on Nov 14th, 2006
New York
Well, that was a very good 6 days!
As Squage as bored you to tears with, we got up to lots of things. A quick (actually, this time) summary of the things I’ve observed about New York is below:
People
Whilst a bit brash, New Yorkers seemed to be a generally friendly bunch.
They seem an honest and generous group of folks – irrelevant of their particular background (there’s a LOT of cultural diversity in NYC)
Waiters/waitresses were much keener to help than I’m used to in England, but I think that’s down to the culture here surrounding tipping etc.
Food
Whilst not as ridiculous in size as I was expecting, New York food portitions were certainly sizeable, such that after a couple of meals I learned it really wasn’t worth having starters as you’d generally be full after them.
There was a wide choice, I think helped by the cultural diversity, but of course the good ol’ chain restuarant favourites were very much apparently whereever I went.
New York Pizza places rock.
Money
Everywhere in New York wants your money. It’s bloody expensive.
Tipping is pretty much mandatory everywhere, and generally ranges from 15-20%
ATMs charge you for withdrawals
It’s bloody expensive.
Transport
The subway network is really pretty good. It covers most of Manhattan and there are frequent trains on all of the lines.
One of the few “great value” things in New York, I’d say. For instance, you can get a 7 day subway(+bus) pass for $24 – which allows you to get anywhere in New York – not just Manhattan – so, for example, you could go from the Bronx, through Manhattan, through Brooklyn and pretty much to JFK airport every day for a week with that pass… Oh and also they seem to have tie-ins with various stops/attractions/restaurants, so that with a subway pass you get various discounts. Now why can’t Transport for LondON do something similar?
TV
Programme wise it’s not awful and there’re plenty of movie channels around.
Adverts, however, are TERRIBLE. What’s particuarly annoying is that lots of them seem to take the approach of showing the ad, then repeating the whole damned thing again. Nnngh.
Language
It’s almost like English but different. I still don’t understand why somewhere you go to take a crap is called a Rest Room.
Anyway, my eyes and fingers are hurting (despite Squage doing all the typing previously, how odd… so I’m outa here)
Toodles,
Pat
4 Responses to “New York”
Mmmm…. pizza..
If you go to the chain restaurants the portions aren’t THAT different to the UK. A good deli or diner though, and you’ll be in belt-loosening territory.
Totally behind you on the ATM thing. It’s obscene that a bank charges you for the privelige of using their ATM, and then YOUR OWN BANK charges you for accessing your money from someone else’s ATM. If, and this isn’t uncommon, you pay $1.50 at the ATM and $1 from your bank, you can pay $2.50 to withdraw $20.
It’s crazy. Hence using chip-and-pin everywhere.
Adverts are terrible.
Irritating.
But you learn to phase them out all the same.
Nothing beats a nice bit of Roman Pizza…
apart from stumbling across a “bit of OLD” – SO unless you came upon Woody Allen in New York (I think he qualifies as pretty old) you will have to hunt OLD down under. I think if you study the geology (Pat – those are the rocks..Hon :0) you may finally stub your pinkies on a bit of OLD
OLD – Definition: Adj: Often found in Rome , down a large hole strewn with non-specific RUBBLE (see last weeks definition).
i found that even though the ATMs claimed to charge me, they never actually took money from my account. get receipts just to check, you might be lucky.