To ring in the New Year, my best friend and I headed up to the city of New York in search of adventure. Many say that New York is a place to experience on your own and oh boy did we have some experiences.

We left good ol’ Virginia around 8 p.m. to avoid any traffic, and arrived at the Big Apple several hours later. We took a five-hour bus ride to Penn. Station on 34th street where my cousin picked us up with a group of her friends.

We awoke to the sounds of the birds chirping, or so we dreamt. What we really awoke to was the sounds of sirens wailing, people arguing and obnoxious taxicabs honking. It was time for us to begin our day in hopes to experience an adventure, so we plunged into the city.

When you think of the streets of New York City, what usually comes to mind are socialites with their hands full of shopping bags, a random person on a jog with their dog, or an overly price hot dog stand.

Based on our experience, walking through the busy streets of NY carrying shopping bags is the worst.

There were a lot of different types of people, and more than just one jogger with a dog. There was an over priced hot dog stand, which I may add was a complete rip-off, with uncontrollable lines of people overflowing the already packed and busy streets of the city. 

Just as we were making our way through the crowd, we felt a wet unpleasant surprise. Yes, you guessed it. It began to downpour.

The first day we arrived did not fulfill our hunger for adventure that we were so desperately craving. We did not lose hope for we had one more day to get it right.

Day two in NY was definitely brighter than day one, literally. The sun was out, the birds were flying, the wind was blowing and people were laughing. Today would be the day that our adventure would strike.

We took the subway to Brooklyn and had pizza for lunch at Grimaldi’s. The line was so long it reached out until the end of the block, but the quality and taste of the pizza was so worth the wait.

Whenever I travel, I travel like a tourist, so after lunch we headed up to the Brooklyn Bridge for a stroll.

Our day was looking pretty good so far. We then took the subway back to Manhattan in order to hit up Times Square. It was a must on our list of touristy things to do.

The sun began to set just as we stepped off the subway. Times Square was a whole new world. With all the lights, people and activities, it was pretty hard to tell what time it was.

I could have sworn that it was nighttime but the energy Times Square gave off it was hard to believe the clock. Seeing talented people performing in the streets, I couldn’t say no to donating a couple bucks.

We were stuck and filled with adrenaline. We were high on life and it was the best feeling ever.

As we continued to cross out the activities on our list, we realized the close proximity of our adventure was bound to end soon.

To end the night we made our way to Little Italy, occupied with people, full of good vibes, gathered outside of a club. We weren’t old enough to go clubbing but just being able to roam the streets and interact with different kinds of people is a experience we will never forget.