Getting Around
Getting Around:Subway
The popular image abroad of the New York subway system isn't brilliant. Constant images in films flash through the mind of roaming street gangs intimidating all and sundry. However, we're not going to let anything like that put us off. Like any major city there's always going to be an element of danger - but it can't be all bad - hell no one would use it if it was a death-trap. However, on first appearance it can be quite intimidating as rather than the ridiculously teeming busy throng of the London Underground, most of stations are vast and sparsely populated. There's certainly no mad dash for the doors and subsequently ending up with your nose pressed hard against the glass.
It's cheap too. In fact, let's face it, all bloody underground systems that I've been on in the world (Paris, Singapore, New York) are sensibly priced - it seems that London is the only one that charges you a pound of flesh for the privilege.
Our first actual trip on the subway is when we encounter our first bona fide genuine hat stand nutter. Sat directly opposite us is an older woman who looks a tad unhinged and I notice that her trousers, once white, are completely covered in ink. As are her hands and arms. She's clutching a pen and every time someone gets on the carriage she strikes her leg with the pen, swiftly drawing hard lines while mumbling, staring fixatedly across the carriage. In fact she just does it frequently for the hell of it. I'm fascinated - here's someone that's just so patently completely off their head mad bonkers nutter with no semblance of sanity left whatsoever. She obviously has a serious proximity problem - some hapless guys gets on at a station and makes the mistake of sitting within five feet of her, sending her into a total pen frenzy while snarling some mysterious guttural sounds at him. Welcome to New York!
We've all heard the polite "mind the gap" announcements on the London Underground. Forget such niceties - here, the conductor bellows down the tannoy, "All those for the next stop move to the front carriages. Do it. DO IT NOW!". And he repeats it. Often.
On Foot
Manhattan is actually an incredibly easy place to walk around if you can handle
the inevitable sore feet. It's very easy to instantly work out where you are
at any time and roughly how far you've got to get to your destination. This
is due solely to the fact that the entire island is a perfect criss cross of
roads named & numbered sequentially - so you're never going to get completely
bewildered once you've worked out your sense of direction. Of course, wandering
around Fifth Avenue and Times Square can prove to be extremely tiring when busy
and it can prove to be time consuming as each junction at a crossroads has traffic
lights which invariably are always red.
Taxis
Taxis are actually great in New York and refreshingly cheap. As mentioned in
the introduction, the cabbies rarely speak (a lot of them seem to only have
a very vague grasp of the language anyway). But you can get pretty much anywhere
in Manhattan for only a few dollars. Even after midnight we never paid more
than $10 for a long journey. Unlike London they're very plentiful and so a ride
is never more than a minute away. All told, a recommended way to travel.
Safety
It all depends on how you are with cities and your confidence - I don't deny
that there are dangers, but that's as with any city anywhere. We happily wandered
around gone midnight in empty streets in Little Venice and Fifth Avenue without
a care and without feeling threatened at all. There was only the one occasion
when we felt extremely uncomfortable which was on our second night when we decided
to go to Chinatown for a wander and a meal. Getting out of the Subway, I found
myself completely disorientated and unsure of any directions. It wasn't long
after dusk and the streets were pretty empty and piled up with the days rubbish.
Being authentic Chinese restaurants, duck carcasses and the like were hanging
in windows, and the area we were in had a very seedy feel to it. Our comfort
zones were pretty much compromised and we felt extremely uneasy and I was not
happy about standing like a muppet on the sidewalk reading my Rough Guide trying
to guage some sort of sense of bearing. Eventually we bottled it and got a cab
to Little Venice. We were almost certainly over-reacting yet when you get a
bad feeling, I tend to think you should act upon it.
Also, wandering around Brooklyn trying to find the quay so we could do the Annie Hall staring over at Manhattan thing was a little intimidating when faced with an entirely different layout to Manhattan, but I wasn't unduly concerned, though I did get a little wary of wandering around the dock's industrial estates in the dark. All in search of a fabulous view!
But don't let any of that put you off at all - we spent significant hours walking for miles day and night. As long as you're not stupid, I am positive that Manhattan does not pose a noteworthy threat to the pedestrian.