USA - NYC - Although not in Latin America: NYC, USA, this is where my journey started...

Why NYC? First of all - because the cheapest flights from Germany to Mexico included a stopover in NYC. Second - because it is a magical city, worth to spend some time! I landed in NYC on the fifth of December en the evening, after almost 40 hours of travelling (due to some cancelled flights and further delays of the replacement flights). To cut down costs and as I want to spend my travel time with local people I registered on the platform Couchsurfing, which allows you to find hosts all over the world as well as to offer hospitality at your own place. As NYC is a pretty heavily traveled city it was not that easy to find hosts there. Nevertheless I found some, overall I stayed with four different hosts within different boroughs of NYC. My first host Chris was an amazingly friendly person to stay with. I didn't even ask for staying with him because he offered to host me shortly after I published my public trip to NYC. He also offered me to stay a few days longer as another couchsurfer whom I was going to stay with didn't answer anymore. Furthermore he introduced me to his friend Charlie who hosted me as well. Although Chris was working many hours we spent some time together having dinner, going to a concert and a housewarming party.

I spent my first day in NY walking around Prospect Park in Brooklyn as it was in walking distance from Chris' appartment. I didn't bring winter clothing with me as I was planning to head on to Mexico and warmer countries soon. Due to my insuffient clothing for NYC for this time of the year I was heading to a metro station soon to take the train towards Manhattan and warm up a little bit. The metro system of NYC is an excellent way to explore the city and a quite cheap means of transportation if you buy a one-week-pass as I did for my stay. Furthermore it provides free Wifi access at each of its stations. After that I headed to the Central Park and spent some time walking around this amazing green park within Manhattan, sorrounded by skyscrapers.

In the evening I met another couchsurfer, Mint, who showed me around the financial district with Wall Street, the Charging Bull, 1 WTC (One World Trade Center), the tallest building in the US, which is sorrounded by the WTC Memorial Fountains. We finished our tour with eating some pasta at Eataly and joking around. After that I went to christmas party of a NY hiking, skiing and all kind of outdoor sports meetup group which they published open to the public.

I started the next day with walking from Brooklyn to Manhattan via Brooklyn Bridge which is one of my top recommendations to do in NYC. After that I took the Staten Island Ferry which offers a free transfer to Staten Island, another borough of NYC and wonderful views of the Statue of Liberty. In Staten Island I was walking around for a while but actually it wasn't worth spending much time there. The only thing I did was eating a a falafel sandwich before taking the ferry back to Manhattan. Although the sun was shining and spending some warmth it was a pretty cold day so that I decided to take the ferry a second time to Staten Island and back to Manhattan. This offered me the chance to take some even more beautiful shots from the outside deck of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan in the sunset.

In the evening I went to Chelsea, a neighbourhood of Manhattan and was strolling through the big food market which offers all kind of cuisine. I met up with a few other couchsurfers there via "Hangouts", a function of the couchsurfing application to meet new people. After having dinner we went to The Standard hotel and up to the nightclub Le Bain, which offered beautiful views over some parts of Manhattan and the other side of the Hudson River. Entrance was free at the hour we arrived there but the club was closed 15 minutes later and we had to leave this place again. Actually this wasn't a real problem because everyone was satisfied with the great views we got and nobody wanted to ask for the prices of drinks in there. A funny and kind of weird thing was a plastic horse standing next to the bar and starring at the dancefloor.

The next day I visited Union Square where a Christmas / Holiday Market was set up. I enjoyed some spring rolls and bao, little dumplings of bread dough, filled with different kinds of meat and vegetables.  Afterwards I met up with Kelly, a girl that I've come to know at the hiking christmas party. We were walking towards Little Italy and had some cannolis, Italian pastries that originated on the island of Sicily and are are a well-known Italian-American sweety. While we were walking through the alleys we ran into the SantaCon / Santa Crawl. The SantaCon is a event were huge crowds dressed as Santa Claus go from bar to bar all day to get drunk. Subsequently we had a delicious pizza at Lombardi's, founded in 1905 and thus America's first pizzeria. After that we examined various objects of art in a MoMA shop even though I didn't make it to the Museum of Modern Art.

In the evening I headed towards another part of Brooklyn, where Charlie, my next host lived. We got to know each other the day before at a housewarming party in Midtown Manhattan. We spent the evening with watching a movie before I settled down on a Fatboy for the night. As a blanket Charlie provided me with his curtain as he didn't have two blankets. The next day we spent some time together with taking some photos and videos under low light conditions with his camera lens which he especially bought for this occasion. Furthermore we had some bagels in Brooklyn, a must-do for a stay in NY.

The next night I was staying with Byron who lived in Queens, another borough of NYC. He picked me up at a metro station after finishing work and we were heading towards Manhattan until Astoria in his car as he wanted to show me some views of NY which I haven't seen so far. After that we went to Jackson Hights, a neighborhood of Queens which offers a plethora of international restaurants and especially some streets full of Latin American cuisine. We decided to go for a Columbian restaurant.

The next morning I took the train from Queens to Manhattan to meet my fourth host in NYC and get rid of my backpack. After that I spent some hours walking in Central Park. My next stop was Bryant Park and the New York Public Library (NYPL). After feeling my fingers again I headed on to Rockefeller Center, a historic landmark for dining and shopping in the center of NY. A 72-foot-tall Norway spruce christmas tree was put up on the Rockefeller Plaza. In the evening I went out for a Trivia night (= pub quiz) with my host Samantha. We had stuffed potatoes and a burger but unfortunately we didn't win the trivia. But after all I won one round of Bingo.

My last full day in NY started with walking from Manhattan over one of the many bridges towards Bronx, the fifth and last borough of NY which I hadn't explored so far. I didn't stay for a long time in this part of the city and took another bridge over the Harlem river back to Harlem, a well known neighbourhood of Manhattan. I went to the Riverside Church and the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine. Furthermore I was watching some of the NYC Facts which are displayed throughout the streets. I confirmed myself that I prefere 35 ° Celsius and not Fahrenheit.

In the evening I went out with some other couchsurfers. I started my tour with Mint in Chinatown were we accidentally ran into another couchsurfer. We had dinner in one of the most authentic Thai restaurants before we were shown around the office of USA Today, one of the most widely read American daily newspapers. After that we took the metro towards Hell's Kitchen, another neighbourhood of Manhattan. The longer we were walking down one of the avenues the cheaper the prices for drinks became. We finally decided to enter a bar where a beer was sold for 3$. Additionally you could order hot dogs for free. I heard a rumor that they might contain something that you really want to return to this bar. Until today I don't have the compelling need, so the one hot dog probably didn't leave any lasting damage. The next day in the morning I took the metro to the air train which took me to my terminal of JFK airport where my continuing flight to Mexico left.