Vacation to New York City - Essay Example

New YorkWhen asked to describe a city, the most difficult part is what to focus on and what to leave out. Each and every single part of the experience from the sites, the tastes, the smells, the attitudes, the awe, the grandeur, the realization that the city was truly a living breathing entity itself – all of these items are important takeaways from the experience; yet, only a handful can be discussed when asked to relate “what was it like”. Although still a child, I remember being awed by the grandeur and sheer size of all of the sights that I saw.

From the size of the buildings to the width of the main streets, even the height of the horses on whose backs police patrolled was such as I had not seen before. However, perhaps the most memorable fact of all was the sounds and overall noise. Although I did not come from a small town to begin with, I was not prepared for the business and overall noise level that New York life involved. In any given minute there could be a street musician, a sidewalk advertisement/demonstration, people whistling for taxis, horns beeping, construction equipment working, jackhammers chipping, and the general din of thousands of people all talking at once.

To my young and impressionable mind, this is one of the facts I will remember to the day I die as I recall looking out into the faceless mass of humanity with child-like awe and wonder at the sea of humanity that existed all around me. Beyond the noise, the grandeur of the buildings and their size was something else that gave me pause. Courthouses back home had a level of grandeur as did banks to a certain degree; however, the columns, the size, the colors, the use of glass, granite and steel to make obscenely tall buildings erupt from the corners of the sidewalk was something I had never before seen to such a degree.

Likewise, the smells that greeted me were also of particular interest to my young, curious mind. For instance, the sidewalks emitted the pungent odor of multiple different kinds of ethnic foods all being sold by street vendors – usually of the country of origin as was the food they were peddling. At the same time, there were twinges of sea air mixed with the distinct smell of horse urine from the many horse mounted police that were commonplace in the city of New York. In a way, describing New York is an almost impossible endeavor unless one is allowed to describe it in two words – “Sensory overload”.

Every single of the senses (with perhaps the exception of touch), from sight, to smell, hearing, and taste are bombarded almost incessantly with the full spectrum of sensory information. In this way, it is easy to understand why people cannot describe the city of New York or any other large metropolitan city in just a few brief words. Due to the fact that the city is the epitome of the American melting pot and that every culture is at least in some way represented within its confines, description of the city invariably breaks down to individual parts and pieces rather than a broad overarching answer to quell the curiosity of the questioner.