The sounds, the sights....but oh, the smell. I'm weird I know...but the whole way from Philly to NYC, I kept thinking about the smell that NYC had seven years ago when I first set foot in the city, and the smell was what I was most eager to find out if it was the same. The bus which had taken me and Casey from Philly jolted to a halt, we stepped outside, and I breathed deep. It wasnt there at first...but by the time we got to the end of the first block, I ecstatically exclaimed that it did in fact have the same smell as I recall from last time! There were so many things I wish I could have captured from that city, and brought them back with me; the clear blue sky with white shiny buildings propped up against it, the buzz of the train as the wind whooshed over my face, the fashion, the ambiance of the little fire escapes skipping from one window to the next up a bricked building all of it, I wanted to give it all a big hug. I smile because I felt alive. The tempo was fast, the sounds exhilarating, never did you see the same person twice, how many lives did I come across in one hour? Or in just one block? The parks, they were full of people in headphones and with laptops, or lunch and a book, or like one lady, 5 dogs...bless her heart. There was something so urging about it, my eyes, swinging back and forth could not fathom all the different sights. And then the thought hit me. I was a tourist. To some, they see this every day. The man on his laptop, eyes glued to the screen, didn't notice the bird and skittish squirrel sharing a chunk of discarded bagel to his left. I didn't see am woman dressed in fashion, gazing up at the buildings, mouth open peering to see the uppermost hight. Not many people basked in the humor of how the most sun is in the middle of the intersection because the buildings block most of the sunlight from the sidewalks...and no one ever was overheard talking about the smell of NYC, it's own unique smell. They didnt notice. They sat in their world, in the fashionable black garb, large bags, little ear-buds tuning out the world around them, passing time in the city, not realizing the city they lived in. But i suppose, if you were in fact faced with that on a daily basis, then it would become mundane and typical. And maybe it is the thousands of blase people that i past that created the vibe in the city, the city sucked all the energy from the people, but yet, somehow it was still given out by the sheer volume of humanity.
The shocker was Brooklyn. Brooklyn wasnt what i was expecting in more then one way. It was scarce. The streets were wide, and the side walks narrow. there was no busy fast walking hordes. there were solitary people. Walking by, a quick glance in my direction, and nothing more. The younger ones stared you down as you walked by, and no one nodded or said a word. it was silent, no tress, few cars, bare. Yet with all this seemingly negativity coming from Manhattan to Brooklyn, there was a sense of peace. things moved slower, the sky was just as blue, but no longer a glitzy white paste against it, but a worn well lived brick building now in the place of a skyscraper. Inside the people there was a different kind of confidence. no longer was it the confidence of knowing your clothes were the latest thing to hit the Soho district, it was an inner confidence, that if they needed to, they could handle anything. In a moment i glanced over my shoulder to my right down a side street, the sun was beginning to get dimmer, and on the steps of an apartment building congregated a pack of teens, I am not sure why this stuck out to me, maybe it was the long desolate street, the treeless view, the bronze reflection of the sun off the buildings, the black railing, the shadowy figures cast up against wall and step and curb. I am not sure, but it stuck, and it brought a human element to the moment. It was the human side to the city, it was the opposite of the hollowness of Manhattan. It brought the whole thing together.
I am sure each borrow has its unique twist to offer. That each brings a different element to what makes up a city. But in my limited time, the things i saw, the things i felt, the things that still smelled the same, it all fit like a puzzle. It gave a longing that was left inside of me to return. It felt right, and on that bus trip back to Philly, I sat alone, realizing what i was leaving, and as we drove up on a bridge and the Empire State gleamed in the night sky i stared. I stared at the skyline, unconsciously swearing the same promise that i had made seven years prior, that i would return. I stared until my eyes went fuzzy, and then they focused on the splatters on the bus window. They focused back on the present, not the future, reality was brought back into sight.