One of my fondest memories in life is the trip I took, along with my lifelong best friend
John Nash, to New York City in December 2009. At the age of 22, it marked the first
foray in
to the big bad world for me on a holiday without my parents, an achievement perhaps long overdue at that ripe age. The centrepiece of the trip was an American football game in New Jersey on Sunday afternoon, as my NFL team faced off against John’s NFL team. However, what the centrepiece didn’t offer was a chance to explore, to get our feet wet in the city that never sleeps.
And get our feet wet, we certainly did.
Leaving John F. Kennedy Airport at 11pm local time was supposed to be straightforward.
Locate a taxi, get in and drive the hour plus to our hotel which was across the Hudson River. A few raving taxi drivers later, we managed to find a trustworthy one whose prices were not
through the roof and we were on our way.The Sheraton Meadowlands Hotel had a beautiful lobby that sprawled before us like a lavish feast when we arrived in the wee small hours of Sunday morning. After what we had coughed up for the hotel, we expected nothing less to be frank. The hotel receptionist was in a state of disbelief when we told him we had come all the way from Ireland to see the ball game. I think he said something like “that’s so cool”.
I don’t know about my travel compatriot, but I did not get much shut-eye that night. Feelings of excitement coursed through me – only hours from now, I would bear witness to the spectacle that is an American football game. When you’re as hardcore a fan of America’s game as I am, it was like Christmas – which,
incidentally, was two days prior – came again.
After fuelling up on hot chocolate from one of America’s most frequented coffee shops, Starbucks’, we travelled the short distance to the stadium. My smile grew with inverse proportionality to John’s frown as his team surrendered 41 points and lost the game.
Friendly rivalries aside, holidays like this produce moments that you always remember. Although it is difficult to pinpoint one, no moment summed up the holiday more aptly than the view from the top of the Rockefeller Center at night. A sea of shimmering lights lay before us like a blanket of diamonds. It was breathtaking.
