schneefink (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
schneefink) wrote2016-05-16 03:04 pm
schneefink) wrote2016-05-16 03:04 pm
Entry tags:
Things that surprised me on my trip to NYC & DC
Food
- They put ice cubes into any cold drink. So many ice cubes. To my surprise I got used to it.
- You get free water at any restaurant and they refill it too. Very convenient. Speaking of water, tap water in NYC was good but not in DC.
- A "water fountain" often only has different kinds of soda and no water at all.
- Lime lemonade is very good. We rarely have limes in Vienna but there they seem to be as common as lemons.
- L. invited me to some fabulous restaurants in NYC (e.g. Smith&Wollensky), and some I discovered elsewhere (e.g. Ootoya.) Yum.
- Toasted bagels with cream cheese are very good. I forgive cream cheese for being the most annoying ingredient in American recipes because I can't get it here in supermarkets.
- Cheese cake is good, but very sweet.
- Most street vendors appear to be mobile. In addition to hot dogs, falafel, pizza, and overpriced ice-cream, there are also vendors selling smoothies. I approve.
- Pasta with tomato sauce with vodka is apparently popular. I've never seen it before but I liked it.
- It is actually possible to get some halfway decent bread rolls.
- American hot dogs are weird. They have their burger-type bread, which is basically nothing, and are generally very small. Not very satisfying.
Transport
- NYC has local and express trains. This makes perfect sense, but took a few days to get used to.
- NYC and DC have different metro payment systems. As a tourist I found this annoying.
- The DC metro is generally very darkly lit.
- The NYC metro has some nice(r) stations, but most of them don't look very clean. Sometimes I can't even pinpoint why, just a general feeling, I think it's partly the yellow. And sometimes it's obvious, like that station where there was a manhole between the tracks, people threw trash there, and I counted a dozen rats in ten minutes, or the one where rust practically ran down the walls.
- I quickly figured out uptown and downtown in NYC, but crosstown seems less useful below the Central Park. And despite the numbers it can still be difficult to orient myself on a street corner when I don't know which direction I'm looking in.
- In NYC, at least in Manhattan, you don't call cabs, you hail them from the street. There are so many of them that it works, I tried it myself. It still seems a bit unreliable for when you're in a hurry.
Religion
- I have never seen so many conservative Jews as I did in NYC.
- The number of churches seemed similar to any European city, which surprised me because afaik in the US they have a much more even spread of many more different Christian faiths. Probably people just have to travel further for mass.
- There were people advertising a bible study group in front of the Capitol. Seems extremely strange for a secular nation, but then I already knew that's in practice not true.
- (By the way, there are few non-white people on American tv and in films in general, but I can't remember the last time I saw a Muslim character.)
- The Lincoln Memorial looks like an ancient Zeus temple, so much so that it was disorienting. People really worship the Founding Fathers here.
Nature
- Different birds. Of course the birds are different, but again, I didn't think about it. I have now seen bluejays and cardinals and purple martins and many others (I visited a raptor trust with G. in New Jersey.) I also found out that American robins are very different and, most importantly, much bigger than European robins. Now naming a superhero Robin is at least slightly less ridiculous.
- I knew about the different squirrels, but I didn't expect there to be so many of them or for them to be so completely not shy.
- In DC I experienced some of the worst April weather I can recall. In May! Several days in a row it switched between a light drizzle, blue skies and sun and high temperatures, and pouring rain (the latter always right when we came out of museums.)
Various
- Different power outlets. Somehow I completely forgot about that.
- Many apartment complexes have doormen.
- There's a Belvedere Palace in Central Park and a place called Vienna in DC. Cheaters. (That's why in DC I had to explain that I'm from Austria, so that's where I got the kangaroo question.)
- In NYC instead of in big garbage containers on certain days of the week people throw garbage sacks on the street.
- In NYC there are so many huge water storage tanks on top of buildings, I can't remember having seen that before.
- Random people calling land lines to advertise for political candidates actually happens all the time.
- Flags. So many flags. I especially noticed it when visiting smaller towns in New Jersey.
- The people are very friendly! Polite, helpful, often willing to chat, it was great. In NYC they smile a little less than in DC, maybe that's why I heard they're rude? Idk.
I know I'm forgetting some things, maybe I'll add them later.
LB asked me if I would want to live in either of these cities (after I spent I-forgot-how-long enthusiastically talking about my visit to both of them.) I don't, mostly for two reasons: housing is very expensive, and I don't want to live in the US. Both of these may change one day, but right now I'm very happy where I am.
- They put ice cubes into any cold drink. So many ice cubes. To my surprise I got used to it.
- You get free water at any restaurant and they refill it too. Very convenient. Speaking of water, tap water in NYC was good but not in DC.
- A "water fountain" often only has different kinds of soda and no water at all.
- Lime lemonade is very good. We rarely have limes in Vienna but there they seem to be as common as lemons.
- L. invited me to some fabulous restaurants in NYC (e.g. Smith&Wollensky), and some I discovered elsewhere (e.g. Ootoya.) Yum.
- Toasted bagels with cream cheese are very good. I forgive cream cheese for being the most annoying ingredient in American recipes because I can't get it here in supermarkets.
- Cheese cake is good, but very sweet.
- Most street vendors appear to be mobile. In addition to hot dogs, falafel, pizza, and overpriced ice-cream, there are also vendors selling smoothies. I approve.
- Pasta with tomato sauce with vodka is apparently popular. I've never seen it before but I liked it.
- It is actually possible to get some halfway decent bread rolls.
- American hot dogs are weird. They have their burger-type bread, which is basically nothing, and are generally very small. Not very satisfying.
Transport
- NYC has local and express trains. This makes perfect sense, but took a few days to get used to.
- NYC and DC have different metro payment systems. As a tourist I found this annoying.
- The DC metro is generally very darkly lit.
- The NYC metro has some nice(r) stations, but most of them don't look very clean. Sometimes I can't even pinpoint why, just a general feeling, I think it's partly the yellow. And sometimes it's obvious, like that station where there was a manhole between the tracks, people threw trash there, and I counted a dozen rats in ten minutes, or the one where rust practically ran down the walls.
- I quickly figured out uptown and downtown in NYC, but crosstown seems less useful below the Central Park. And despite the numbers it can still be difficult to orient myself on a street corner when I don't know which direction I'm looking in.
- In NYC, at least in Manhattan, you don't call cabs, you hail them from the street. There are so many of them that it works, I tried it myself. It still seems a bit unreliable for when you're in a hurry.
Religion
- I have never seen so many conservative Jews as I did in NYC.
- The number of churches seemed similar to any European city, which surprised me because afaik in the US they have a much more even spread of many more different Christian faiths. Probably people just have to travel further for mass.
- There were people advertising a bible study group in front of the Capitol. Seems extremely strange for a secular nation, but then I already knew that's in practice not true.
- (By the way, there are few non-white people on American tv and in films in general, but I can't remember the last time I saw a Muslim character.)
- The Lincoln Memorial looks like an ancient Zeus temple, so much so that it was disorienting. People really worship the Founding Fathers here.
Nature
- Different birds. Of course the birds are different, but again, I didn't think about it. I have now seen bluejays and cardinals and purple martins and many others (I visited a raptor trust with G. in New Jersey.) I also found out that American robins are very different and, most importantly, much bigger than European robins. Now naming a superhero Robin is at least slightly less ridiculous.
- I knew about the different squirrels, but I didn't expect there to be so many of them or for them to be so completely not shy.
- In DC I experienced some of the worst April weather I can recall. In May! Several days in a row it switched between a light drizzle, blue skies and sun and high temperatures, and pouring rain (the latter always right when we came out of museums.)
Various
- Different power outlets. Somehow I completely forgot about that.
- Many apartment complexes have doormen.
- There's a Belvedere Palace in Central Park and a place called Vienna in DC. Cheaters. (That's why in DC I had to explain that I'm from Austria, so that's where I got the kangaroo question.)
- In NYC instead of in big garbage containers on certain days of the week people throw garbage sacks on the street.
- In NYC there are so many huge water storage tanks on top of buildings, I can't remember having seen that before.
- Random people calling land lines to advertise for political candidates actually happens all the time.
- Flags. So many flags. I especially noticed it when visiting smaller towns in New Jersey.
- The people are very friendly! Polite, helpful, often willing to chat, it was great. In NYC they smile a little less than in DC, maybe that's why I heard they're rude? Idk.
I know I'm forgetting some things, maybe I'll add them later.
LB asked me if I would want to live in either of these cities (after I spent I-forgot-how-long enthusiastically talking about my visit to both of them.) I don't, mostly for two reasons: housing is very expensive, and I don't want to live in the US. Both of these may change one day, but right now I'm very happy where I am.
no subject
Montréal-style bagels? Google just shows me bagels with a lot sesame.
I usually use high-fat curd cheese as a substitute for cream cheese in baking, it works quite well. Mascarpone may work even better, but not every store has it.
There's a terrible reason why there aren't many Jews in Austria, but I see more wearing a simple kippa instead of the locks etc. too and in NYC it was the other way around. I did see a boy wearing a Spider-man kippa xD
no subject
New York-style bagels are soft, chewy and doughy. Montreal-style bagels, on the other hand, are smaller, denser and sweeter. Both are boiled before they are baked, to create the thick, shiny, chewy exterior, but the water used in each city is a critical distinction. New Yorkers swear it’s the NYC water that makes their bagels so good and impossible to imitate in any other city. Montreal bagels are boiled in water that has been sweetened with honey — a defining characteristic of this style.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/montreal-bagels_n_5247880.html
I disagree with them about not putting cream cheese, most Montrealers might add cream cheese but they are just as delicious with just butter.
More information than you wanted, probably. :)
no subject
I did try poutine! It probably only counts half because it wasn't in Canada (though I think the restaurant belongs to Canadians), but I enjoyed it.
no subject
/traditionalist