• fookin 34°? so glad I’m leaving
  • NYC: lemme slap you back home with a humidity heat high
• waffling about dressing because NYC is hot and in the airport/plane it will be cold
• just put things to change into at the top in suitcase
• check-out at 11am, flight leaves at 8pm
• first stop, air-conditioned Starbucks with wifi
• catching up with all the journaling
• it’s nice to walk out into the humid heat after getting deep-frozen at Starbucks
• it’s nice for, like 26,5 mins
• need to get back into the freezer now, pls 😭
• sitting in Sara D Roosevelt Park munching on the last dumplings and reading The Stardust Thief
• my station being closed for the whole weekend and having to drag my suitcase to the next station
• when everything is brainrot and your train goes through Chauncey Station
• blessed cold in the metro
• arriving at the airport real early but that’s okay because I still gotta figure out how to convince the peeps here my German vaccination passport is actually valid for my return to Germany…
• Oh nein! Ein deutscher Impfausweis! Das wird Deutschland NIEMALS als Nachweis akzeptieren!!! 😱
• airport train should be free, just sayin
• not changing and only getting out an extra layer before getting in line to drop off luggage
• line isn’t that long here, nice
• airport person: when was your last vaccination?
• Me: 28th April
• APP: fine, move along
• me: ??? le fuq? They didn’t even check if that was true?!?
• longest line ever though security, managed to read half of The Stardust Thief (can recommend, excellent book)
• meandering through the airport to kill time and maybe spend my last dollars
• airports are cursed, like 30 bucks is nothing here and soda is 5 bucks 500ml
• find a place to charge my phone, munching down super expensive food
• ngl, intended to have a glass of wine, but I physically cannot spend 16 bucks on one
• make way to gate and hear flight is overbooked 😬
• go to lady at the counter and get swept away with relief because I do have a seat
• start waiting
• listen to the offer for changing flight climbing
• board and have a window seat?!? ok, over the wing, but still
• catering truck breaks down behind plane
• 1,5 hrs later: we are catered and ready to go but have now crew to push us out to the tarmac
• 2 hrs later – finally!
• On the down side: got a transport to my car lined up at planned arrival time plus brekkers date
• can’t inform anybody because it’s the middle of the night back home
• was able to sleep, actually
• waive breakfast sandwich
• long trek along the whole length of Frankfurt airport to bus shuttle
  • airport train is free here, just sayin
• get on board though I may or may have lost my return ticket *oop*
• long trek across the parking space to my car, it’s frying hot inside after standing in the sun for a week
• brekkers date still standing *yay*
• meet with Kezia at street fest and have a great time
• it is nice war, not a lick of humid, NYC take notes
• drive home two hours and keel over 😴

• wasting time before leaving the hotel
• saving another pdf map so I won’t get lost
• stepping out at Times Square and being lost immediately anyways
• smaller than I thought though
• oop, looks like Fashion Week Park doesn’t belong to Brian after all
• hey, das ist eine völlig legitime Annahme, wenn man es nur gesprochen hört
• lots of tents, will need to come back later and investigate
• walk around like a lost tourist
• enough metro stations around to keep my wifi alive
• using goolge maps – still lost
• found the correct street at least PARTY
• so many fabric shops *hyperventilates*
• even more trim shps CRY
• somebody rich give me their credit card RN 🥺
• going into a trim shop
  • overload
  • brain.exe stopped working
  • no thoughts only sparkle
• ogle clasps for Stede cosplay
• wtf is mood?!?
• spandex house?!?
• so much sparkly fabric everywhere. I should learn how to sew blazers and make them all annoyingly sparkly
• walked right past mood, yay
• stern words with google maps
• walk back on correct side of the street
• found mood, ah no. that is the home fabrics part
• found mood! (thx to Jaclyn for telling me about the elevator thing, might have walked right past again otherwise)
• enter mood
• Mel.exe stopped working, silk overload (if you buy all the silk, Mel.exe will work again?)
• 235923876§% love how they sort fabric by type and let me know what it is
• so that is charmeuse? Yikes
• so much silk, so little money 😔
• so now the men’s section is too drab and ark for me?!? 😱
• groping all the fabrics
• GROPING them fabrics because feels, but also so I can gauge what I can make with it
• wool
• WOOL
• *soft gasp* SUMMER LINENS!!!
• falling in love with the most beautiful yellow linen blend 😭
  • not sure what to make from it
  • brainrot: SUMMERLINENS
  • me: summer linen shirt it is
• leather – smells SO nice, must not chew on it 😔
• cotton wovens my love
• why is all colourful prints flowery?!?
• anyway, I take these 3 (orange, teal and magenta flowery)
• head back for linen
• get 2 buckles for Stede cosplay
• wtf is the thread half the price from home?!? → buying thread for my fabrics
• pay So Much Money (worth it, even if, actually, I do not have it)
• do I want a bag?
• Do I want a bag?!?

• clutches bag, VICTORY!
• Steps out and is immediately lost again
• take more time than warranted to find Starbucks (a/c AND wifi)
• it has no seating?!? so much for a/c but at least I still got their wifi outside
• selfcare with matcha frappucino and chocolate cake pops
• tweet victory
• return to Bryant park to ogle tents
• it’s a crafts market
• ogle all jewellery stands for rings for Stede cosplay
• find one good ring but it is too small 😔
• return home for nap
• leave for dumplings
• der Unterschied zwischen Dumpling und Knödel ist erstaunlich groß
• start snarfing down dumplings
• realise the place is closing down
• apologise hastily, pack up dumplings and retreat to hotel
• inhale remaining dumplings
• start packing
• try uploading vaccination proof for 6^th time
• tf you keep saying it is not an accepted vaccination in Germany? It is LITERALLY my German vaccination passport *le sigh*

• up too early still moving too late for sit-down brekkers
• promoter making me flee into the bicycle lane at Bowling Green Station
• took the long way around and had a crepe because hungry
• you can just arrive early anywhere here, huh?
• Caught in another class on my way to the boat
• nice boat ride, too short, LOVE boat rides
• how can 1 class be so loud?
  • Cue banshee screeching
• Possibly okay selfies with Statue of Liberty from the boat

• it’s nice though there are too many people
• journaling in the sun looking at the ocean → nice
• no wifi on the island, how is that being free?
• Construction work blocking the circuit
  • makes the end nice and quite, few people, good view of the ocean, LOVE ocean
• written most of my postcards while air-frying in the sun HAPPY
• this is actually really nice?
• I mean better views for half the price of Empire State Building
• on to the pedestal (dafür zahle ich gerne extra)
• 192 steps? oof
• but only two people are allowed per elevator ride which take 4 mins and an employee just cut in front of the three rides waiting before me
• so stairs it is
• huff puff
• it passes a lot faster than expected
• there’s nobody up here?!?
• SO NICE (if only the choppers could maybe chill for a minute)
• das Deutsche Wort is Heli und sehr viel niedlicher
• prolly getting a sunburn

• crown is closed because COVID, only thing it’s good for, I would have HATED those stairs lolsob
• love it
• unfortunately, locked away everything but the phone so can’t journal on the pedestal SAD
• free wifi at the museum? EYES
• hoo boy, how do you expect me to get the e-mail with my password without wifi access?
• Gonna have a look at food and souvenir prices
• restrooms are nice enough
• food didn’t look appetising so I didn’t even look at the prices
• souvenirs were priced ok but ugly, very unfortunately, especially for the pocket watch I was ogling, you could have been mine…
• just missed the boat back and now it’s another 25 mins sizzling in the sun
• more sun on the top deck where I snatched the best seat on the ship
• my skin is taking on the shade of a nice and crisp rotisserie chicken
• OCEAN! I really should be on/at/in the ocean more
• stop at Spicy Village for dumpling lunch and accidentally just went to bed *oop*

tl’dr

• if you can pay the entrance from leftover peanuts and bring a friend? By all means, go for it
• if you think tickets are fckn expensive for a view? Don’t. It’s exactly what you get – a very expensive view, not worth it SHRUG

long version

• missed my station going there
• extremely confused by the lack of helpful signs telling me where to go, starting with the best exit from the station to which way to go topside
• tf if anybody knows where the ESB is
  • can’t I just look up? bby, dude, luv, there be big-ass houses all around. I see nothing
• had a chili-cheese hot dog and regretted it immediately
• can’t recommend but at least no longer starving
• found the entrance, was admitted 1 hour early
• why is nobody wearing a mask?!?!?!?!
• it’s French Day (ich spreche noch immer kein Französisch)
• wtf is the floor made of? (scratches gently)
• feels like an airport, but you can keep your drink
• picture point at the entrance, I de-mask and wonder if that goes extra
• fun little tour about the building’s history
  • is it worth 40 bucks? I think not
• elevator ceiling show to distract from how fckn fast this thing goes
• schade eigentlich, ich liebe Aufzüge die HUIII!!!! machen 😔
• a floor for views, people are not looking as they leave (not to self for later)
• I spy with my bleary eye: the Statue of Liberty – hm, hab ich mir größer vorgestellt, maybe it’s the distance
• nice enough views, bric-a-brac to look at, long queue out
• 10 mins into the wait a surge forwards
• I claim the windows alongside the queue and thread my way back in later
• another 10 mins into the wait the announcement that we do not have to wait for the elevator in this queue, we can also take the stairs for the last 6 floors (cue another rush)
• coming to the conclusion that NYC can do with some more directive signs, arrows and such
• stairs – huff puff, so many fckn stairs
• why does floor 85 exist twice? 🤨
• short existential crisis of having another 5 floor 85s
• nah, we’re up
• can’t sit on the shiny broad stairs 😔
• bench miraculously becomes free enough for my ass as I approach. Yay
• outside it fuckin wimdy
• not as packed as feared
• nice views, worth 40 bucks? I think not
• walk around once, stare into the distance and down
• good sir, are you sure you wanna hold the mobile over the edge for taking pics?
• Need the number of mobiles dropped each year ASAP
• going down the stairs is easier
• once again Very Bad Beschriftung strikes
• ESB: has gift shop out the back
• me: that’s the guy I’m after
• time to pic up that pic shot at the entrance – for 26 BUCKS?

• another gift shop that hasn’t grasped the concept that I have burned all my money on the ticket already, smh
• buying absolutely nothing again
• ah, NOW we get to the pretty marble-y part
• the hall is rather ostentatious
• still, I am disappoint
• do not recommend
• heading to Starbucks for liquid pick-me-up

• getting up early like, no problem (it’s already 11am at home)
• load omny card with the wrong package
• run card through reader twice, because why not?
• Arrive at Union Square
• surprisingly no wifi at station
• go out again
• send Em pic of location I’m waiting (read before arriving)

• send Em pic of myself (didn’t read before arrival)

• wait for Em and sweat by just standing in the shadow (fckn humidity)
• successfully meeting with Em
• not so successful ticket-buying on her side, pay for her instead
• dragging her out of the subway one station early
• try to keep up with 1 very fast Grama
• find brekkers place (Bonjour Crepes & Wine) but they’re closed yet
• wait for Gates
• place not open even after Gates arrives after opening time
  • turns out they have problems with the stove and won’t open up for quite a while
• Gates says there’s another place nearby, so we move there
• turns out this is a chain and they were meaning an actually same cafe
• had wondered why we go so far when there’s food all over everywhere in Manhattan
• the mortifying ordeal of choosing only one dish
• can’t go wrong with 3-cheese-omlette and huge smoothie
• hand out chocolate
• water doesn’t taste the badly of pool, still glad for smoothie
• food is really good, fried potatoes are a surprise

• next stop: coffee for Em
• next stop: Central Park (guess who didn’t get lost this time 😁)
• meandering around until we hit the zoo
• getting tickets, Em gets mine to get even
• zoo is kinda small but hey
• likely cause of death: petting extremely fluffy bear ears
• can’t find the snow leopards 😔
• tropics zone – in this weather? 😬

• E, E! Do you really think going into the tropical house is a good idea in this weather?
  • Too late, she’s already inside
  • dissolving into goo in 3.. 2.. 1.. splootch
  • rarely did I want to leave a place so urgently
• not even bat can keep me in this place
• outside feels cool afterwards, not sure that’s worth it *sweats like an undignified pig*
• split up because Em wants to look for Balto statue, Gates hat a foot and I desire to be cool

• blue sky! 🥰
• still fckn humid 😭
• so many joggers
• ok, maybe those two guys make it worth it 👀 (not respectfully)
• just sitting in Central park and feeling sticky
• why are there so many Germans here?
• Oh nein, ich spreche kein Deutsch, oop, ich muss weg
• also French. So many French. Would prefer Frenchie, ngl
• getting lost in the park
• realising the iced tea is a fizzy alcoholic drink by chugging half a bottle
  • before getting lost
  • might be causality somewhere in there
• sitting around again because it’s just too sticky to move
• fizzy cocktail is not helping the sticky situation

• getting lost on the (theoretically) short way from the station
• first 2 floors of Kandisky: LOVE!!!

• last 2 floors of Kandinsky: wtf?!?

• having overpriced chocolate cake and coffee in the museum cafe

• too much cake 😭
• accidental darkroom
• prices at the museum shop 😱
• MEME: me: I’ll buy so much merch
  • prices: holding back
• thought this place would be bigger, ngl

• fckn HUMID! Why, NYC, why?!? 😭
• abgeranzt but alive
• DUMPLINGS
• defying the German urge to obey the Ampelmännchen
• the hotel is also abgeranzt but expensive
• paying, like, 120 bucks for vibes and the rest for the room
• not me freezing my ass of in the subway after simmering in the humidity outside
• the face of a person starting to sweat at 18° C without humidity
• I don’t understand English anymore suddenly, I don’t know

• Chinatown being 95% masked people 😍
• no way to open the window but a/c?
  • I’ll die from nosebleeds, is2g
• the metro system being much easier than anticipated
• the people are very – people-y, everybody is fashion
• all sockets actually D:
• 50/50 chance of getting the directions right
• accidentally buying fizzy cocktail-y drinks instead of iced tea (thank you Chinatown?)
• why is soda/water so fckn expensive here?
• NYC being humid only for me? 🤨
• NYC putting up no helpful signs pointing at the correct exits for sights, like do I look as if I know which exit to take for the Empire State Building? Not to mention which direction to go above ground
• Now? NOW? I get my period after 3 months off??? Fckn fck that 🤬
• oh, so the window opens after all, too late though because it is fckn humid AGAIN
• thought I’d be more impressed with NYC overall 🤷‍
• auch auf Deutsch ist nur “wältigt” kein Wort
• water tanks on roofs? Quaint
• fooking humidity again from Friday on
• still generally underwhelmed
• LOVE the subway system, tho. Get me to a station and I am safe
• why does 78% here smell either of weed or half-brewed beer? BOTH MEME
• Hating the taste of chlorine and having fine taste buds for it won’t make you happy here
• wtf did I think post boxes are red?!?
• a big city I don’t wanna live in 🤷‍
• not getting the free rides I was promised after the first 12 or even the first 14 *le sigh*
• will never be over the tax thing, like, come on, it’s not that hard to price with tax included
• all streets named the same everywhere
• “Do Not Hold Hands Door” signs on subway