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