New York, USA (23.10-01.11.23)

Work part of the trip

USA, the land of unlimited possibilities… right? It has always felt distant somehow, and also i have never really thought i’d go there without specifically planning it on purpose, for a road trip or so. However, I was working at Paige, whose headquarters were in NYC, right next to the New York Times building on 11 Times Square (no longer there by the time i am writing this ihn 2026) and an opportunity came up where they wanted to fly everyone in to New York, incl. everyone from Europe. I thought this was a perfect reason to go and see a bit of US. So i went on to schedule an appointment to geta B1/B2 (business/tourist) visa and the trip was planned for October. I had time by Sept to get visa, otherwise i could not have gone. So I jumped at the opportunity and started trying to schedule an appointment for a visa in the American Embassy in the Netherlands. However this was a totally impossible tasks with the first opportunity being in 2+ months by which date it would have been too late. So this must’ve been happning in July or so. Luckily, a friend of mine just suggested that i can probably do that also in Bulgaria, where I was going in a few weeks anyway, I am a Bulgarian national after all. How come I did not think of that, is beyond me. So I went to check the schedule of the American Embassy in Sofia and I could find dates available within 2 weeks. However I was only going there in a month or so, so I scheduled an interview appointment for 2 days after I arrive in Sofia or so. I then went there and had to queue, starting from the outside of the building, then around the embassy into a back side of it. You then register at one desk, then sit down and wait and after like 20 min, they call you and you have your interview. It’s like little windows with people interviewing behind each. I was anxious, tried to dress well and was going through all scenarios in my head, the most important of which was to NOT tell that I am going on a business trip and that Paige was a client and noy mt employer. In a way that’s how it was, because i was employed officially via a third-party company. And in a way it was not really a trip to work, it was more of a conference (hackathon) thing for one day and a visit to a lab the other day. So when my turn arrived I went there and they looked at my documents, asked me what I worked, where do I live (to which I said The Netherlands) and they are supposed to kind of evaluate how much of a “risk” are you to emigrate to the US (whether you already have relatives there etc), but it went super quick for me, because the guys assumed (i think) that I HAVE already emigrated to the NL, why would I do it to the US, so he asked me what my job was, how long i’m going for and he was done with me. My interview lasted 5 min tops. After that I had to wait for up to 2 weeks for my passport. Well, it was ready to pick up 2 days after already. I was suuuper impressed with the speed of the processing and everything. And so my trip to the US was basically sure at that point!

I decided that if i’m traveling for such a long distance, I may as well take a few extra days to explore at least NY. And thats what I did. On Oct 24th we had the hackathon, so we flew on 23rd, I think it was Sunday, then on Monday it was a Hackathon day at the Microsoft Office (they were trying to secure a deal with MS to switch to Azure so MS held a hackathon to help us get acquainted with their cloud. For me, however, and a few other European colleagues, a visit to a pathology lab, client of ours, was planned. We were set to visit Quest Diagnostics lab.

This was sooo cool, I absolutely loved seeing everything I’ve heard about and worked with, in person. Things like their whole pipeline with the conveyer belts where all specimens of biopsy or urine or blood tests go and get a QR code and based on it, in the basement was a huge area where the conveyor belt would bring each sample depending on what needs to be done with it. Also how the biopsies are processed by adding them in wax, cutting them in microne-thick slices and staining them, effectively preparing them to be examined by pathologists and then the scanners which would scan these glass slides with samples and digitize them. We then talked to pathologists to see first-hand how they work with Paige’s products, what they do and don’t like etc. This was super interesting to experience. After that we went back to the MS Office just in time to watch the hackathon presentations. We then had drinks, I finally met my manager who lives in the UK, but this was the first time we met in person, we had drinks with the team and dinner together also. It was suuuper, super awesome experience and a lot of fun.

The next day we went to a diner for breakfast, I learned that the tipping system in the US is very weird 😀 You have to calculate yourself the tip, so annoying and hard on my little brain. The portions were HUGE! I could not finish probably 2/3rds of my breakfast. Kind of sad to throw away so much food. We then had a full day in the office of Paige, close to Times Square, with the team and lots of company updates from upper management and lots of 1:1s, coffees with colleagues and in general, more socializing than work. We also stole 30 min with a colleague to walk to a store and buy some tech, we wanted an external SSD drive and kind of lured me in as well and I bought one too (oopsie..). But it was SOOO cheap, insane! I regretted after that a bit that I didn’t buy a new macbook too. But i knew i wouldn’t use it a lot. We went to a bar in the evening and then the day after people started leaving to fly back home. We stayed at Millenium Hotel on Times Square so I was able to see Times Square from my window on the 52nd floor of the hotel and had plenty of chances to walk around it in the evenings and expore the stores and the activities. That’s how I accidentally bumped into no other than Miss Monique who’s a super famous House DJ and who was the current favourite artist of my ex (who back then was not ex yet), so I couldn’t believe my eyes and had to go back and take a picture with her to send him. He was sooo joalous 😀 Anyway, in the end of the third day, it was time to relocate to New Jersey and begin my tourist activities.

Sightseeing part of the trip

So I packed and went to the station, got on the bus and the stop i was supposed to get off of, was basically with the same name for like 3 actual bus stops, so I went off a bit too early and had to walk a bit. The neighbourhood felt a little bit weird, a bit unsafe. I just had a bit of a weird feeling of unrest. The airbnb itself was inside the house of a Mexican family (or maybe Argentinian, i don’t remember anymore, but latinos). They were very nice people that I met, but I had my own room and used their bathroom. Conditions were ok. Not fancy, but I was basically outside all day by plan anyway. So it was fine.

Classic sightseeing locations

So my travel itinerary included, of course, a visit to the Empire State Building. I think it was one of the first things to visit. It was quite impressive to see the NYC skyline from such a height. Also very cool to see the building itself from inside and all the portraits of all the famous people who visited before me. While it was breathtaking, this was not my main thing to see. Actually, I wanted to visit Central Park the most. I also wanted to just wander around the streets and explore the city itself. But I had a ticket for the main attractions of NYC, so I went to see the Statue of Liberty, of course. You cannot miss that! It was sooooo overcrowded though and many people would take the ferry after the statue and skip checking out Ellis Island, but I think this was actually the real highlight. The Statue of Liberty symbolized the “salvation” for people running away and getting into the US for a new life, it was all about opportunity and freedom. And ON ELLIS Island, one can learn all the horrible stories of how people were examined, they had to undergo IQ tests, doctor checks and whatnot, and all that after they had traveled miles and miles on a boat, and just when they see their final destination, some would not be let inside. This was the story of an old man who had a little spot on his finger, from hitting his finger or so, doctors thought he was ill and denied letting him in, and they deported him. All of this family was let inside, but not this man. Stories like this make it soo difficult to learn about but also make you understand the reality the world was living in back then. I felt a similar way when I visited the 9/11 Memorial Museum. They have kept EVERYTHING, from random documents flying off the towers, to smashed firetrucks of the emergency services, to staircases and pieces of the outer facade of the building that covered the towers. The place where all these things were placed was immense. It told the stories of so many people, it was made like timeline that went through the events on 9/11 and told the stories of the hijacked planes and the fall of the towers, the environment was voiced by recordings of hundreds of eyewitnesses speaking all at the same time, creating sort of a vibe of a complete mess, alarms, it really worked so well to give the right feeling of emergency and chaos at the same time. Super immersive. Of course, there was also a wall with the names of all victims, walls and walls, similar to the memorial walls of the Holocaust in Europe. I just had to buy some “souvenir” books, which is now my tradition when I travel and I picked 2 books from the 9/11 store. I love eyewitness accounts of events, especially historical ones, when I travel somewhere. So, the story of a firefighter who saved many people and was in the second tower when it collapsed and survived was a story I couldn’t skip buying.

Then came the Museum of Natural History. This place is HUGE. It has 4 floors and it’s a giant mix of natural and ethnical history. It has everything from microbes, animals, meteors, dynasours, to ancient peoples of Africa, Asia, South America etc. I didn’t have enough time to explore it all in detail, so I did what i always do – take a gazillion photos of every text I may want to read later on and then.. read it before writing this blog post and especially before converting this to my travel journal pages. I love reading little details about things I’ve seen and experienced. So this may become a separate blog post on itself with some interesting information from the signs i took pictures of. But, if one takes a look at the floor plan, it becomes clear how huge the place is and you’d understand why it’s good to plan a full day there, if possible.

Random surprises while exploring

One day i was walking on the streets of New York and decided to go and check out a bit of Central park. It was heavily raining so i had to walk with my umbrella. As i was walking down a random street, I bumped into the Nike’s House of Innovation. Such a cool accident as I went inside to check it out. I had heard a lot about it during my work at Nike as a data engineer. I really found it so cool and interesting to visit and check out especially the top floor where you can customize your own Nike products. After visiting the House of Innovation I went forward down that same road and as I walked, I had to hide somewhere from the rain for a bit and I found a random little covered entrance to an apartment building. When I decided to proceed I lifted my umbrella slightly up and noticed.. the Trump Tower, sitting right there in front of me. This was a huge surprise as well. See? This is what I call “happy little accidents” when I go visit London and also now with New York, I love walking around without a plan, taking in all the experiences, be it randomly bump to something I know about but did not specifically plan to visit, or a random conversation with a stranger, or bumping to a giant library i decide to visit right there on the spot, or a random park or whatever. I just enjoy these little moments immensely and they make my trip a thousand times better. This is a reason i’ve started to really enjoy traveling alone. I am just spontaneously doing anything that I want at that very moment. So I walked to Central Park, it was rainy, so I couldn’t explore a lot but it was awesome to see the tall buildings disappear behind the fog, from the perspective of the park, with colourful trees and ponds in front of this scenery. Super amazing! I was amazed by the number of squirrels I saw in Central Park, such cutie pies! This was a short visit to the park as due to the rain, my sneakers (thin with membrane and definitely NOT waterproof) were soaking wet.

Central Park

So, the next day or so, I returned. I had planned to start from the North side as I was studying and readong online about the park. It was said that the North part is a bit dangerous in terms of safety but it was also the woody area where I had the biggest chance of seeing birds. Soo after a bit of thinking, I decided to travel by metro there, and if I feel unrest, to go back and start from the middle and work my way to the North that way. The Subway on the North side stinked of pee.. so horrible. And had a lot of homeless people there, some sitting on the staircase. I felt a bit uneasy and pondered for a few seconds after getting off of the metro car but then saw a lady walk right through them and I figured I’m gonna do the same. So I did and was worried to take my camera out. But then as I entered the park, I saw American Robins and I ditched all caution (well..) and in a rush, took my camera out and started shooting the birds. I continued and went into another area of the park where the park looked more like a foresty area. I saw elderly people with cameras and somehow that made me calm down. I started really enjoying my birding experience. I saw many woodpeckers, spoke to this elderly man who was able to spot quite some birds for and with me. We then split way but I kept seeing him all around the park. I had a full day at the park, so I took all the time I needed to observe birds. The plan was to stay mostly in that area and on my way out, to walk all the way from North to South of the the park and this way, explore the rest of it too.

On the social side, I had a meeting with a DJ friend of mine and we went to a bar and had beers and pizza and enjoyed several hours of chatting and laughing together. Another day I had a meeting with another friend and ex-colleague from Nike who also lives in NYC after she left NL. I also met in person the HR person who actually found me on Linkedin and hired me for Paige. He was, unfortunately, laid off a year after I got hired. But I still was super thankful and was keeping in touch with him and wanted to meet in person. He picked me up from New Jersey where I stayed and we went to a nice Mexican, if i remember right, restaurant in New Jersey. It was a lot of laughter and a little gossip 😀 But that’s inevitable. I also went, by a friend’s recommendation, to the Serendipity sweethouse which became famous after a movie with the same name. They are famous with their frozen hot chocolate, which was delicious and HUGE, BUT it was nowhere near hot chocolate, to be honest. It was just chocolatye ice cream.. But.. branding, I guess..

Soooo I think I pretty much took the most out of my short trip to NYC. I had it all

New York was a trip of discovery.