What better way to experience New York than just to go ahead and jump into the system. Not walk. Definitely not tip toe. Jump. I am careful not to use the word “leap” since that is usually directional and Casey and my jump into the system was not necessarily in any specific direction.
To be quite honest, we were going in no particular direction, to no particular destination with no specific route in mind. I would imagine if our route was that flexible, we could never actually get lost. Huh!
So first things first – Buy yourself a metro card for $10 rather than going in for a single ride – if you’re going to spend a few days in New York and don’t want to get run over by mad cab drivers, it’s probably a good idea to stick to the underground. Well.. kind of a good idea. Okay – it’s an idea, and here’s why – If you don’t spend a few minutes trying to read the metro map, you will only use, re-use and keep using the card until you run out of a few dollars before you actually SIT on the subway. Yes. We say this from experience. *giggles
The hotel usually provides you with a street and subway map (or you can always ask V at the UN Plaza hotel – He’ll whip one up for you..) The subway information booths can usually part with a metro map which is even more complicated than the street map, but could help. Please do take the time to notice the look on the information providers face before you grab the map and run. It makes Britney Spears look like a hyperactive toy (wait.. isn't she that anyway!?)
Okay – Now here’s how we get around in the underground world and I’m not making this up – There are ‘123 lines’ which are red; blue ACE lines; Yellow NRQW lines, Green 456 trains, Mustard BDFV trains; Brown JMV lines, the magenta 7 train and the lonely S or L train. I have no clue what these numbers or letters stand for, but you can imagine the fright Casey and I had whilst trying to deal with impaired sight and mental retardation whilst trying to figure out what the damn routes were. I can safely say that we were today’s Short and Tall crew for the underground – If you see two people whipping out maps and stopping at every corner (up and down several blocks at a time), on the news, you’ll know that to be us.
We chose what was supposed to be the most complicated way to travel from 42nd street and Avenue of the Americas, down to the trendy and chique Greenwich Village. And the route was just so darn confusing, we got there without realizing that we had reached! How’s that for knowing where we were?!
For your information, UN Plaza and the Bronx is UPTOWN which is where I got further confused and made us use our metro cards twice over. I think this one exploratory trip into the underground of New York probably cost us about 6 dollars since it costs about 2 quid a trip.
But we made it back home, despite the fact that Casey flew here and I panted on four legs right behind her. You can tell she is the taller one from the both of us. ☺
New York is only New York in certain streets and you haven’t landed in New York until you block someone’s speed travel on the street and have them yell back at you. 5th Avenue upwards is life on the edge – you stand too close to the edge of that sidewalk and you shall be whisked away.
More from Shorty later on!
