"Welcome to New York City!" said the yellow cab driver in a lilting voice, as I stared out the window in awe at my first snow.

There is something uniquely captivating about the US of A... perhaps it is a sense of familiarity having peered into its world so frequently through my TV screen, or its heroic history in WWII recorded at length in my school textbooks or the fact that they just do everything LARGER and faster - from fast food (Mickey D's & KFC, oh and upsize anyone?) to fast services (Amazon Prime). America, has always captured a large part of my wandering heart.

After my third year in university, my friend and I took the plunge and signed up for Work USA IEP at the ripe old age of 21. Work USA allows university students to work (and most definitely travel) in America with the help of a sponsored student work visa.

My friend and I settled for a job at an ice- creamery in Charleston, South Carolina, took our passports and naively boarded a long haul flight (22 hours to be exact) to the land of opportunities.

There I spent nearly 3 glorious months travelling from Charleston to Orlando/Miami, then up to Los Angeles before stopping in NYC on my way home.

Photo courtesy of my ole (get it?) work place: http://yeolefashioned.com/savannah_highway.html

During those three months, I had some of my most scariest, funniest and wildest travel memories of my life to date. It was everything and more.

The US of A gave me a whole lot of firsts:

• Riding with the wind in my hair at the back of a pick up truck in the middle of the night
  

• Scooping icecream wayyyyyy past midnight in freezing cold Charleston winter (Americans, how do you guys do it?!)
  

• Eating cornbread, gumbo, jambalaya and sipping on sweet tea as part of my southern welcome
  

• Getting my hair done in cornrows by my American friends
  

• Salsa Dancing
  

• Lying, then eventually napping on Miami Beach until sunset
  

• Walking through (while fearing for my life in ) Inglewood, California - it was actually fine :)
  

• Finding Michael Jackson's Hollywood Star
  

• And then New York City, New York City, New York City.
  

Gif and Photo credits to Pixabay & Giphy

New York City is (like every other state in the USA) a country in itself. What an incredible cultural melting pot!
Let's just say I spent the few days I was there with my mouth open... Central Park...Empire State Building...Time Square...

Everything, and anything had a strange sense of familiarity to it. Like I have been there before but not quite. And I have, through Friends, Sex and the City, When Harry met Sally, Breakfast at Tiffany's and even, Home Alone 2!

But a few days in NYC just wasn't/isn't enough. Now that I am older and with two kids of my own. My knowledge of this fascinating city has only grown and my desire to go back is stronger than ever.

Now with all the touristy stuff out of the way, I'm ready for a deeper exploration of this incredible city.

I want to take my kids to the Natural History Museum. I want to watch Hamilton on Broadway. I want to eat a slice of New York Pizza and go to Katz Deli where Harry ate with Sally (I know this is actually quite touristy!). I want to take in the vast expanse at the Top of the Rock and I want to row a boat in Central Park (also touristy - but I don't care ;) )

New York City is most definitely my dream vacation destination.

Thank you so much to @nuoctuong for igniting my dream of the big apple again, and if you would like to dream along with me, please click here!!.

P/S I don't have any personal pictures of my first adventure in the USA because I was there before the invention of smart phones and I took my photos on an old school camera. If you'd like to see some of my personal pics (I can take some pics of my printed photos), please show this #minnow some #love , upvote and tell me you would like to see it in the comment section.