I made a mistake in yesterday’s post. A huge one. A great big clanger.
I said that my new favourite car is a Ford Escalade … but I was wrong.
It takes a big man to admit that he is wrong. It’s not a Ford Escalade, it’s a Cadillac Escalade.
There are actually 2 clues that tell me that it isn’t a Ford. Firstly, the badge on the front isn’t a Ford badge. I should have realised that when I inserted the picture into the post. The second, and perhaps more obvious clue, is that it’s not broken down at the side of the road.
So, my apologies.
Here is another fun fact: yesterday I commented on the fact that cars were not allowed to park on one side of the road because of garbage pick-up. Well, today it was garbage pick-up on the other side of Seasame Street … and guess what happened?
I learned something new from my friend Jack Reacher last night … yes, I know that “he’s not a real person”, but it doesn’t mean that he can’t teach me stuff.
I learned that odd numbered streets run east to west, and even numbered streets run west to east. So combine that with a few other important facts, and I think that I’ve got NYC figured out:
- Street numbers increase the further north (uptown) that you go, and decrease the further south (downtown) that you go;
- Avenues (which run north to south) are smaller in the west and get bigger the further east that you go;
- Streets to the west of 5th Avenue – sorry 5th Ave-en-oo – are West 43rd Street, and streets to the east of 5th Ave-en-oo are East 43rd Street;
- Combine all of that with that bright light in the sky that rises in the east and sets in the west, and it all becomes very simple.
Today was much cooler, and heavily overcast … so no bright light in the sky to give me directional guidance.
Sigh 🙁
Back when some of our boys were in school, one or two of them thought that they were really cool to wear their trousers down low on their hips.
Well, some of the African American men here in NYC have taken this dress code down to a whole new level. While you don’t see it all of the time, we have seen guys getting around with their trousers so low that they were at the bottom of their butt cheeks.
You could see most of the boxer shorts that they wore underneath!
How they even managed to walk around without losing their trousers is an absolute mystery.
Today was our last day here in NYC, and I must say that I am feeling a little sad. We purchased a NY Sightseeing Pass before we left Australia, which gave us access to 10 attractions. We certainly got our value out of that.
In fact, today was a pretty relaxed day because we have already done almost everything on our list. There were just a few things remaining.
We started the day in the usual way – as subway ninjas.
We hopped on at our local station – Kingston-Throop Av – and rode the subway to East 23rd Street to go and see the Flatiron Building. It’s a really unusually shaped building, in that it is triangular.
The photo doesn’t really show just how triangular it is.
On the way there, though, we passed by a pharmacy. You will recall from a previous post that one of us forgot to pack a razor. So we stopped at the pharmacy and a purchase was made.
Then we saw a Home Depot, and stopped in there too. It’s just like Bunnings, but much more my style of shopping that Saks 5th Avenue.
More in my price range, too.
From there, we hopped back onto the subway and went to see the final thing on our list – the Chrysler Building. Another beautiful old building that was completed in the 1930’s.
Here’s another fun fact: the Chrysler Building has it’s own zip code, because of the quantity of mail that is sent and received from the building each day.
After that, we really had nothing left that we really wanted to do, except for a bus trip around the city that was scheduled for 4.30pm this afternoon.
So from the Chrysler Building, we had a bit of an aimless wander around the city, back to Grand Central Station.
There are a couple of things about NYC that make navigation extremely challenging – you keep seeing the same things over and over, and the city just goes on and on and on.
There are Starbucks and McDonald’s on nearly every corner. There are T-Mobile stores that all look the same, and Walgreen Pharmacies everywhere too.
After a while, your mind just starts to play tricks on you.
You also see these little parks/seating areas that seem to pop up in different places, and they all look the same too.
We stopped at a coffee shop and paid too much for a disappointing lunch and 2 disappointing cappuccinos, then went in search of a Target to pick up a few items that we needed. By this time we were starting to wander aimlessly, so headed to Macy’s for a bathroom break.
We were told that the best pretzels were at Auntie Anne’s (pronounced Ant-ie Anne’s). Finding one was a challenge because Google Maps kept taking us back to Macy’s, which had us quite confused.
Macy’s is a huge department store – much like Myer or David Jones – but on steroids. It takes up the whole block between 6th Avenue and 7th Avenue, and West 34th Street and West 35th Street … with 10 levels of shopping!
The reason that we couldn’t find Auntie Anne’s is because it is INSIDE Macy’s on the 7th floor.
Along with a McDonald’s, also inside Macy’s.
And then we had our own little miracle on 34th Street – we had an Auntie Anne’s cinnamon pretzel.
One of the things that you see around the city is lots of homeless people, sitting on the sidewalk begging. It’s not uncommon for them to be holding a little hand-made cardboard sign saying “Homeless”, or “Ashamed and embarrassed”, or “Returned veteran”.
While I don’t want to make fun of the homeless or disadvantaged, there are also some pretty weird ones out there. Like the guy with the sign that said “Family killed by aliens. Need $$$ to buy a ray gun”.
OK …
Or a really fat guy with a sign that said “Hungry”. He can’t have been hungry for long.
After our pretzel, we had about 90 minutes to kill before our pre-booked bus tour of the city.
It was still really heavily overcast, and I was keen to head back down to Times Square, seek out the Wonder Women, and pray for more rain …. but TOTIL didn’t think that was a good idea.
So we just meandered our way around the streets.
Another really interesting thing about NYC is that many things are underground. Obviously the subway is underground, but many of the shops have a whole floor level underground.
Something that I found really fascinating was when we went to Broadway to see Beautiful. You walk into the theatre at ground level, and then go down about 3 flights of stairs to the mezzanine level and the stage. You certainly don’t have a sense that you are that far underground until you go back up and look down into this enormous hole in the ground.
Another quirky thing about NYC is that the locals have a love affair with electric scooters, electric skateboards, and electric bikes.
In the last post, I outlined my Universal Law of Shaving. I’m sure that this is something that will be taught to young men in schools one day.
There is a minor flaw to the ULoS though … once you haven’t shaved for a week or so, you really need to shave. The ULoS says that you can only shave when you don’t need to … so you find yourself in a situation where you need to shave, even though you don’t need to shave. It’s pretty complex.
Regardless, I’ll be shaving tonight otherwise I’ll need to find somewhere else to sleep 🙁
Back to the topic of tonight’s post (… yes, you thought I’d forgotten :))
We haven’t walked 500 miles, and 500 more. But by my calculations and thanks to modern phone/watch technology, I figure that we have walked something over 80km in the 7 full days that we have been here, plus a 10km bike ride.
To wrap up tonight’s blog, here are my top tips for a trip to NYC (in no particular order):
1. Leave the RM Williams belt at home
Yes it might look great and you are really proud to have one, but everywhere you go – every attraction – you go through a scanner. The RMW belt sets the alarms off and you get a pat down.
2. Use plenty of wet wipes
Nothing is particularly clean here – even tables in cafes. You regularly find yourself needing to wipe things down.
3. Use plenty of hand sanitiser
I shouldn’t have to explain this, but once you’ve touched the handrail at a subway station, you’ll want to wash your hands.
4. Install a compass app on your phone
Everything works on direction. “Enter via the SE corner”. “Go west along East 43rd Street”. Even if you’ve got a good sense of direction, you’ll struggle above ground, and you’ll be totally lost below ground
5. Become a subway ninja
There is no better way to get around. Buy an unlimited pass.
6. Finding restrooms and bathrooms is not too hard
Despite what they say, there are plenty of clean bathrooms around. Just go to Macy’s.
7. Keep to the right
I shouldn’t have to explain that either. NYers get quite upset if you walk on the wrong side of the sidewalk.
7. Don’t stop in the middle of the sidewalk to take pictures
As above. It makes me cranky too.
8. DO go to Times Square
Some travel guide sites say to stay away. It’s worth it just for the people watching and all the flashing lights. It’s really worth it if you spot the Wonder Women and it starts to rain 🙂
9. Look left-right-left
Yes, I know that years of conditioning has taught you to “look to the right, look to the left, and look to the right again”. That is what your instinct tells you to do.
I made that mistake once, and was nearly run over by a black Chevy Suburban (… I’m telling you, they are everywhere!)
10. Set up a OneDrive account and set your phone to automatically upload pictures
If you do this, then as soon as you hit WiFi again, all of your pictures will be automatically uploaded to the cloud. If you lose your phone, you don’t lose all of your photos.
11. 5 second rule
We have an established rule at home called the 5 second rule where you figure if it has been on the ground for less that 5 seconds it is still safe to eat.
It doesn’t work here. If you drop something on the ground, particularly in the subway, walk away from it. Don’t even think about it. The rats will eat it pretty quickly anyway.
12. Tipping is easy
Yep, easy. Just add 15-20% if you have received good service, or you want to ensure good service. I’m told that they pay tax on projected tips anyway, so by not tipping, you are making them pay tax on money they didn’t earn.
Besides, it’s not real money anyway 🙂
13. Plan your day carefully
Work out what things are near what other things, and plan your day carefully. Despite that, expect everything to take longer than you plan.
14. Avoid street vendors
Different people have different experiences, but the locals don’t eat from street vendors for a variety of reasons. We did once, and regretted it.
15. If you enter the subway on the wrong side of the street, you’ll be going the wrong way
Make sure that you are catching an uptown train if you are going uptown, otherwise you will be disappointed.
That’s about it for NYC. We’ve had a blast and we hope you have enjoyed following along.
Tomorrow we fly to San Francisco. While I’ll be sad to leave NYC, I’ll be glad to get to SF, get into a hire car, and give my legs and feet a well-deserved rest.
Ciao
#G&KTAKEUSA
I haven’t visited NY, NY since 1980 so have thoroughly enjoyed tagging along with you!