I have been here two times befor, and still find NY to be a fantastic city! But still, I am tempted to side with Thoreau:

I think that [people who live in the city] deserve some credit for not having all committed suicide long ago.

For an art-lover NY is full of wonderful surprises – but the noise level here is really very challenging. And I wonder; is there at all any quiet place to be found around here? Somewhere free from traffic-noise, sirens, construction machinery – and music??? I’m staying in a part of Brooklyn which is said to be relatively  peaceful, but to my Norwegian ears this is not at all quiet. 

This is a noise-map of the city:

According to The New Yorker:

In New York, there are two kinds of noise: the sounds of the city (car horns, loud neighbors, construction equipment, barking dogs) and the sound of New Yorkers complaining about it. 

I guess I’m not the only one dreaming about some headspace …