On a recent vacation, my lady and I had the chance to take a trip to New York City. I had never had any interest in visiting anywhere in the US, because I live in Canada and though there are distinct differences between our two countries, we share many commonalities and I have always wanted to experience something more distinct, like Europe or Asia (been to Japan, very, very different). This trip, however, was both affordable (could drive there, save on plane tickets), and somewhere new, so we thought what the heck. Well, because of our experience, I would like to say to New York City and it’s people:
Thank you. Thank you for your glorious skyline and your prodigious landmarks. Thank you for your beautiful architecture and your graceful style. Thank you for your sense of fashion and touches of class. Thank you for 5th Avenue and 42nd St. Thank you for Park Avenue and Times Square. Thank you for Grand Central Terminal and Central Park. Thank you for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and for Wall Street. Thank you for The Producers and for Rockefeller Center. But most of all, thank you for being more than I expected, better than I hoped, and completely and totally charming my love and I. I hope to come back, someday, and finish what we started.
As an aside, I was led to believe (through various sources, in particular that of first-hand visitors), that New Yorkers are a pushy, obnoxious and downright rude lot, but nothing could have been further from the truth during our visit. I won’t say they were more polite than people are here, but then Canadians are well-known for politeness, but they were certainly pleasant, sometimes even warm and friendly, in a way I had not expected. So thanks for that too.
Someone already sold me the Bridge, but I renamed it the Funktastic Expressway. Now get off.
I will be back. My sister works for our country’s Foreign Affairs department and will have to go down to NYC for about 2 weeks or so to give some training to our consular officials there on new computer programs (or something like that), so we’ll probably go down around then too and take advantage of the free place to stay.
Aww, thanks! Yep, if you pierce the defensive shell we all have to put up when you pass several thousand people a day with usually a dozen or so true weirdos mixed in, we’re usually pretty nice.
Did you have some or our world-famous pizza? When come back eat pizza.
I wore that dress just for you–I’m glad you liked it! It’s a copy of a 1962 Jean Louis, and the shoes were Charles Jourdans.
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I’m originally from Jersey and was thankfully able to visit NYC quite often. Living in FL now, I miss the city a LOT.
What’s sad is there are people that have never visited NYC but for some reason think it’s a crappy dump teeming with rude, obnoxious people. Maybe one of these days, they’ll be able to open their eyes.
Glad you enjoyed your trip. If you’re interested in coming back, you may want to think about this October for the NY MegaDopefest that we’ll be having. You’ll be able to see the sights of the City and meet scores of Dopers while you’re at it.
Let me add my “Thanks” to that of scule. I love New York–as a place to vist–and have had delightful conversations with New Yorkers while trying to find my way around. Let me add my own thank yous for The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, (a truly lovely little museum), the Whitney, The Boy From Oz, real New York Cheesecake (and available after midnight–yes!!), Grand Central Station (deserves to be mentioned twice), that little lingerie shop uptown, the young men dancing (illegally) on the sidewalks, Greenich Village, bagels, the Chrysler building, piano bars, elegance, flair, style, the Algonquin, and hotel bars where a $13 dollar martini seems just right.
Of course, none of the New York Dopers wanted to spend time with me when I was there, but that’s okay. I had fun anyway, all on my own. So there.
[sub]Attention northern “tourists”. We have achieved critical mass under cover of the ‘brain drain’ and made New Yorkers polite. Move to phase two: Operation Universal Health Care.[/sub]
Thanks for all the nice responses. I guess New Yorkers really aren’t as rude as people say. I know that it is tough being friendly when you’re in a city that crowded and trying to get a seat on the subway or get around someone’s fat ass while they walk slowly up 5th, but I never saw the rudeness I was told about anywhere (except maybe the staff at the Empire State Building lookout, but I’d be rude if I had to work at 11:30pm with that big a crowd too).
You know, we never did get pizza – my girlfriend is Asian and really doesn’t eat pizza or anything involving bread much. Unless it’s Chinese buns or something. I want to try it next time, though. We did see Naked Cowboy in Times Square, though. Quite amusing. And Eve, thanks for the beautiful dress. It struck us both as really distinct and actually rather pleasant that everyone dresses so well in New York. I work for the government here and the dress code in general is very business casual, with a big emphasis on casual for the majority, and it was so nice to see so many well-dressed people. I think if I lived there people would think I was gay because I would be so clothing-obsessed (loved the Hugo Boss store in Warner Center, too bad it’s soooooo expensive for a simple Canuck).
Actually, we didn’t see The Boy from Oz, but we did see Hugh Jackman signing autographs after the show, and I snapped a couple of pics (no autograph though, I could care less for those). There were so many other things we wanted to see and do, so we will definitely have to go back. I will have to find out when my sister is heading down, hopefully it will be in October and the Dopefest can begin!
Now I get it, C.H.U.D.s are from a movie that Homer referenced. Good one. No C.H.U.D.s, but we did see a big rat digging around in the subway. Big rat.
