will I do so in the house all break while you feed me!? I have to experience life.” Yeah, whatever, you were all that preachy at 17 too!). So, I packed a bag with clothes, money, the brick of a cell phone I had just gotten in January of 2000 “for emergencies only,” & some books, and bounded out the door.
I remember being extremely excited that I was going on a trip by myself and I would meet so many new people and see so many new things and learn so much more about myself that the first thing I did was get lost on the way. It’s a straight road from NYC to VA/DC, but I get lost if I come out of a different subway exit, so this was par for the course for me. With no navigation system & NO WAY IN HELL being the basic idea behind calling my dad for directions, my “spring break” started off by gas station hopping (party animal) to find out exactly how I could get to my destination. When I got to my little Holiday Inn room, I was thrilled (this was pre-anxiety that a serial killer would strangle me Lifetime movie style days). I looked around, called my parents to tell them that I still had all limbs intact and I was only late in arriving because of traffic, not due to being directionally impaired, and..bounded out the door.
The 5 days I spent in Virginia & DC are still some of my most fondly remembered ones. I went to the Smithsonian, National Air & Space Museum, The White House, Washington Monument, Lincoln & Jefferson Memorials, Arlington Cemetery, & of course, the Arlington Mall (as in shopping, not historical). I meandered along the large exhibits and really took the time to understand the things that I actually liked in life. I found that my childhood predilection for museums and history was still raring to go as long as I didn’t have a 40 question exam or 2,000 word essay relying on it afterwards. I experienced the DC nightlife, unknowingly ended up at an awesome lesbian nightclub (“Come to the firehouse party tomorrow night, I’ll take you as my date!”) which I didn’t know at the time was a lesbian nightclub, I just thought it was “ladies’ night” and people in DC were much nicer than in New York (see why I needed the “independence”!?), made a new friend at a hip hop bar who I was in touch with for a couple of years afterwards, went back to the hotel happy and renewed and ready to go home..and bounded out the door.
After that first experience, I was hooked. “Me Trips” became my sanity and I vowed to take one at least once a year. I went to the Bahamas with no plans and ended up going to fire-breathing show, kayaking for the first time by myself (resulting in spaghetti arms), & meeting a girl and her mom from the next town over from me on Long Island. We met on a Bahamian snorkeling/booze cruise on which I ended up as “Limbo Queen” and won a bottle of long gone rum. From there, I took a flight to Miami, rented a red convertible to fulfill my long-harbored dream of being whatever people in red convertibles at the time were, had a beautiful dinner of pasta and wine on Lincoln Road alone while reading a paperback which I then left in the back of a cab I took to go to Mansion, a nightclub there. I encountered a bachelorette party of girls with whom I ended up having mutual connections, stayed at one of their apartments, & headed to Orlando on the Amtrak the next day. Most people call me a nutjob, but I have been to Miami’s Holocaust Museum alone, I’ve truly and thoroughly enjoyed The Magic Kingdom alone, I’ve gone to a club in Orlando and met a couple who ended up inviting me to their wedding later that year, and I still go to dinner and movies and short road trips alone when I can’t manage the time for a full Me Trip. The experiences I’ve had on all of those journeys are absolutely incomparable and unique and considering I remember so many details, and more importantly, feelings, from these trips, it is clear that they have in some way shaped me as well. I just remember feeling new. That’s the best way I can put it. Intrigued, revived, alive, enthusiastic..and ever ready to bound out the door.
My family has gotten used to it even if they don’t understand it because it was and IS the greatest feeling in the world to take some time for yourself away from your familiar surroundings and the regular hubbub of daily life and just connect with yourself as a human being. Your likes, dislikes, experiences can all be influenced by those around you so once in a while, why not take off and see what it is that really resonates with you? I credit my Me Trips with much of the hyper self-awareness that I have today. I can honestly say that I know exactly what makes an impact with me, exactly what I like and don’t like and why, what my flaws are, what my assets are, what has shaped me and how, and what I want for myself from this point forward. To be attuned to yourself is a fabulous thing because I don’t second guess my decisions as much as I used to, and that is a fantastic feeling. I feel rejuvenated when I am away and have a clarity of thought that is difficult to produce when you’re surrounded by so many pressures and stressors and responsibilities. Alone doesn’t equal lonely and I strongly urge everyone to find the time to take a Me Trip and really understand what makes you, you.
I hope you’re bounding out the door.
Today’s Interlude: I 9, “Same In Any Language”
(Pictures Below – sadly none of Virginia/DC..pre-digicam days!: 1. Red convertible stunting in Miami, 2. Nicole, a girl I met in the Bahamas with her mom, & myself at Señor Frog’s, 3. Random bachelorette party at Mansion, Miami, 4. Limbo Queen on a Bahamian booze cruise, 5. New friends in the Bahamas at the Breezes resort where I was not staying, 6. Front & center at Cinderella’s house, 7. Knights of Fire show in the Bahamas, 8. Nicole’s mom, Nicole, the bouncer, & me at Señor Frog’s, 9. Bride-to-be Monique & her BFF at an Orlando lounge, 10. New friends in Miami, 11. New friends in Orlando, 12. New friend Rahul & I at B.E.D. in Miami, 13. Holocaust Museum in Miami, 14. Wedding party friends at Breezes in the Bahamas, 15. My 1st time snorkeling, 16. A new Orlando police officer friend, 17. Nicole & I on the Bahamian booze cruise, 18. Kayaking for the 1st time)
The rainbow unicorn was just to throw you off. Anyway, just a heads up! I’ve decided to actually use my “FACTs” tagline and post accordingly! Here is my planned blog scheduling as of now. I’m going to try my level best to stick to it, but, you know..life and such.
And I’m open to topic suggestions, so please share if you’d like to hear me babble about something specific.
Monday – Side of life: More like the posts you’ve been seeing so far.
Tuesday – Fashion: My take on designers, trends, Outfits of the Day/Night/Week/Life/Forever, etc.
Wednesday – Arts: It could be a review, it could be a suggestion, it could be sharing an event in any/all arts fields; performing, creative, etc. (STAY TUNED FOR OSCAR SUNDAY!)
Thursday – Culture: May have a focus on South Asian culture, but inclusive of any and all others.
Friday – Travel: The wanderlusting gypsy in me will tell a tale of where I’ve been or where I want to go.
Hope to have you along for this weird mental process. 🙂
champagne & cookiedough 