Remembering New York

In certain ways New York is like Paris.
Both cities make people dream.
We want to visit and discover them.

I discovered New York for the first time in 2000, we had been living in the US for a month and accompanied my uncle and his wife on their honeymoon trip to New York (they spend their honeymoon with us and New York was one of the excursions). This was one of many trips to the Big Apple. On this very first trip we “claimed” the World Trade Center and enjoyed the view.

Over the years, many day and weekend trips would follow. I remember walking for hours (Paris is so small in comparison), ice-skating in central park and in front of the Rockefeller Center, having dinner in a very good Italian restaurant, being very cold in the winter, and very hot in the summer. I remember receiving a compliment for my skirt in a posh store. I remember “climbing” the Empire State Building in the day, at night, in the rain, in the sun. I remember taking taxis that felt like riding a marshmallow. I remember getting my makeup done and feeling like a princess for the whole night.

In the summer of 2001, I went to New York twice. One visit was in the beginning of September, just before the school year started. I don’t really recall the trip. But I remember that we took the ferry from Staten Island. Which gave me an amazing view of the City’s skyline! New York is great to photograph (something that my rummaging through old photos tells me), that I took another picture of the twin towers from behind, probably from the Empire State Building.

A few weeks later I had already forgotten about the pictures, so many things had happened. I was in shock about the recent events in New York. I was in shock regarding the fact that I had been in New York only a few days before the attacks.

One day my mother brought home my pictures. They were developed on the 8th of September 2001, and showed New York’s skyline as it no longer was.

I would like to thank both Ula and Gulara for asking me to participate in the Five Photos Five Stories challenge. Please do check out both of their amazing blogs.

This challenge (even though I did not post yesterday) has been a great one so far, thus I am going to invite Evelyne to participate. Not so long ago she posted a lovely story about New York herself. Her New York post was the reason why I thought of these pictures.

Text and photos (hosted on flickr) by Solveig Werner

The rules of the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge are:

1) Post a photo each day for five consecutive days.
2) Attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or a short paragraph. It’s entirely up to the individual.
3) Nominate another blogger to carry on the challenge. Your nominee is free to accept or decline the invitation. This is fun, not a command performance!