Gulnara Bazhkenova, journalist and editor

My favourite city will not surprise anybody; millions of people around the world love it just as much as I do, so I can hardly claim originality. It is New York, the city that never sleeps. It has been given so many names and all of them are true. Everyone loves New York in their own way. I fell in love long before we met. I loved it from afar through films, books and songs that sang about the great city. When eventually, laden down with all this cultural baggage, you arrive in the city, you will walk the streets and be captivated by the irrepressible energy that takes you in unexpected directions. There are so many places in New York you have to visit, but for the first day it is worth just going out into the streets. Join the crowds that are always hurrying, and submerge yourself in this unique, cosmopolitan environment in which nobody is a stranger.