New York City, Part 1

Made my long-anticipated, first-ever visit to New York City (or is it New York, New York?) last weekend.  There was so much to see and do, it's too much for one blog entry, so I'm going to break it up into two parts.  This first part will be my overall impressions, and I'll devote the second part to the sightseeing aspect of the trip.

As prologue, recall that I'm basically a child of the 70s, when NYC was the consensus murder capital of the world, a gang-infested, dark and dirty place.  I know that it changed since then, especially in the 90s and beyond, but to me it was still a place you only saw on TV.

So to start, I found the people there to be more friendly than I expected.  I'd set the bar low, but there were at least two occasions where help was given that was not expected.  The first time happened right away at the airport, where someone offered help when buying train tickets into the city's Penn Station.  Granted, this was that person's job, but she was still very accommodating.  The second time happened the next day, when a random Yo-Pro noticed a bit of confusion in our search for the correct subway train, and offered his help.

Speaking of the subway, it was also better than I expected.  I was prepared for something much more grimy, with panhandlers at every turn.  Turns out it was clean enough, and other than a few homeless souls wandering around, it was just a whole lot of folks trying to get somewhere else as quickly and inexpensively as they could.  It was actually pretty incredible to think of this huge, efficient, subterranean train system existing several stories below ground.  (Note:  I did see a couple of official subway rats.)

Which brings me to the next thing -- New Yorkers are in a hurry.  It was easy to tell the tourists from everyone else, because everyone else was walking at breakneck speed to wherever they were going.  I had no problem with this, I just wonder if they're always running late to get somewhere, or maybe they just hate where they're at now.

Another observation has to do with food.  Namely, ready-to-eat food, and the great number of food carts and restaurants and bars on every city block.  I suppose with so many residents and workers, New York City has to have a lot of places to eat and drink, it just seems like there are too many of those vendors to survive.  Here's another thing:  In three days of walking around Manhattan, I didn't notice one grocery store.  Not one.  They must be there, hidden in the nooks and crannies of buildings, but you aren't going to see any supermarkets.

Finally, one peculiar thing I'll always remember about NYC, especially after staying at a hotel in mid-town Manhattan, is.....car horns.  The sound of people honking their horns -- typically at other vehicles, not at pedestrians -- was always there, even very late at night.  So many cars (mostly taxis or limos or delivery trucks) on so many narrow streets made for lots of folks honking at one another.  And unlike Iowa, it wasn't to say hello.