NEW YORK WEEK!

Where else but New York City could bring in 50.9 million visitors in 2011 alone?

Love it or hate it, there's no denying that NYC is a big place to visit... in more ways than one. 

I'll be bringing you restaurant reviews, anecdotes, and must-see sites all this week. You can't see New York in just one day, and neither can I tell you about it in just one. 

So it's my great pleasure to welcome you to Caroline the Adventurer for NEW YORK WEEK!

And to kick off New York Week...

WHY I DON'T LOVE NYC (AND WHY IT'S 

STILL THE PERFECT TOURIST DESTINATION)

There are two kinds of people in the world: people who love New York, and people who don't love New York. 

The people that love New York love it with a soul-destroying passion. They create art honoring New York. They write about it. New York is personal for them. New York is home. Sandy Soohoo wrote about about this best in "This City That I Love," describing trips through a fantastical China Town that is part real, part memory, part love story.  

But I'm one of the other kind of people, the kind of person who doesn't love New York. I feel about New York like the people who don't love opera feel about opera in Pretty Woman. 

"People's reactions to opera the first time they see it is very dramatic; they either love it or they hate it. If they love it, they will always love it. If they don't, they may learn to appreciate it, but it will never become part of their soul," Edward Lewis, the handsome businessman-slash-prince-charming tells Vivian, his delightful prostitute. Vivian, of course, falls in love with opera. 

If life were a romantic comedy, I feel that I, too, would fall in love with NYC — but it's not, and I don't. I often feel guilty about that. I've often been told that I'm the kind of person that would just love it. I love high fashion, late nights, good entertainment and food — all evident in NYC — but more than anything else, I love being outside. There's not enough sky there for me.   

That being said, it's an awesome place to visit. There's nothing like leaving your hotel at 2 a.m. and feeling the inspiration you can only feel in a city still awake at that hour. It truly does make you feel the possibilities are endless. 

Plus, the theater scene is awesome. You love Broadway? You're in luck, my friends. The best shows in the world are there. 

And don't even get me started on the food. 

Therefore, New York is the perfect tourist destination. I would never in a million years want to live there, but I like to visit, and come on, if you're from the South, you practically need a passport to go there. That makes it exotic.