Travel & Hotspots

OUR GIRL IN NEW YORK

Thanksgiving is quite a ‘big thing’ here. Besides being thankful, it’s also about ‘a lot’. For some, it’s about drinking a lot and eating a lot, for others, it’s about getting a lot of discounts and buying a lot.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, often right at midnight, stores invariably open their doors with gigantic discounts on the price tags. The so-called Black Friday causes hysteria and enormous lines every year. Just like now. While the line for the electronics store is already forming around the corner from me, I walk over to the Italian store. Besides the traditional turkey and sweet potato with marshmallow, we provide pasta. And, not entirely unimportant, the gin with tonic. My husband is happily cooking away. I make sure her hair is curled. A few hours later, we head towards our Thanksgiving dinner, including a delicious-smelling dish on our lap. With about twenty people, we celebrate Thanksgiving and eat until we drop. We drink until the late hours. But then the gin bottles were empty. The turkey gone. And all those other bottles and platters too. Exactly how it should be: a lot of eating and a lot of drinking. Upon returning home, we see that the people who were in the meters-long line for the electronics store are now inside. I imagine flying TVs and kitchen mixers there. Ah, that’s Thanksgiving too.

My dear friend J. is in town. With her first place Uptown, I meet her at Cipriani. The traditional Italian, with small tables, known for the Bellini, and just around the corner at Bergdorf the place where men walk in patent leather shoes and women in fur coats. To continue all that chicness, we then go to The Boom Boom Room. The futuristic interior hasn’t changed in all these years, nor has the view. Moreover, the champagne cocktail is still exactly the same. All in all, it’s a traditional afternoon and evening that doesn’t seem to lose its charm.

One last time to Central Park with Blue and friend J. We delight in the leaves that are still so beautifully colored hanging on the trees. Well, now at the beginning of December, most have already fallen and are blowing around us like something out of Disney. This is really the last weekend in which we can still admire the autumn colors. As a farewell gift, we receive this beautiful ‘cotton candy scent’ a few hours later.

With quickened heartbeats and somewhat sticky hands, I step into the taxi. Friend J. wants to see New York in all its dimensions. And so, in a few minutes, we’ll be taking off into the sky. I am terrified. I’ve experienced this once before, and it was not a pleasant experience. The fear was greater than the admiration. And now we’re going to do it again. I walk onto the deck. The man gives me a signal that I can sit down. He places me in the front. In the front. Alone. And with glass at my feet. Fortunately, the pilot is already present. She reassures me, and her calmness rubs off on me. We take off. I forget that we are flying. That I am alone in the front and that there is glass at my feet. Fortunately, the admiration is greater than the fear. Damn New York, how beautiful you are.

Oscar Abolafia is a legendary photographer who has photographed many icons. He is also the husband of the Dutch woman I met about two years ago at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. By chance. We started talking, she told me about her husband and her life in New York, and I about mine. We had agreed to meet again, but that never happened. Until I ran into her with Oscar. By chance. On a Sunday and under the Flatiron. His book ‘Icons’ was about to be released, and I was invited to the presentation that would take place at Rizzoli. Of course, I went there, and yesterday I left Rizzoli with a signed copy. The book is filled with his most iconic photos, and they are amazing. A perfect gift for under the tree; to give AND to receive.