Using the excuse ‘photos are all that’s left,’ I took an unusually large number of pictures of myself on this New York trip. Even when I was exhausted, I forced a smile in front of the lens.

After tossing and turning all night fighting jet lag, I finally welcomed our second morning. I grabbed a quick bite of toast and fruit, hopped right into the car, and headed to Manhattan. It felt like today was going to be just as much of a grueling march as yesterday.

Honestly, I had imagined a dense, glamorous New York where you couldn’t even find a place to step, but once I got here, the city felt like one massive construction site. I could feel a strange vitality in the way they kept building, tearing down, and rebuilding things.

Still, since I made it all the way to New York, I figured I should at least get a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty, so I headed to the ferry terminal. After buying a ticket and waiting quite a while, I finally managed to board the boat. Enjoying the cool breeze on the ferry, I took a quick look around, skipped the crowded Chinatown, and made my way to Greenwich Village.

Every alley had unique vintage clothing stores and cozy cafes, making it really fun to look around. As I was walking, I randomly stumbled into a small park where an old man was tossing handfuls of birdseed to the pigeons. He even shared some with people walking by, so I suddenly found myself in this bizarre situation, making awkward friends with a flock of pigeons. It was a little startling at first, but standing there among people chatting peacefully and listening to music, it really struck me that this is a country perfectly suited to the word ‘freedom.’

Getting a bit hungry, I grabbed a $3 slice of pizza while walking down the street. I was weirdly glad to find out that such incredibly cheap and good pizza isn’t only found back home.

In the afternoon, I crossed over to Midtown. I spotted a plush sofa indoors somewhere, thought ‘I’ll just rest my eyes for a second,’ and instantly passed out. It was a flawless masterpiece created by jet lag and a punishing schedule.

After an hour of sweet sleep, I woke up and headed to the Apple Store inside Grand Central Terminal. The scale of that store is just unreal.

I looked up and admired the famous constellation mural on the terminal’s ceiling. Did you know that the ceiling mural was actually painted completely backward? There’s a rumor that it was a ridiculous mistake made because the painter laid the blueprint on the floor and looked down at it, while another more sophisticated spin says it’s meant to be the universe seen from ‘God’s eye view.’ Anyway, I found it fascinating that even a massive blunder like that just naturally became a romantic symbol of New York.

(Actually, my camera battery had completely died because I had taken over 500 photos just in the morning. I had to drop it off at a camera shop to charge before I could start snapping away again.)

After taking a quick look around Park Avenue, known as a wealthy neighborhood, I sat down at a Starbucks on 43rd Street for a sweet coffee break. While organizing my upcoming itinerary for Washington and my trip to Newport, time just flew by.

As the sun began to set, I made my way over to Wall Street. The destination was, without a doubt, the ‘Charging Bull,’ the ultimate symbol of New York capitalism. Just as I expected, it was packed with people trying to catch some of that money luck.

Apparently, this imposing bull originally started out as something like an illegal street vendor. During the stock market crash in the late 80s, a sculptor secretly dropped it off in the middle of the night with a truck as a piece of guerrilla art to give people hope. The next day, it was set to be removed as an illegal installation, but citizens protested so fiercely, demanding, ‘Give us back the bull,’ that it ended up permanently settling in its current spot.

The story of how an unpermitted piece of illegal art ended up smack in the middle of the world’s greatest financial district, purely through the stubbornness of the citizens—maybe that’s the most ‘New York’ story of all. Hoping to catch a bit of that luck myself, I pushed through the crowd, lightly placed my hand on a specific part of the bull that’s been rubbed shiny by so many people, and made a wish. The police officer guarding the bull had somehow become an unintentional local celebrity, constantly getting stopped by passersby asking for a picture together.

After passing by solitary graveyards sitting right in the middle of the concrete jungle, it was finally time to head over to the Brooklyn Bridge. But on the drive over to Brooklyn, the exhaustion hit me again, and I passed out. The power of jet lag is seriously no joke. When I forced my eyes open, I was already right in front of the Brooklyn Bridge.

The night view with the Manhattan Bridge overlapping in the background was truly a sight to see. I was enjoying the romantic night view while walking, and then popped into a nearby ice cream shop. I casually handed over my credit card, but the young cashier firmly told me, ‘Cash only.’

For a second, my mind went blank because I didn’t have a single bill in my wallet, but thankfully we managed to scrape together enough cash from everyone to pay the $8, and I safely got to eat my ice cream.

At 11 PM, I caught a ride back to our accommodation, and the second I arrived, I dove back into bed and collapsed. That’s how the long, long, and incredibly dynamic second day in New York came to an end.

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