An exhausting beginning

View from the Top of the Rock

The first couple of months of this year have been fairly insane. In the first four months of this year we have only been at home for six weekends. I think it's time for an extensive home consolidation period. This was partly due to me having the chance to work from New York for a month. I couldn't say no to that after all! New York was an interesting experience. I know it's one of the great cities of the world, I just really don't think I could live there long-term. It was a bit overwhelming. Sooo many homeless people, and so much trash, it's a crazy city. You would think living in London would prepare you for living in New York, but I don't think anything can really prepare you. There are just so many people and very few green spaces. I mean sure you have Central Park, but that's really kind of it, if you were further south on the island, there really wasn't much else in the way of greenery. Not even just random sidewalk trees. That I think was one of the big differences for me, not having green spaces to escape to. And don't get me started on their public transport.

Very tall

Grand Central at night

You would think Manhattan would be made for public transport, and sure it's cheap on a per-ride basis, but you can easily spend $10 a day if you go out to 2 places. I know New Yorkers go on about how great their metro is, but it's really not. I feel a bit sorry for them, not realising how much better it could be. Do they realise there are metros in other cities where there aren't rats frolicking in the disgusting, stagnant tunnel water, that it is possible to convey information to travellers at the stations and on the trains. I thought subway design was a solved problem, but in New York it's this weird dystopian joke. They are providing this service to you, but kicking you at the same time. I suppose public transport is bordering on socialism, that must make them very uncomfortable. And when there are lines down over the weekend it very quickly degenerates into chaos, with tourists wandering the stations trying to find any sort of information as to how to get where they want to go. I feel the way the MTA staff treats you is symptomatic of the US society as a whole, where if everything is working it's great, nothing to worry about. But as soon as you fall, forget it, you are on your own. You want to get uptown, figure it out yourself loser. It's your fault for not working it out.

Central Park - most weekends the weather was wonderful

But the food was amazing, there is no comparison there. London really has to pull up its socks in that regard. We really got into Yelp, it's so good in New York, if you chose any place with at least 4 stars and a few hundred reviews, you knew it was going to be good. And there were so many of those places around. I have to say, I did eat a lot of burgers whilst I was there.

The buildings are a little fascist

We were staying right in midtown, just a few blocks from Time Square, which I think certainly coloured our view of the city. Most people do not live mid-town, but then I did get to walk to work, and we were only 9 blocks from Central Park, which was awesome. But the noise really got to me, before going to New York I thought I lived on a bit of a noisy street, we'll get one or two cars going past in the evening. But oh man, mid-town is a different level. We were on the 15th floor, and it was still sirens all night long and the traffic never stopped. It was quite incredible. When I got back to London I thought my ears had stopped working, it was so quiet, you almost had this ringing in my ears because they were so used to noise. After New York we spent 6 nights in the bush, with nobody else around, and even camping I had a better night sleep. I think people actually buy noise machines, to try and cancel out the sirens. I just can't imagine that.

Pretty street in Harlem

The first weekend we were there we did a walking tour in Harlem, this I think was our only really organised tour the whole time we were there. It was quite interesting, I'd never been to Harlem before, and it's completely different from mid-town. It's a bit strange, you get on the subway in mid-town and it's all white people, then you go a few stops north and come out, and there are no white people around, and the buildings are all much shorter. I needed to go to the bathroom, but there didn't seem to be a place to go, but there was a hospital across the road, and hospitals normally have bathrooms somewhere. So we go in, and for a moment I thought I was in a prison, it was all weird dirty green tiles, no reception, just a security guard, and bars everywhere. No bathroom, one of the strangest hospitals I've ever been in.

The walking tour was pretty good, the buildings in Harlem are surprisingly decorative, and you get whole streets of the same houses, with the same decorative facade. I wonder how long Harlem will remain as it is, and whether it is in the process of gentrification. It is quite close to the city after all, and it seems still quite medium density.