![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
NY Thoughts and Such.
A proper recap will of course have to wait until I get the photos edited--we just got home last night and I'm back at work today, so I haven't even unpacked, let alone gotten to photos. But I thought I'd jot down a few notes while they're fresh in my mind.
-General Impression of New York: Mostly what I expected, I suppose, though I was pleasantly surprised in some ways. I guess I had the impression that the city is busy everywhere, all the time. But really most of it is like any urban center as far as crowd density goes (Times Square excepted, of course), and there were plenty of times when we were the only people on the street. But the tourist attractions were pretty crowded, of course.
-The view from our hotel was awesome, at least to one side. It was a corner room so we had a view in two directions--one was towards the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, the other was just buildings, mostly under construction. But we were high enough (44th floor) that we weren't just looking at the sides of other buildings, so that was cool.
-Central Park is a wonderful place. And I oughta know, having now walked it from one corner to the other and quite a bit in between as well. We loved the terrain, as the girls always have a blast climbing on big rock formations, of which there were scads. And the iconic spots were really cool to see.
-The weather could have been better. The first 2-3 days were generally miserable: chilly and windy and rainy/drizzly. But Saturday things started improving, Sunday was cool and windy but otherwise beautiful, and yesterday was downright glorious. I'm glad the hurricane gave the region a miss, that would have been pretty awful.
-The subway was actually quite nice. I expected it to be on the grungy side for sure, but it really wasn't. I'd almost put it right up there with the DC system, which I prefer mainly due to the general architectural style of the DC stations, and the cool lights along the tracks that flash when a train is coming. :) But the NY system seemed plenty clean, and efficient--we had no issues there at all. The price seemed steep--for the 3 of us it was $8.25 every ride, and that adds up fast!
-Finding and taking taxis was quite convenient, especially with their app (Arro), which was pretty awesome. But it's a pricey way to go, for all but the shortest rides. And the one and only time I felt ripped off on the trip was a cab ride. The guy gave me a shady vibe from jump, acting like our run wasn't worth his time--until he figured out a roundabout path to turn what should have been a short and cheap run into the most expensive ride of the trip. Jerk. The other taxis we took were fine, though. And only one guy drove like he was on the run from the cops, though I thought it was pretty cool. :)
-Speaking of apps, shortly before the trip I found one called CityMapper, which was extremely handy for navigating the subways. Put in a destination, and it gives you options for which trains and stations will get you there and when, plus estimated time and cost for a taxi to compare. Very nice, took a lot of the worry and time out of getting around. For walking around I mainly used Google Maps, which worked well enough, though the GPS fix was often pretty spotty down amongst the tall buildings.
-One of my fears was aggressive panhandlers and street vendors, and I'm happy to say neither was an issue. There were a few panhandlers here and there, but not bad. And the only street vendors I'd call aggressive were the people selling books down by the WTC site, and the carriage-ride hawkers by Central Park. But they all took no for an answer well enough.
-Another fear I had going in was crime and safety, of course. Big city, anything can happen, and I'd read a bit here and there about the NYPD slacking off because they haven't been happy with some of Mayor de Blasio's decisions. But I never once felt unsafe, in the subways or on the streets, and I never felt at all awkward or unsafe for carrying my camera or bag. Indeed, I saw plenty of tourists carrying nice camera gear most everywhere we went. I also saw NYPD presence around most of the tourist-y areas, and quite often pedestrian safety officers helping direct foot traffic. So that was all a big relief.
-Food was expensive, as I expected, but not as bad as I feared. We mostly had lunch at whatever attraction we were at when we got hungry, which was mainly crappy theme-park-style food but convenient. Dinners were pretty good, though. We did a couple Italian places, a cool Mexican place, and the Times Square Hard Rock Cafe (kitschy, I know, but it was there and I knew what to expect from it). Oh, we did do lunch in Chinatown yesterday, which was very yummy.
-The hotel was very nice--my main gripe was that the tv in the room didn't have a USB port, and that's a pretty minor gripe indeed. I'm glad breakfast was included in the rate I got, as it would have been $24 per person otherwise! They did try to tack on some bogus charges, but luckily I spotted and disputed those before we left. And now the pending charge that was on the credit card (which was the wrong price due to the bogus charges) has disappeared. Maybe it won't reappear! Doubtful, I know. But hey, I can dream.
-New Yorkers seemed pretty cool on the whole. I didn't see much rudeness, really. On the subways most people just kept to themselves, but seemed cordial enough. The only bad interaction I had personally was with a guy who decided it was his place to lecture me for not dressing the girls warmly enough for the weather. And okay, look, he was actually right and I already felt bad about it--we were going to a show and they wanted to wear their dresses, and the weather turned out worse than we'd hoped. But you can be right and still be an asshole, and that was that dude.
-So. Much. Walking. To save money and see more stuff, I tried to avoid taxis and subways except for getting between areas of town, so we did a LOT of walking. And that's in addition to the things where the walk was the idea, like Central Park and the Brooklyn Bridge. After the first day or two my feet were sore pretty much all the time, and I can see where I actually wore the rubber of my shoes down a bit. On one hand I'm curious as to how much distance we actually covered. On the other hand, I don't even want to know. :)
-I'll save the rundown on what we did and my thoughts on all that for the photo recap. Suffice to say we did a lot, saw some amazing stuff, and had a fine time. That said, I don't know if I'd go back. It's a very impressive city, for sure, and there's no shortage of things to see and do. But it's kind of a hassle too, you know? Our favorite thing by far was Central Park, probably because it felt the least like being in the middle of a big grey city. And there are plenty of places like that which aren't indeed in the middle of a big grey city. :)
So, more to come, sooner or later. But we made it to New York, and we made it back home, and that's good.
-General Impression of New York: Mostly what I expected, I suppose, though I was pleasantly surprised in some ways. I guess I had the impression that the city is busy everywhere, all the time. But really most of it is like any urban center as far as crowd density goes (Times Square excepted, of course), and there were plenty of times when we were the only people on the street. But the tourist attractions were pretty crowded, of course.
-The view from our hotel was awesome, at least to one side. It was a corner room so we had a view in two directions--one was towards the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, the other was just buildings, mostly under construction. But we were high enough (44th floor) that we weren't just looking at the sides of other buildings, so that was cool.
-Central Park is a wonderful place. And I oughta know, having now walked it from one corner to the other and quite a bit in between as well. We loved the terrain, as the girls always have a blast climbing on big rock formations, of which there were scads. And the iconic spots were really cool to see.
-The weather could have been better. The first 2-3 days were generally miserable: chilly and windy and rainy/drizzly. But Saturday things started improving, Sunday was cool and windy but otherwise beautiful, and yesterday was downright glorious. I'm glad the hurricane gave the region a miss, that would have been pretty awful.
-The subway was actually quite nice. I expected it to be on the grungy side for sure, but it really wasn't. I'd almost put it right up there with the DC system, which I prefer mainly due to the general architectural style of the DC stations, and the cool lights along the tracks that flash when a train is coming. :) But the NY system seemed plenty clean, and efficient--we had no issues there at all. The price seemed steep--for the 3 of us it was $8.25 every ride, and that adds up fast!
-Finding and taking taxis was quite convenient, especially with their app (Arro), which was pretty awesome. But it's a pricey way to go, for all but the shortest rides. And the one and only time I felt ripped off on the trip was a cab ride. The guy gave me a shady vibe from jump, acting like our run wasn't worth his time--until he figured out a roundabout path to turn what should have been a short and cheap run into the most expensive ride of the trip. Jerk. The other taxis we took were fine, though. And only one guy drove like he was on the run from the cops, though I thought it was pretty cool. :)
-Speaking of apps, shortly before the trip I found one called CityMapper, which was extremely handy for navigating the subways. Put in a destination, and it gives you options for which trains and stations will get you there and when, plus estimated time and cost for a taxi to compare. Very nice, took a lot of the worry and time out of getting around. For walking around I mainly used Google Maps, which worked well enough, though the GPS fix was often pretty spotty down amongst the tall buildings.
-One of my fears was aggressive panhandlers and street vendors, and I'm happy to say neither was an issue. There were a few panhandlers here and there, but not bad. And the only street vendors I'd call aggressive were the people selling books down by the WTC site, and the carriage-ride hawkers by Central Park. But they all took no for an answer well enough.
-Another fear I had going in was crime and safety, of course. Big city, anything can happen, and I'd read a bit here and there about the NYPD slacking off because they haven't been happy with some of Mayor de Blasio's decisions. But I never once felt unsafe, in the subways or on the streets, and I never felt at all awkward or unsafe for carrying my camera or bag. Indeed, I saw plenty of tourists carrying nice camera gear most everywhere we went. I also saw NYPD presence around most of the tourist-y areas, and quite often pedestrian safety officers helping direct foot traffic. So that was all a big relief.
-Food was expensive, as I expected, but not as bad as I feared. We mostly had lunch at whatever attraction we were at when we got hungry, which was mainly crappy theme-park-style food but convenient. Dinners were pretty good, though. We did a couple Italian places, a cool Mexican place, and the Times Square Hard Rock Cafe (kitschy, I know, but it was there and I knew what to expect from it). Oh, we did do lunch in Chinatown yesterday, which was very yummy.
-The hotel was very nice--my main gripe was that the tv in the room didn't have a USB port, and that's a pretty minor gripe indeed. I'm glad breakfast was included in the rate I got, as it would have been $24 per person otherwise! They did try to tack on some bogus charges, but luckily I spotted and disputed those before we left. And now the pending charge that was on the credit card (which was the wrong price due to the bogus charges) has disappeared. Maybe it won't reappear! Doubtful, I know. But hey, I can dream.
-New Yorkers seemed pretty cool on the whole. I didn't see much rudeness, really. On the subways most people just kept to themselves, but seemed cordial enough. The only bad interaction I had personally was with a guy who decided it was his place to lecture me for not dressing the girls warmly enough for the weather. And okay, look, he was actually right and I already felt bad about it--we were going to a show and they wanted to wear their dresses, and the weather turned out worse than we'd hoped. But you can be right and still be an asshole, and that was that dude.
-So. Much. Walking. To save money and see more stuff, I tried to avoid taxis and subways except for getting between areas of town, so we did a LOT of walking. And that's in addition to the things where the walk was the idea, like Central Park and the Brooklyn Bridge. After the first day or two my feet were sore pretty much all the time, and I can see where I actually wore the rubber of my shoes down a bit. On one hand I'm curious as to how much distance we actually covered. On the other hand, I don't even want to know. :)
-I'll save the rundown on what we did and my thoughts on all that for the photo recap. Suffice to say we did a lot, saw some amazing stuff, and had a fine time. That said, I don't know if I'd go back. It's a very impressive city, for sure, and there's no shortage of things to see and do. But it's kind of a hassle too, you know? Our favorite thing by far was Central Park, probably because it felt the least like being in the middle of a big grey city. And there are plenty of places like that which aren't indeed in the middle of a big grey city. :)
So, more to come, sooner or later. But we made it to New York, and we made it back home, and that's good.