Meet my favourite city in the world

My favourite city in the world (so far) is...Miami.  Though more specifically South Beach - and Istanbul is currently running a close second!  Now on paper - Miami and myself would appear to be poles apart.  I love simplicity, honesty and humility, Miami loves wealth, illusion and decadence.  Yet we also have some common ground, like a love of sunshine, green parakeets, palm trees and tropical fish.  

The fish  in the Miami Beach Marina love bread by the way, and they are an absolute joy to feed.  Sitting on the hot wooden dock feeding the long wriggly pipefish and big brightly coloured fish while watching the big snapper jacks hunting the little silver fish up against the rocks is a memory that will stay with me forever.

Miami is one of the few places I associate being truly happy with.  The 4 days I was supposed to stay there turned into a week, and the week into 3 weeks, and I cried when I left.  While in Miami, time slowed down.  The city stood still in a haze of sunshine and heat while the rest of the world kept on turning as if in some different dimension.  Nothing else mattered except the sea and the sand and the beauty of red sunsets, fast cars and well groomed people.  Suddenly I was converted.  I accepted the wealth as normal, supercars didnt even get a second glance by the time I left.  And yet the fact that I was virtually penniless, dirty and unkempt from travelling didnt seem to matter either.  I didnt feel out of place, I didnt feel inadequate in comparison to the tanned toned flawless people around me.  I felt like I was part of Miami.

I reckon if I had stayed there for months instead of weeks I would slowly have converted without even noticing into being a Miami girl.  Perhaps not one of the rich blond beauties, but definitely a permatanned, always smiling person slipping naturally between Spanish and English, as colourful as the art deco buildings around me.  Perhaps Miami's secret is that it is like a dangerous hallucinogenic drug, it captures your heart and your imagination and never releases you.  It is that peculiar mix of Americana, Hispanic influence and natural perfection which makes it impossible to ridicule.  It is the American dream, and yet there is an openness about its imperfections that mean it cannot be scoffed at for that.  It contains all that is worst about immigration and poverty, and yet there is such a rich melting pot of culture that it cannot be looked down upon for that.  I saw the good and the bad in Miami, and I loved it all the more for it.

Its been 4 years since I was in Miami, and I still regulary think about it and how much I would love to return.  And yet I am not sure that I actually do want to go back.  I am scared that if I do, I wont be under the influence of that drug of freedom and contentment.  Im scared that I will see through the facade of perfection that Miami puts up, to see the wasteful selfishness of SoBe and the ignorant insularity of the suburbs contrast against the danger and poverty of Downtown as something unacceptable.  See the flaws, the fraying edges and the cracks in an entirely different light  Miami brought me peace with its haze of perfection, and I want it to stay that way.

But surely no city is ever what we see of it, even if you live a lifetime in a city it is still entirely impossible to understand what it means to all the people who live there.  Impossible to know all its darkest secrets, and all its finest elements.  Maybe it isnt Miami itself that I love, its just a point in time and space where city, sunshine and girl collided to produce a love for a place that I will savour forever.  Even if I never go back, I will always wish I had never left Miami.