It seems customary for people who consider themselves "real" New Yorkers to scoff at tourists and all the touristy things they do, and admittedly, I agree with some of them. Especially the MOVE THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY-part.
This video should be on the obligatory viewing list of anyone planning to visit New York. But trust me, it is fantastic to watch even if you never come here and it pretty much applies for all tourist endeavours, no matter the city, or even the continent;
Having said that, I think some people take it a bit too far with the whole 'as a New Yorker you have to let NOTHING faze you!'-attitude.
Seriously, don't just go "Oh, someone sneezed right in your face on the subway? Deal with it or don't live here! Hell, some dude once dropped his pants and took a shit on the seat next to me, it happens." like it's a contest or something.
Thankfully these people are a select few (both the one-uppers and the subway sneezers/crappers) and they are generally disliked by pretty much everyone.
My experience is that there are a lot of friendly people here. Almost everyone is willing to engage in random small talk and almost everyone is willing to help you if you are looking for something. Except in the subway. Never even make eye contact in the subway!
Also, work on your crazy people-radar. You'll need it. If you ever find yourself in a situation where someone is in the process of pooping on the seat next to you, that's a clear sign your radar needs some fine-tuning. You should have been outta there before they got the chance. Unless of course you're into that sort of thing, in which case I really, really don't want to know about it.
Anyway, what I actually came here to say is that I think seeing things through the eyes of a tourist is like seeing things through the eyes of a child. Everyone around you is used to this environment to the point where they no longer notice the cool yellow taxis that everyone knows from TV, the strange kinds of animals (I've looked up so many kinds of birds since I first came here, they're all different from the ones back home!), the beautiful buildings, the mosaics in all the subway stations, the street carts, panhandlers, the thousands of different kinds of people you come across. I LOVE seeing these things and taking pictures of them, I don't care that people have me branded as a tourist, I'll get used to this place soon enough, but I'm actively going to try and keep my sense of wonder. It makes this city so much more awesome!
So here you are, a collection of pictures that are extremely boring to a real New Yorker:
Central Park in sucky weather
Entrance to the Central Park Zoo (in sucky weather)
Baseball-thingy in Central Park (yeah, sucky weather, I know)
The Central Park NYPD-branch have some sweet wheels. Three to be exact. Don't let that fool you though, these guys WILL intercept you! (as long as you don't make any sharp turns)
Apple store!
Taking a walk on the Brooklyn Bridge. I was expecting something more spectacular too..
But at least Brooklyn was sweet!
The only good hotdog I've ever found here, but I can't for the life of me remember where I bought it.. :(
Welcome to Brooklyn, have a wonderful time!
Ok, even as a tourist I hate this place.
The High Line park, on the other hand, is pretty cool!
Chinatown
Subway Station Mosaic. Some of these are really beautiful, nobody ever looks at them.
And the above ground stations have stained glass windows!
First chipmunk I've ever seen!
I regularly take pictures in supermarkets as well. They seem to like spam a lot here.
And peanut butter and jelly. Which is totally fantastic.
Can't forget about the pig's feet of course, delicious!
And religious paraffin... paraphern... Religious candles!
Ok, now this guy is somewhat of a legend even among New Yorkers. His subway ads are second only to his Youtube commercials (seriously, look up Dr. Zizmor on Youtube, keep a clean pair of underwear handy)
"wild" raccoons in Central Park
Your typical brownstone buildings in your typical rich white neighbourhood.
Well of course there's someone playing a baby grand piano in the middle of Washington Square. New York is totally random and quirky!
I've grown a lot more welcoming to the concept of bus-pants in my time here.
Like I said, work on that radar!
It's REALLY important!
Raumschiff Unterpreis hat auch hier gelandet!
Welcome to Walmart!
This is what the world looks like when you travel outside of NYC.
Vintage tiles in subway stations. This color immediately reminded me of our sofa when we were growing up. And our curtains. And our wallpaper. And our lamps.
Advertisement done right! :)
The "Halal Guys" streetcarts are well known, now I know why. Their lamb gyro is delicious!
Saint Patrick's Cathedral. The part that is visible between all the scaffolding, that is.
Rest of the cathedral, including scaffolding.
Entrance to St. Patricks, more scaffolding.
One of the New York Public Library guardians. Not too effective against ghosts, if pop culture is to be believed.
The entrance to the Chrysler Building
Beautiful ceiling of the Chrysler Building lobby!
The entrance to St. Bart's Church
One hungry little sparrow in Bryant Park.
That sparrow in the last picture was either sick or hungry enough to come over and eat out of my hand. This even caught the attention of some New Yorkers, maybe they haven't seen everything after all! ;) Anyway, here's the cutest video I made in a long time!
It was my sister's birthday a couple of days ago, we missed it because of the whole "other side of the world"-situation, unfortunately.. But my brother had us all pitching in on a great idea for a birthday present that we handed over today. Well... We were there through the magic of the internet, that is. My sister was happy with her present, I was happy about getting to see everyone again and the parrot was a bit taken aback about our sudden mysterious appearance on the screen in front of him.
You made it to the big screen sister! ;) (The blurry green and yellow shape in the cage to the left is Ringo, our happy but confused parrot.)
After we caught up with everyone again we headed out to Randall's Island. The Randall's Island Park Alliance were hosting their annual Harvest Festival at the urban farm and we thought it might be nice to go there. The weather was fantastic anyway so at least we'd get a nice walk in the sunshine.
And we did!
"Hey, I can see our house from here!"
Literally Lawnchairs! :D
Lots of traffic on the East River
For some mysterious reason we both yelled "OI TUGGER!" at the exact same time..
Some tree huggin' hippie... ;)
The scenery
And we found the harvest festival! They even had a band!
The Urban Garden was actually really cool.
I was fascinated by these little bright red flowers, they're so pretty!
Gorgeous looking spiral herb gardens.
Butterfly!
A wild Avontuur in its natural habitat... So majestic! ;)
Most bizarre looking flowers I've ever seen, what the hell are these?
We took our time exploring the garden, laughing at chickens, sitting in the sun, joking around and finally walking home again, taking some more pictures on the way back. Randall's Island is a favourite spot of mine, I've done a couple of volunteer projects for the Park Alliance, it's at walking distance and the view across the river is really something. Especially in the sunshine.
So I'll just leave you with a couple more pictures.
