New York City: First Impressions and Places to Explore

My first impressions of New York were these: first, it is a beautiful city, and it is hard to believe that many of its true skyscrapers are around a century old. In İzmir, 13-storey buildings are called skyscrapers; I have even personally investigated ten-storey twin buildings in Menemen named the Twin Towers. Parts of New York also felt worn and slightly grimy, like the lobby of an old hotel. Construction and renovation are expensive, so old things often remain old until work is unavoidable. Even some shop windows on Fifth Avenue looked dusty.
Surely a city this large had beautiful things too? Absolutely. New York is a city of parks, beginning with Central Park. It is magnificent: 843 acres of lawns, woodland, water and paths in the middle of Manhattan. You can rent a boat, cycle, lie on the grass in the sun or skate in winter. It is an attraction in its own right, bringing an extraordinary range of experiences together in one place.

Then there is Bryant Park, an oasis in the heart of the city. Once associated with crime and neglect, it became a popular public space after its restoration. You can sit at the park's tables with food you have brought or bought nearby. The park also runs free seasonal yoga sessions; dates and times vary, so check its official programme before visiting.
There are too many parks to describe, so let us move on to SoHo. Our American friends, endlessly inventive with abbreviations, formed its name from 'South of Houston Street'. Once known for artists' lofts and studios, the neighbourhood became one of the city's fashionable—and inevitably expensive—areas as cafés and designer boutiques arrived. Tired of the attention and rising prices, artists moved on to other neighbourhoods, at least until those changed too. That was the local gossip we heard at the time.

It is hardly surprising that the United Nations is based in New York: you can share the city with people from scores of nations at once. Chinatown—only a short walk from SoHo—Little Italy and Harlem are among the neighbourhoods that add their own histories and cultures to this diversity. That reminds me of a small Harlem story.
Unlike at home, where shops often seemed to swallow the odd kuruş, New York involved a serious traffic in one-cent coins. If you paid cash, cents accumulated everywhere. We were at a deli in Harlem, trying to assemble enough small change to buy coffee, when an older Black woman ahead of us in the queue placed a dollar in my hand.
'For your coffee,' she said.
We could not tell whether she genuinely thought we had no money or was simply being generous. We explained the situation and returned her dollar.

New York celebrates communities from all over the world, including an annual Turkish Day Parade and festival whose dates vary from year to year. We happened to visit during a Celtic celebration and saw plenty of cheerful men in kilts.
In short, New York is not a city to experience only by ticking off tourist sights. Choose three or four places from the list below, then spend the rest of the day walking its orderly streets without a plan. You will notice an astonishing number of details—and may begin dreaming of your next visit before the first one is over.
Our sightseeing shortlist:
Empire State Building, American Museum of Natural History, Guggenheim Museum, Rockefeller Center, Wall Street and Hard Rock Cafe.