YOU HAD BEEN PLANNING THAT TRIP FOR WEEKS. Everything from the plane ticket to the hotel room you had booked for precisely a week — from December 19th to December 26th — had been diligently prepared with wholehearted care, leaving no small detail behind. A list of the places and landmarks you had always dreamed of visiting, an address with shops and cafés worth visiting, a map of the city — you had thoroughly thought it through. And, as you walked through John F Kennedy airport, following the passengers who had shared your flight, you could barely contain your excitement.

There it finally was — New York; with its breathtaking skyscrapers, blazing, colourful neons and infinite misty view of the Atlantic that had inhabited your imagination for so long. You could not exactly remember how long you had been wanting to go, for it would trace back to your childhood, when you had first learnt of the city towering across the ocean, full of dreams, bright with song and theater, dazzling and spinning. All you could precisely recall was an illustrated book, glistening from the colourful drawings upon in, and especially one representation that had offered to your childish gaze the image of a grand Christmas tree. Golden, red and silver decorations had been hanging from its fluffy branches, agleam in the darkness of the evening as though wrapping it in a coat of lights that gave off the impressions of reflecting the hues glowing upon the façades festooned all around. Eyes wide with wonder, you had lengthily studied the illustration, asking your parents whether a Christmas tree this big and beautiful really existed; and it did. You would come back to that book every winter, slowly going through the pages with a sense of amazement ever renewed — the city you had found in it seemed like a magical place so far away, and even though you liked your own city very much, you felt drawn to it in a way that aroused your creativity.

Ever since, the eagerness of discovering it all had never left you, safely kept in a corner of your mind as you went on through life and into adulthood, now knowing that that incredible city from your childhood book was not so out of reach. It would still be a few years until you would finally make the decision to plan a trip at last, the idea having always previously bludgeoned in your fantasies without you truly setting to make it come true, but now the time had come. You had been saving for a while now, and what better self-Christmas-gift than splurging it on a trip that you had been dreaming of for so long? Your were also looking forward to spending New Year's with your family, back in the bubbling merriment home, but before that you were counting on making most out of this first trip to New York. You could still not quite believe it as you took the direction of the subway, having the left the airport, and awaited on the platform before the steel train adorned with small American flags pulled to a halt in front of you.

Your suitcase unpacked and belongings stored in the hotel room you checked in after the ride from the airport, you chose to begin your exploration of the city by wandering through its main avenues, which you had researched and marked down on your map. With jet-lag, you were not sure that you would be able to pay as much attention to a landmark as you would've liked to, so for that first end of afternoon in New York you settled for a stroll by foot, at least taking in the first impressions of the city. It would be a great way to get your bearings even a little bit, preparing you for the packed day that would follow — with so many places to visit, you were determined to make most of your stay and fulfill your reverie of mythic New York sceneries.

If you had somehow thought to be prepared to make those first steps among the city's buildings, busy traffic and pedestrians, that certainty surely crumbled down as soon as you exited the hotel. Your breath caught in your throat. Literally.
Above your head, skyscrapers seemed to be growing out of the pavement, as though trying to stretch out toward the darkish sky until they reached its herd of grey clouds filled with rain. December's early dusk had already began its ascending upon the horizon, meaning that neons were radiating off storefronts and traffic lights appeared particularly vibrant among the warm coats that shifted to and fro past them, adding to the luminous carnaval that shone with particular intensity every winter, reminding every inhabitant of the city that festivity was swirling in the air, Christmas and New Year's Day coming closer with each passing day.

Coming back to your senses after those first awe-stricken seconds of bewilderment, you got a lungful of fresh air, feeling the joy of finally having reached your destination gradually rise through you while you were fully realising that had finally made it there. It was as if something was pushing you forward upon the pavement, drawing you toward the places that you had been willing to see for so long and that had until then only taken the form of pictures on a screen or dots on a map, so you let yourself be driven by that force in spite of the tiredness that inevitably ensued from such a long trip. Although you would not drift too far away, starting off by a walk in the area surrounding your hotel, you took in every new image starry-eyed, curious and admirative of every charming detail you could catch. Although that evening's goal was finding a place to have dinner in, you did not remain oblivious to everything else you could see, possibly noticing other places you might want to stop by in the upcoming week.

What new adventures would come across your path during those seven days? Only time could tell. But you already braced yourself for something that you suspected would be unforgettable.