Last week I did something that was a figment of my imagination a year ago: traveling to New York City alone. I am still surprised that my parents allowed me to travel by myself since they worry a lot about safety. I think what made them trust me was that I went to New York City a couple times, so the place wasn't so unfamiliar. I also did the itinerary by myself, which included making bookings for a hotel, ordering museum tickets, etc. I think these actions showed that I was responsible and spent a decent amount of time planning for the trip, which made them believe that I could act as an independent adult -- well, to some extent. Before the trip, I reassured them that I spent at least thirty minutes carefully reading how to navigate the subway and devoted some time learning how to use the MTA trip planner, which I highly recommend for anyone visiting the city. I also used Live360, which is a family sharing app so they knew where I was.
Here are the nitty-gritty details of what happened over the three day weekend (1/30):
Friday
7 AM-11:30 AM Greyhound bus from Boston to NYC. I wake up early to leave my dorm by 6 AM because it takes me 20 minutes to walk to the Kendall/MIT T station and then go to South Station.
11:30 AM-1:00 PM I take some time to go to my inn in Chelsea from the Port Authority station and have a simple lunch.
1:00 PM-6:30 PM I take the train to Brooklyn Museum and get to see lots of art. My favorite part of the museum is the Christian Dior exhibition.
6:30 PM-8:00 PM I come back to my inn and have a quick dinner.
8:00 PM-9:30 PM On a whim, I go to the Rubin Museum of Art nearby. The museum is small, but it was worth it since Friday nights are free there. The most memorable part was the Mandala lab.
Saturday
9:00 AM-2:30 PM I was planning to visit Neue Galerie, Cooper Hewitt, and MOMA PS1, but these museums closed because of the snowstorm. I make last-minute changes and decide to go to the Met since it is one of the few museums opened. Even though I have been to the Met before, it is still refreshing to visit again. Looking back, the coolest thing was being the first person to enter the museum because I am the only other person in the Egyptian temple room. It had a different feeling compared to the time when I visited during the summer and the temple was full of tourists sitting by the reflecting pool. Since my time is limited, I devote most of my time to the new and temporary exhibitions. I don't have a particular favorite one, but the Walt Disney one was the easiest one for me to understand compared to the surrealism exhibition.
2:30 PM-5:00 PM I take the 6 train and visit the Morgan Library and Museum. I expect to only spend at most 90 minutes, but I take my time and analyze every object carefully, so I end up staying till 5 PM. What impressed me most about the Morgan Library was the ceiling art of the zodiac.
5:00 PM-7:00 PM I walk for 30 minutes to the Fotografiska Museum, only to learn that the museum closed, which was pretty disappointing. I was not in a rush for anything, but I wished they notified me by email or text before I arrived. The museum is right next to the 23rd St 6 train station, so I decide to hop on and go to Chinatown. I get something warm for dinner and the best part was not the dinner, but rather the tofu pudding at Fong On's. If I go back to New York City this year, I will have to make another trip to that shop and order the Can't Go Wrong.
7:00 PM-9:00 PM I take the 6 train, then L train to go to the Museum of Illusions. The illusions really fooled me and it was fun taking pictures of the illusions. Personally, the experience would have been more fun if I had someone else with me. The ticket was kind of pricey, though I say this mainly because I went by myself and I am pretty sure the experience is not designed for one person.
Sunday
7:30-8:30 AM For some reason I wake up an hour early, so I have free time. I decide to walk to Little Island, but sadly it is not open at that time due to excessive snow from Saturday. Despite this, I don't regret spending time walking around Chelsea and the Meatpacking District.
8:30 AM-12:00 PM It takes me forever to get to the Met Cloisters by the A train. I am very glad that I left the hotel early because before leaving I didn't read about the Sunday service schedule. I spend 2 hours in the museum and immerse myself in medieval art.
12:00 PM-3:00 PM I leave early to catch the next A train and frantically run from 125 St to an Italian restaurant called Pisticci's where I meet my friend who goes to Columbia. I am five or ten minutes late, but he tells me it is fine, which makes me feel better. We both order fettuccine and talk about various things. He then gives me a tour of Columbia University, which is pretty cool and I get to see the Manhattan Skyline from one of the buildings. Since the campus is small, we end up sitting in a heated tent talking about books we read. The conversation is quite intellectual, which is something that I did not expect prior to meeting him.
3:00-4:00 PM I take the 1 train back to the hotel and have nothing to do, so I just text my friend about what I did in New York City. I say goodbye to the receptionist and she wishes me a safe trip home.
4:00-11:00 PM I leave early to go to the Port Authority station and the bus arrives 30 minutes late at South Station because it is the driver's first time driving to Boston. Because I use public transport and walk, I get back to my dorm by 11:20 PM.
Reflections:
The weirdest experience of this trip was traveling alone, a first in my life. Last year, I traveled with a friend to New York City during Thanksgiving Break and I ended up knowing her a lot better. I would say traveling with a couple of people is a great way to become closer as friends. Previously, I always traveled with my family and one main difference between my family's trip to New York City and mine is that my family never was the type who had concrete plans, whereas I wrote a detailed schedule for each block of the day. Personally, I never really liked my parents' style of having rough ideas of what to do because that ended up leaving late and not making the most out of the limited time we had at a given place. I just never liked this vague feeling of uncertainty. I know that this approach may be better for other people who like to take things more slowly instead of worrying every hour whether they will not make it on time to the next thing on their itinerary.
I think one benefit of traveling alone is that there is more freedom and flexibility with what you want to do. When I traveled with my family, there would always be at least one person like my brother who disagreed with the plans because there were few activities that all of us enjoyed. My mom and I would want to go to art museums, but then my brother and dad would complain about how boring it was to look at art. Traveling alone, on the other hand, does not require making compromises and adjusting one's schedule to satisfy the other person's preferences.
Another benefit of traveling alone is that I matured a lot and learned some important skills, like basic street smarts. I also became more responsible by making sure that I didn't lose important things, such as my passport and hotel keys. Because I was by myself, I had to spend more time beforehand researching how to get to my next destination. Honestly, if it weren't for the MTA trip planner, I think the trip would have been a total disaster.
The downside of traveling alone is how lonely it can be. I don't think I really understood the distinction between the terms lonely and alone until I traveled alone in New York City. Of course, I knew that the word lonely is a feeling, whereas the word alone means the state in which someone is not physically surrounded by others. It was strange to be in one of the most densely populated places in the country, yet feel lonely. It was nice to have some quiet time for myself when I sat in the subway car or walked on the busy streets, but I think there was too much quietness. I wonder if I would go insane if I traveled alone like this for a week or longer. I think the number of words I spoke with my friend during those 2.5 hours was far greater than the number of words I exchanged with strangers like the cashier or museum workers over the span of 48 hours.
This brings me to the question of whether I would like to travel again by myself. I think I would not mind, though ideally, I would have to meet at least one or two friends in the city for the trip to be more fun. I would definitely not mind traveling with a companion again because I see it as a great opportunity to know someone else better over a short period. At the same time, however, traveling alone makes planning easier because it does not require being on the constant lookout for someone else.
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