DC vs NYC: The Ongoing Debate.

New York City. Where do I even begin?  The big apple. The City of Dreams. The Concrete Jungle. It’s a place I’ve dreamed of visiting since I was a little girl, and my somewhat unhealthy addiction to the TV series ‘gossip girl’ certainly didn’t help.  Why wouldn’t you want to pretend to be like the beautiful Blake Lively living on the Upper East Side with Manhattan at your doorstep? The flawless, bright shops, the bustling city life and the glamorous apartments and hotel suites. With so many films set in New York, I felt like I basically knew all about the city without even visiting it! But perhaps ‘gossip girl’ was a rather skewed version of what New York is really like, that is, unless you’re incredibly wealthy and can afford an overly extravagant lifestyle. The show basically glamorizes rather harmful behaviour, whilst portraying an unrealistic beauty ideal, and over sexualizing young girls. But, I’m diverting from the point of this blog. Before my feminist brain takes over and writes an entire piece on how television shows are misrepresenting young females, glamorizing sex and using it as a way for teenage girls to manipulate boys (or vica versa), I wanted to blog about my trip to New York and also how it compared to the nation’s capital; Washington DC.

The D.C. vs. NYC debate is one of the endless, perpetual discussions among East Coasters who seamlessly forget that there’s a world outside the little strip of Coast line from D.C. to Boston. I’ve heard it remarked upon that DC is continually overlooked by New York. Everyone raves about how fantastic New York is, from the theatre scene to the pizza and bagels, so although I my stomach was secretly in knots, excited to finally see the concrete jungle for myself, I decided to keep an open mind, and low and behold I fell in love with DC instead! Whilst it’s not like I’ve lived in both cities for a considerable amount of time and can actually make a well-educated opinion about one or the other, I can talk about my first impressions and what my expectations were.

I spent a total of three days in DC followed directly by three days in New York and I honestly wish I had more time (and money) to spend in both cities. To point out the obvious, DC has a much more chilled out vibe, it’s slower paced and the people are less frantic than in the Big Apple.  It’s filled with 20 something year old young professionals going about their day to day business, minds heavy with provoking thoughts and faces noticeably less wrinkled! Although I was only there for a short time the subtler, less obvious differences included things like the museums are all free in DC, and that the streets are super clean and lined with trees. Basically, whilst everything is a little more on the conservative side, it’s also considerably less crowed.

Even the Metro was fairly clean, which is saying something considering I’m used to the tube in London. I didn’t see a single rat and unlike NYC’s subway system there were no preachers telling me I must “follow the word of God in the sacred Bible” or beggars or even the hourly ‘show time’ with break dancers and beat boxers trying to rattle commuters for a dollar or two. The unquestionably charming townhouse-restaurants that line the streets of Georgetown add to the beauty of DC, and sitting outside overlooking the Potomac River munching away at the one of the famous DC cupcakes is definitely one way to spend a long summer’s afternoon. But, perhaps the glorious sunshine I received in Washington DC swayed my opinions as I was met with constant drizzle and cloud in NYC. Then again, I did leave my beloved pink ghd straighteners in DC (which, by the way, has been a nightmare living with beach hair the past month) so perhaps having bad hair affected my mood more than I thought!

Don’t get me wrong, I did love New York and I really want to return when I’m not on a student budget so I can stay in the Plaza hotel or the St. Regis, instead of an international hostel at the top of Central Park (although the hostel was actually rather nice as far as hostels go!) I rammed as many touristy attractions in as possible; The Empire State Building, Times Square, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, a Broadway show, the Brooklyn Bridge, the High Line, Grand Central…. And I can go on!

Special thanks to Rachael Mitchum for being an awesome travelling buddy and running round these cities like mad men on a mission with me. From losing my lock to missing subway trains, from fro-yo dates to cupcakes, in glorious sunshine and with wonky umbrellas, this girl kept me sane and kept me laughing as we re-enacted  strutting down 5^th Avenue like Carrie Bradshaw and Samantha Jones from ‘Sex and the City’.

Till next time, xoxo.