Living in New York with $4.30 a day sounds like
the tittle of the next bestselling travel guide at the Airports bookstores. But
when a nasty ATM swallowed my only remaining credit card with funds on Christmas
day, it became my own adventure. Luckily, I had paid upfront for my stay in a
budget hostel alongside the homeless that could gather the $15.50 for the night.
A ragged doll with only one eye and an armless GI Joe at the bottom of a decrepit Christmas tree along with a tailless black cat with emerging signs of rabies and an intense smell of urine mixed with alcohol created a very Stephen King like scenario. No wonder why my friends decided to take the bus back to safe and sound Canada. But I always dream about walking in the city of smoky sewers and yellow cabs that I’ve seen in the movies, so I decided to stay despite of the shivery picture and my wobbly financial situation.
The fried onions from the $1.99 street hotdog stand and the chips that came along with the $2.99 Happy meal at MacDonald´s were my one-a-day vegetable. For seven days, searching for free entrance museums, collecting free samples from malls and looking for street performers became my mission.
A ragged doll with only one eye and an armless GI Joe at the bottom of a decrepit Christmas tree along with a tailless black cat with emerging signs of rabies and an intense smell of urine mixed with alcohol created a very Stephen King like scenario. No wonder why my friends decided to take the bus back to safe and sound Canada. But I always dream about walking in the city of smoky sewers and yellow cabs that I’ve seen in the movies, so I decided to stay despite of the shivery picture and my wobbly financial situation.
The fried onions from the $1.99 street hotdog stand and the chips that came along with the $2.99 Happy meal at MacDonald´s were my one-a-day vegetable. For seven days, searching for free entrance museums, collecting free samples from malls and looking for street performers became my mission.
Picture taken in New York (January 2007)
No comments:
Post a Comment