New York doesn't ease you in — it hands you a coffee, points you at a subway map, and tells you to keep up. Every neighbourhood feels like its own city: the glass canyons of Midtown, the brownstones of Brooklyn, the noodle shops of Flushing. You can see world-class art at the Met in the morning and be at a dive bar in the East Village by midnight, and nobody will think that's an unusual day. It's expensive, it's loud, and it's still worth every cent.