I’ve tried on a number of occasions to become one of the masses who say aloud the sentiments of those “I heart New York” t-shirts and hats. On the many occasions I visited ‘the Big Apple’ I somehow couldn’t find the magic, the spark, the stuff that makes so many people say they love the city that never sleeps.

Last year I decided to take four days out of my itinerary and take a trip from Boston to New York City. I was going to New York to see if I could fall in love, to see if somehow we could put aside the times we had awkwardly met in the past a begin afresh. I had no plan, no map and no expectations and if I was going to ‘heart’ New York, it would be for real, and not because of a slogan on a t-shirt.

I enjoyed my unplanned days in the city which awarded me with good springtime weather. I walked and walked and walked some more. The tourist traps were only on the agenda if I stumbled upon them, most of the time I just wandered around without a care in the world, as if walking in a Welsh field on a summers afternoon. I was probably the only person in New York who wasn’t supposed to be somewhere else already. I looked around book stores and stopped in coffee houses and little bistros when the whim took me. I took pictures, took the subway and took my time.

So do I now ‘love New York?’ I can’t say that, maybe because it feels like London, only with American accents. Or maybe because I’m more a Boston kind of man, I just don’t know. But New York and I are certainly better friends now, and in a couple of weeks I might drop by to see my friend, take some pictures, ride the subway, and swim in the ocean of people who will all be in a far greater hurry than I.

For now though, and for no particular reason, here are some of my favorite pictures that I took while in New York City last spring. I’ve never released them on the web before despite my best intentions. I hope to create a new photography website soon, but for now they’ll have to enjoy this fairly private viewing by the few people who visit my little blog.