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This summer I’ve decided to travel to New York City for my vacation.  It’s been a while since I’ve traveled anywhere, and with the exchange rate as good as it is, now was a good time to visit the city that never sleeps.

Traveling options

For this trip, I’ve decided to travel by train.  Amtrak runs a daily service called The Adirondack between Montreal’s Central Station and New York City’s Penn Station.  Average price per direction varies between $60 and $70 American depending on the day of the week, a highly competitive price for downtown-to-downtown service.  Compared with air travel, the trip by train does take much longer, clocking in at an average ten hours.  However, there are many benefits such as a beautiful view, improved seating space, no restrictions on electronic gadgets, less security hassles, and zero altitude.

The people

We’ve all seen and heard the stories of the people of New York City along with their questionable attitudes.  So here’s what I perceived while visiting the city for a few days.

First of all, the attitudes portrayed in many movies and books are not that far off from the truth.  However, many of these New York style attitudes do not extend to the tourists.  In fact, I’ve seen many cases where New Yorkers of all races, colours and creeds went out of their way to help out a misplaced tourist.

The attitudes New Yorkers have towards each other however are a totally different matter.

The Hispanic community.  Generally, they appear to be grumpy and paranoid and will normally not trust strangers.  In many cases they won’t even trust the tourists.  One statistic I wish I could obtain is the number of Spanish/Mexican speaking legal immigrants compared with the estimated number of illegal immigrants.  It’s almost as if they were afraid of being discovered by Immigration Services.  This level of paranoia makes it a bit unpleasant to do business with them at times.

The African-American community.  Rather reserved and indifferent.  Not paranoid per se, but not necessarily communicative.  Also, they don’t hate "white people" in general, but they don’t exactly appear to have many friends outside their own community.  The African-American community appears to have the highest proportion of homeless people amongst all of the different community groups based on what I’ve seen on the streets and at Penn Station.

The European based communities.  This one is a bit harder to analyze because within the European groups, you have the Irish, the Italians, the English, the Greeks and a few branches of the Jewish faith.  Surprisingly, quite a few are more or less the typical arrogant and obnoxious New Yorkers you’ve heard about.  To be part of any of these communities, you almost have to be a member of a secret club or something.

The Asian communities.  There didn’t seem to be a lot of people from India itself, but there appeared to be quite a few people of West-Asian origins.  I haven’t had a chance to study them very carefully but I would suspect they pretty much keep to themselves.  Next time I’m in New York, I’ll visit Chinatown.

New York City would be the perfect place for a modern-time anthropological study.  We’d probably learn a lot on what makes these people tick, especially the fact that there’s hardly any interaction between the various communities, making for a highly unusual family picture.

Pedestrian survival tips

If you’re from a city or town where the pedestrians are actually treated with respect by automobile drivers, it’s vitally important to obey the crosswalk traffic lights in this city.  Even when you do have the right of way, always look in both directions for any oncoming taxis or bicycle couriers that might sideswipe you, even on one-way streets.  Finally, under no circumstances should you even try to cross the streets like New Yorkers.  You’ll most likely get hurt or killed.

If however you’re originally from Montreal and are more than used to dealing with the town’s crazy drivers, then you have all the basics needed to navigate the streets of New York City on foot.  Just try to avoid jay-walking on any of the avenues; they’re pretty wide and traffic flows very rapidly, possibly too fast to make it across the street alive.  On the plus side, cab drivers in New York City are only slightly crazier than the cab drivers in Montreal, but they all drive the same yellow coloured cabs making them very easy to spot at a distance.

Not looking like a tourist

Here’s some advice I wished more people would follow.  Just because you’re a tourist, it doesn’t mean you have to look like one!  I’ve seen people dressed in some of the most absurd “costumes” imaginable that had nothing to do with style and possibly everything to do with yelling out “LOOK AT ME!  I’M A DORK FROM OUT OF TOWN!”  Even worse, many of them were carrying enough video and camera equipment to make them walking advertisements for just about every tourist huckster, street salesman and mugger imaginable!  You’re supposed to be on vacation!  Ease up on all the heavy equipment!

In New York City, it’s best to dress casually.  Wear casual pants, a golf shirt or a simple dress or blouse, and most importantly a decent pair of walking shoes.  All this is more than enough to get you into even the slightly upscale restaurants and theatres without looking out of place.  As for the camera, just carry a point & shoot or a digital camera in a camera pouch with a closed belt loop.  Most people won’t even notice it.  This is pretty much the way I dressed during my holiday and I wasn’t bothered once by tourist hucksters or by muggers.  In fact, many people thought I looked like a local and were asking me for directions!

This always happens when I’m traveling.  Maybe I should start wearing Hawaiian shirts.

Subway survival tips

The New York City subway system can seem like rough place at first, but in reality it’s probably not that much worse than the subway systems found in most cities around the world.  Simply don’t advertise you have possessions that are worth stealing and you’ll be okay.  That means don’t flash any money, don’t leave any iPods or mp3 players dangling from easy-to-grab spots, and keep your purses tucked under your arms or your wallets in your front pockets.  Pick pocketing is an international trade, not a local phenomenon.  Be aware of your surroundings.

Most subway railway lines passing through Manhattan are actually composed of overlapping train lines each with their own designated line number.  Examples of this are the blue line which supports trains A, C and E, and the green line which supports trains 4, 5 and 6.  In addition, each line is designated as either a local or an express train.  Local trains stop at every station they encounter while express trains will only stop at certain designated stations.  This is why at certain stations you may see four train tracks instead of two along with a possible total of three platforms.  The extra tracks and platforms are for accessing the express lines.  If you see extra tracks with no supporting platforms, the express trains will travel through that station without stopping.

Certain subway entrances may only support trains traveling in a specific direction.  The entrance on one side of the street may be for downtown bound trains while the entrance on the other side of the street may be for uptown or Brooklyn/Bronx bound trains.  Each entrance will have a sign indicating the supported line numbers and their direction.  If no direction is indicated, the station entrance allows access to trains heading in all directions.

If you do head in the right direction but your train doesn’t stop at the station you wanted to get off, you’re on an express line.  Get off at the next station and switch over to the local line heading in the opposite direction.  Don’t worry, it’s no big deal.  Even New Yorkers make that mistake.

By all means, if you’re staying for a few days and will be traveling a lot, get yourself a 7-day unlimited MetroCard for $24.  This single card will give you access to almost every bus and subway line without the need to maintain a collection of tokens.  You can buy the card at just about every subway station and even pay for it with your credit card.  The 7-day period starts with your first use of the card.

One of the more unusual stations in the system is probably the South Ferry station.  As these pictures demonstrate, the station is actually curved in a 90 degree angle, allowing the train to loop through the station and head in the opposite direction on the same line.  Even more interesting (and important to remember) is that the station is so short, it’s only accessible from the first five rail cars.  Getting on or off this station may have also been a bit of a challenge what with the curvature of the platform introducing a huge gap between the train and the platform, but the authorities have implemented a creative and fully functional solution to this problem, and applied it to other slightly curved stations.

Notice the curvature of the station.	You will find these unusual grates built into the floor.
Once the train has pulled into the station and has come to a complete stop...	...the grates extend themselves up against the subway car, covering up any gaps between the train and the platform.

Surviving The Chelsea Star Hotel

The Chelsea Star Hotel is a tourist class hotel located in a yellow building on the southwest corner of West 30 Street and 8^th Avenue, a stone’s throw away from Penn Station and the 34 Street subway stations, with the hotel’s only entrance located on West 30 Street.  Look for the stars imprinted in the sidewalk cement.  The hotel itself is actually located on the second floor of the building, occupying three full floors, and has no elevator.  So people with heavy luggage may want to avoid this hotel unless you don’t mind the workout.

All the private rooms with shared baths are painted and decorated in different themes such as the Rudolph Valentino room, the New York Nights room, and the Madonna.  The private rooms with private baths have upgraded accommodations for those wanting more privacy.  The hotel also includes dormitory rooms that can be reserved for a maximum of two weeks and can’t be reserved again by the same people for six months afterwards, preventing vagrants from taking up “permanent residence” at the hotel.

Check-in went reasonably well.  Not only did the hotel have my reservation, they were also able to assign me the room that I’ve requested, the “Madame Butterfly” room, located on the fourth floor and decorated with Asian elements.  As you can see from the pictures, the room is very small, but that in itself wasn’t much of a deterrent since it was just enough space for my needs, it was cheap, and most importantly the air conditioner worked properly.

Noise was a problem with the room, but not necessarily from the adjoining rooms (I lucked out on thick walls).  Much of the noise came from 8^th avenue itself, consisting mostly of taxis honking their horns whenever someone got in their way.  One way to cut down on the noise is to sleep with your head close to the door instead of the window.

The room had a few other irritants.  First, I saw the resident mouse try to escape from my room, making me wonder if it was something about me personally that the mouse didn’t like.  Second, many parts of the room were not properly cleaned such as the carpet, the phone and the space under the Buddha statuette.  Third, the electrical extensions powering the TV were originally stapled to the wall, but eventually came loose over time.  Unfortunately, the staples were shot right through the electrical conductors, creating a potentially fatal shock hazard.  I showed the wiring to the resident handyman and he replaced it right away.

The shared washroom was probably as clean as it could ever be considering it’s the middle of the summer, it’s hot and humid, and just about everyone needed to take at least two showers per day just to feel slightly clean.  The sink and toilet were fine for their respective duties, but the shower faucets were a bit of a challenge.  Turn the hot water faucet, wait for hot water to eventually come out of the showerhead, and then turn the cold water faucet to prevent scalding.  In this hotel, water pressure and faucet control are the main plumbing problems.

I had to use the third floor washroom one morning because the fourth floor washroom was occupied for a long time (the only time this happened).  I discovered that the tap water tasted a bit different depending on which floor you resided.  While the fourth floor’s water tasted reasonably neutral for a big city water supply, the third floor’s water had the distinct after-taste of a men’s public washroom.  After brushing my teeth, all the toothpaste did was add a mint-flavoured coating to the toilet after-taste, similar to what you would probably experience if you tried eating urinal cakes.

The terrace was a decent oasis from the outside world as long as you didn’t mind the rumbling of half a dozen air conditioning units and the site of a few plastic garbage cans at one end which are conveniently hidden from the hotel’s official photos.  The patio furniture however was of reasonable quality, and the garbage cans emanated no objectionable smells considering the hotel doesn’t distribute or even allow food in the rooms.  The guests themselves were reasonably well behaved and for the most part tried to keep the noise level down to a minimum which isn’t easy considering that despite the metal covering on the room doors, noise would easily pass through them as if they were made of paper.

Final tidbits: staff members for the most part were reasonably helpful, and the room key never worked on the hotel’s outdoor card reader.

All in all, my stay at The Chelsea Star was a New York Experience in itself, and not necessarily an objectionable one.  But would I want to go through the same experience twice?  Probably not.  This doesn’t necessarily mean I would prefer to stay in a more expensive hotel the next time I’m in the city, but it does mean I’ll want to try out a different tourist class hotel in another part of the city.

Museum house rules

As strange as this may seem, taking pictures in many of New York’s larger museums is actually permitted as long as you don’t use a flash and the pictures are not for professional use.  The no-flash rule is both to avoid disturbing other patrons and to avoid damaging some of the more sensitive works of art.  You might not have known this, but many flash units have the potential to dramatically accelerate a painting’s deterioration.  Imagine receiving laser eye surgery every time someone takes a picture of you.

The Museum of Natural History

Spanning four floors, this is a favourite for families, especially the kids.  As the name implies, the museum is a repository of everything related to nature.  Included among the exhibits are artifacts from various cultures, stuffed wild animals presented in their natural setting, dinosaur skeletons, environmental presentations, and much more.  The favourite item for the kids is of course the dinosaur bones.

The only disappointments are the pricing structure and the IMAX theatre.  The pricing structure is rather confusing, built around the concept of “packages” similar to tactics used by cable and satellite companies, making it very difficult to simply purchase access to only the exhibits you wish to see.  The IMAX theatre itself isn’t a real one; it’s nothing more than an old style theatre with an IMAX sized screen covering the entire front section.  Even worse, the edges of the screen are not properly matted, introducing various curves and wrinkles in the projected image.  Also, the sound suffers from horrendous echoes reflected off the hard surfaces of the theatre.

Most people, especially children, won’t care all that much about the presentation in the theatre.  And that’s perfectly fine.  They’re here to visit the museum!  Not just to watch some cheesy nature documentary.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Also known as “The Met”, this is a two story museum (with separate mezzanines) geared for adults and funded mainly by plenty of “old money” based on the number of galleries that bear family names.  Despite the financial origins, this is an incredibly huge museum that includes art and cultural exhibits from just about every single part of the world, all presented in excellent museum style settings and in some cases in huge cavernous halls.  If you’ve ever seen the Grand Hall at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec, imagine having about five or six of those halls in the same museum.

The main highlights of the museum are the sections dedicated to Greek sculptures and pottery, European paintings and sculptures, medieval and modern weaponry, Pre-Christ Egyptian culture, Asian culture and most important, the American Wing.

The American Wing is a museum in itself, containing critical paintings, furniture and decorations from the United States’ founding days.  The museum’s American collection is so huge that a separate section has been created, The Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art, where thousands of various items from the past are laid out in “supermarket” style.  Computer terminals give access to all the information available on the items in question, making it a great research tool where one can compare their own paintings or furniture with the reference items available for display.

You may need to spend two days at this particular museum.  That’s how big it is.  And your feet will thank you for the break.

The Museum of Modern Art

If I were a native New Yorker, I would probably call The MOMA “The Museum of Weird Stuff”, mainly because it appears to have plenty of it.  However, it also contains many contemporary items from true masters including until September 12, 2005 a collection of paintings from 19^th century buddy artists Paul Cézanne and Camille Pissarro.  These two had an uncanny ability to paint what are probably the most beautiful French landscapes I’ve ever seen laid on canvas.  This exhibit alone was worth the price of admission.

Of course there were other items such as a photo exhibit by photographer Lee Friedlander (until August 29, 2005) and the standard modern paintings, sculptures, prints, illustrated books, architecture, designs and drawings, all spread on six floors with all the walls painted a uniform white, preventing one’s perception from being biased by the colour of the walls.  The exhibits themselves were very well laid out, but care must be exercised that you don’t actually step onto any of them by accident.

One of the most notable permanent exhibits available at the museum is a collection of works by modern artist Andy Warhol, including all 32 of his Campbell’s soup cans laid out in no particular order.  Personally, my theory is that he was hungry at the time he created his famous cans and couldn’t paint anything else except what he just ate for lunch.

The Guggenheim

This was the disappointment of my vacation.  When compared with other museums, the Guggenheim has only a few paintings amongst their permanent collection (including a few Picassos), dedicating the bulk of the museum space to whatever temporary exhibit is available at the time, in this case a collection of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe that I’ve already seen in various books.  I managed to zip through the museum in about an hour, making for a very short visit.

The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum

This is the Essex class aircraft carrier U.S.S. Intrepid converted into a museum.  And is it ever huge!  How a structure so gigantic could actually float on water is just one of those items that’s best left unanswered otherwise you’d never want to get on board.  The museum recounts the history of one of the finest Navy vessels to have ever served the United States.  Launched in 1943, the Intrepid was in active duty during WWII and the Vietnam War before finally being decommissioned in 1982 to be transformed into a museum.

Along with the many airplanes on display both above and below deck, the aircraft carrier has also opened up many of its internal workings, showing many visitors how it was to live and work on such a huge vessel.  On the bridge, two former members of its crew were present to answer questions and give history lessons of their tours of duty on the old ship.  This stressed the importance of bringing in veterans of previous conflicts in these types of museums.  You will never get a better history lesson of a conflict than from a person who was actually there.

Two additional exhibits on the dock are the decommissioned submarine Growler and a British Airways Concorde.  The Concorde is but a quick visit through the main cabin.  The Growler however is a fascinating trip through some of the most cramped real estate you can imagine, which is saying a lot when you consider the ship is docked in New York City where the locals are already squeezed for space.

Other items of interest

Also on my schedule was visiting the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  Unfortunately the line-ups were so long that it wasn’t possible for me to visit any of these sites.  However, I did manage to get on board a sightseeing cruise (only had to wait for it to leave the dock) that visited the major landmarks in the harbour including the Brooklyn Bridge.

I also managed to get a decent ticket for Mel Brook’s musical “The Producers” at a reasonable price at the TKTS booth in Times Square the night of the performance.  And it was a highly enjoyable musical, telling the story on how a producer and an accountant plotted to make the worst musical ever so they can run off with the investors’ money, only to see their “Springtime for Hitler” become a huge hit.

Selecting decent restaurants in New York can be a daunting task especially when you discover just how many there are in town.  However, it’s usually not too difficult to find decent restaurants that don’t charge a fortune for their meals.  Even better, some of the better known restaurants may not charge as much as you would originally expect, making for an affordable romantic dinner for two.  You can still go over the top in a big-name restaurant if you want, but it’s nice to know you don’t have to.

I always pictured Rockefeller Center to be a big place, but after visiting it I was surprised at how small it really was.  However, it’s worthwhile to walk through the building itself just to look at all the art deco architecture that fills just about every space including the stairway handrails.

Times Square however is everything you’ve seen on television with all its flashing lights and huge marquis signs.  Just take note that it’s been so overly sanitized that it now looks more like an amusement park than a complex city intersection.  It’s also very crowded and very difficult to navigate on foot.

Due to a lack of time, I couldn’t visit Central Park or the public library.  But if you have some spare time, it may be worthwhile to go through them at least once.

So that’s my trip.  Six days in all including two full days of travel time, and there’s still plenty to see and do over there, meaning I’ll definitely be heading back there very soon knowing that it cost me a lot less to spend my vacation there than I originally anticipated.  And with a bit of careful preparation, you too will be guaranteed a great time in one of the most impressive and historical cities in the world.

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