addiction in the city

As widely perceived, this city makes you constantly run, bustle and lavish money until you get dizzy. And if you aren't attentive enough and miss to be faster than others, you will somehow get punished with double the time of delay.

However, if you struggle you will get so much to see in reward, that you end up being more obsessed with rushing. A vicious circle that visitors won't escape until they are back home where clocks run regularly.

9:00 a.m.: going to Kmart to return empty water bottles and to buy water for the upcoming week. After some trial and error this works out quite well now. What a pleasure. 1 pack Poland Spring Water: 9.8 $.

10:00 a.m.: the E-line doesn't work. Neither does the F nor all other west-east connections that you had in mind... ok, now running from Columbus Circle to Lexington Ave to take the green line is the only way. In this second, it starts raining more vigorously. You just knew it. Vanity expressed through ballerina flats would screw your day.

11:00 a.m.: this is the time when pay-as-you-wish admission starts and before which I planned to stand in the museum line.

11:10 a.m.: I get off the wrong station at 86. st. That would have been perfect for Neue Galerie. Instead, my destination is Frick at 7o. st. So I run back south and blame myself for having taken the subway at all, since now the walking distance got much longer.

11:30 a.m.: The museum is of course full by now, so waiting in line requires half an hour. At least: entrance is almost free.

12:40 p.m.: after ridiculously short half an hour watch I run out to the next ATM and to get something to eat. It rains bloodily and the next destination is at the Hudson. American franchise scone: 2.2 $.

1.30 -4:00 p.m.: an even more ridiculously short time to rush through 300 booths at the Armory Show. In a flurry of excitement I miss Koenig, Templon, Meile and Galerie Naechst. Entrance fee: 10 $.

4:10 - 4:30 p.m.: together with my companions we err with the exit, the shuttle bus station and the cab line. Since the deluge comes with a storm, we aren't the only people who wants to make headway. Taxi sum on this day: 21 $.

- 4:45 p.m.: After having told her to come later, then to come earlier, we keep the friend with the tightest schedule waiting for us way too long.

4:45 -6 p.m.: favorite coffee and lemon tarte at Stumptown. 7.5 $.

6-7 p.m.: after strolling around, undecided what to do in an one hour gap, I enter a hairdresser in K-Town. These guys shouldn't let me down. Alas, the haircut is too expensive so I just get the bangs. Meanwhile the lady sitting next to me gets such a smashing hair-do that I change my mind. 58 $.

7-9 p.m.: Korean BBQ, seafood pancake and bibimbap shared by three. 23 $.

At the end of the day you are happily dizzy because in 12 hours, you have seen them all - the Kmart teller, the museum tourist, the gallery owner, the Jamaican taxi driver, the English style barrista, the Korean hairdresser. A Korean-American friend explaining how to make Brazilian cheesebread. German friends getting crazy about Ssam Bab.

You start thinking of next Sunday which, without the rain, should be more efficient... :)