I know it's so "touristic" to read a guidebook, but you know what YOU ARE A TOURIST, I AM a TOURIST! I'm not ashamed of it and you shouldn't be either (no one should). What you do with your time is your business.
What I liked about the Rough Guide to New York City was that it was informative and easy to use. Initially all I wanted from this book was a map of the NY Subway system, the map of Manhattan Island (based on past experience I found it helpful to have a visual so I could pinpoint myself and a map to locate the Metro stations. The tall buildings in NY -kingdom of skyscrapers- could make you feel claustraphobic.
The bonus thing in this book was the summary of New York history and its sites (The Empire, Met, Chinatown etc.). I learned a little something about the historical context of New York's formation and Modern Art in America.
Beside traveling on your feet, the next best transportation to get around NY City is the subway system. It's quite reliable and consistent (rare traffic, in the summer pretty cool and in the winter pretty warm). Aside from seeing the sights, one of the things I wanted to accomplish in this trip was proficiency in using the subway system.
We bought a fun day pass and we wanted to use the most of it. Originally we bought one and we were going to share it. I'll go through it and then hand it over to Janice and she'll go through it (I did this because in the pass, my friend showed me that this was possible). However the NY subway authorities changed the policy. They reprogramed the machine to accept only one swipe from the unlimited day pass every 18 minutes.
Before we found this out, Janice was aimlessly swiping the card for minutes. This New Yorker then informed us the new policy (In my mind I was thinking 18 minutes wasn't bad, I could read a book while I waited for Janice- but I could also see how this 18 minutes wait could be inconvenient for travellers who were pressed for time [like we were]).
I'm just proud of myself for finally comprehending the subway system (I've graduated and got my certification in Subway Map reading/application). This was my sixth trip to Manhattan Island (NY). The first time I didn't use it. The second time my uncle dropped us. The third time I used it as a passive follower- my friend's mom led us. The fourth time we followed directions given to us. The fifth time we walked instead to take advantage of the weather. Finally on the sixth trip I did it!
What made it confusing was that when you first look at it, you'd see squiggly lines in rainbow colors. Then you see the letters and numbers, then you see black and white circles connected to each other and then you see that the destination you're trying to reach has two kinds:uptown and downtown. All of these made it look complicated. After using it for a while, it all made sense.
What helped in my situation was asking people and knowing where I wanted to go. This is when I understood the concept of Uptown and Downtown (North and South). Chinatown was considered downtown and Central Park was uptown. I looked in the map and the Empire was near Central Park so I took an Uptown train. Chinatown and Central Park were the two standing points I used to evaluate where I was (Seeing this in the map made it so much easier).
By the end of the day, the subway system was no longer a labyrinth. Rather it was an open choose-your-own adventure book- with many possibilities.
Posted by Michael Diezmos at January 8, 2006 8:16 PM