New York, New York, here i come

[BigMac]

Hello all,

As it seems, me and my girlfriend will be going to New York Late august. We allready made arrangements to stay in a hotel but i was wondering if anybody could give some pointers of what we really would need to visit while there as it probably will be long before i get there again and we want to see as much as possible while there.

On a magic note, are there places i could go to where magic is sold/played to see if i could make some purchases.

All help would be appreciated.

[Bram]

Bump. Help a brother out, will ya?

[Jacob Orlove]

Neutral Ground should still be the magic store in the city. I forget the exact address, but it's somewhere around 26th and 4th/5th/6th.

As for stuff to see, there's the obvious, like the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, etc. What other kind of stuff are you looking to see?

[rvs]

Neutral Ground should still be the magic store in the city. I forget the exact address, but it's somewhere around 26th and 4th/5th/6th.

As for stuff to see, there's the obvious, like the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, etc. What other kind of stuff are you looking to see?

Well, since he posted about it, he probably doesn't care (or already knows!) about the obvious stuff. The idea is most likely that if somebody is from around there / familiar with the city, he would want to know the not so obvious spots that are cool.

[BigMac]

We will off course be going to see the obvious things and i allready got a personal tell from a New York inhabitant so i got a few pointers allready. We got a hotel in the middle of Manhattan so we will be walking a lot there. We also want to get to central park sometime and have a picknick of some kind.
Obvious things we wil be doing anyways are:
Statue of Liberty
Empire State building
Twin Towers memorial
China Town
Braodway
Visit a Yankee game
probably go to the state university

So if i missed anything major do not hesitate to point it out to me.

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

Central park is a blast. You should also stop by the Madison Square Garden. And there are two china towns (atleast to my knowledge). The one in Flushing Queens is pretty hawt (probably because I'm chinese). Also, you should take a ferry to Ellis Island if you have time. It's pretty cool.

Hope that helps! Have a good time in the greatest city in the world!

-Bob

[jpmeyer]

Assuming you're taking the subway:

To get to Neutral Ground, take the 1/2/3 (these are the red lines on a subway map) to 28th Street.  Neutral Ground is 2 blocks south of there on 26th.
To get to Kings Games (Alex Shvartsman's store), take the Q train to the King's Highway stop in Brooklyn and walk a few blocks down to 12th Street.

Like CoT said, there are two Chinatowns in NYC.  There's the Manhattan one (take the 6 train to Canal Street), and the Flushing one (take the 7 train to the Flushing stop), which I believe is actually larger.  There is a sweet arcade on Mott Street in the Manhattan Chinatown.  The Flushing Chinatown also has a large Korean aspect to it (and then, there's also Koreatown in Manhattan, which is near the Manhattan Mall, Macy's, and the Empire State Building).  If you're thirsty in Chinatown, get some bubble tea.  Bubble tea is awesome, and if you get bored of the bubbles you can shoot them at people with your straw.  The Korean places are great for getting a ton of cheap food.  For around $7 you get about two meals worth.

A cool hipster-y area that I like hanging out in is St. Mark's.  Take the 6 train to Astor Place and head east.  NYU is near here (head west for a block and then south), but you can't really tour it like you could say, Columbia (take the 1 train to 116th Street).  There are a ton of bars and restaurants here.  I like a tiny Middle Eastern place called Chickpea where you can get mad cheap falafels.

There are also infinity different museums.  I like the dorky ones like the Museum of Natural History (1/2/3 to 79th Street) and the Intrepid (46th Street on the Hudson River).

The UN Building is falling apart (they are trying to find a place right now to stick all the delegates so they can do massive renovations), but you can check that out if you want.  You can walk there from Grand Central (it's a little bit northwest).

Again, this is dorky, but I like Midtown Comics in Times Square.  There is also a sweet kebab place on the floor beneath it.

That should be a start.

[Saucemaster]

If you drink, and like vodka, check out the Russian Vodka Room (265 W. 52nd).  I go there almost every time I visit NYC (I have a New Yorker friend who's always looking for an excuse to go).  No windows, tons of vodkas, live piano, and there are always like four Russians in a corner in suits who look like they're Russian mafia.  I'm sure they're not, but it's much more fun to let your imagine run wild.

I second JP's recommendation of St. Mark's.  Good bookstores in the area there, too.

[Jacob Orlove]

Oh yeah, the Museum of Natural History is great.

[jpmeyer]

More stuff I remembered at work:

The best pizza in NYC is generally considered to be either at Grimaldi's (underneath the Brooklyn bridge) or John's of Bleecker Street (Greenwich Village).

There are tons of free activities (concerts, movies, etc.) at Central Park during the summer, so check a schedule to see if anything is going on while you'll be there.  The zoo there is fun, but obviously not nearly as good as the Bronx Zoo.

Since you will probalby have to go there to transfer subways at some point, it's actually probably worth just walking around in Grand Central Station.

[The M.E.T.H.O.D]

Money, BRING LOTS OF IT.


Your going to see A TON of awsome stuff your going to want to get.

There's soooooo much awsome random shit in NYC im suprised its not spilling out onto the streets.

As always be careful and bring it only in traveler's checks, or like a credit card. (make sure you have your companies phone number in your luggage or something.)

[BigMac]

It is only 5 days away now and i am counting the days till lift off. If anybody has something to add the allready busload of info i need to get compiled onto a usable list, now is the time.

I will give some sort of journeyreport after i get back in September.

[Purple Hat]

meh, this is probably too late but Molly's which is between 22nd and 23rd on 3rd ave has some of the best burgers I've ever eaten and good beer as well.

Hale

[BigMac]

first update on our NY trip.

We have incredible weather and have seen some really nice sites. Untill now we have done the usual tourist things but will go on discouvering all sorts of other things.

Thanks for all of you who have given us hints and tips for this incredible city. We are really enjoying ourselves and will be doing a lot of the stuff you all told us to do.

So yes it was in time and e will probably be trying the burgers there. Untill next time I salute you all.

Marco

PS incredible library here

[BigMac]

As the library was almost always busy and we didn't have a lot of time in the internetcafes, i decided to give the final update at home. Yeah people i am home again.

I have had a fabulous holiday in NYC. Thanks to all the people that were willing to help out and actually gave me pointers what to do and what not to do.

We finally found Molly's and i must admit, really good burger. Arguably the best burger i ever had. (and i have had a few)

We went to Plataforma the last night of our trip after going to Chicago (which was to the back of our hotel as we had our hotel on 50th between Broadway and 8th) as it was only a two minute walk and after have to much to eat a 5 minute walk to our hotel. We had a very nice and good meal but the atmosphere is more something to go to with a bigger group as you will divide your mealsome more and so you can eat more getting more worth for your money. When i ever go to NYC for a tourny with friends we will definitely go there.

We also went to see the Shakespeare free theater after spending five hours in the waiting cue. We meat some nice people (hi Kevin and Emily if you would ever be reading this) and actually did get tickets and fully enjoyed us there.

We also went to see a Yankee game. They didn't do so well. (it was the 9-5 loss against the blue jays ((() We had really nice (but expensive) seats and we fully enjoyed it as we didn't really care who won. The pinch hitter home run was nice though in the last inning with 2 out. (scoring 3 points to get to five before it was over the next hitter) I really admire guys like that, doing nothing all game and when needed still deliver, bow deeply.

BTW, what is up with the tip regulations in some of the (mostly Italian) restaurants. I like to decide wheather or not to tip myself but some require you to tip, and then 15 20 percent of what your original fee was. Not to talk of the one in little Italy that allready had the tip included on the fee. Does anybody have a clue why that is or is that mandatory or something.

The for those of you who have no idea what i am talking about when i say Carnegie's deli, go there and take the pastrami sandwich and be blown away. That is one hell of a sandwhich. If i remember correctly he is on the corner of 54th and broadway, but could be 55th. Anyways, it is close to Carnegie hall, when you are there just walk down Broadway and look it on the right side. (when walking down from central park)

We saw a whole lot of nice, very nice and beautiful things. It is probably to much to tell all here as i will probably forget a lot of things, but it was well worth it and if you look carefully and do not spend blindly it doesn't need to be that expensive.

Thanks again for all the people that helped us discover NYC and for those that go after me, have fun, as it is easy to have there.

Marco

PS i still really like the library building on 42nd and 5th, the one at Bryant park, it really is worth to walk through and just gawk.

[Bram]

BTW, what is up with the tip regulations in some of the (mostly Italian) restaurants. I like to decide wheather or not to tip myself but some require you to tip, and then 15 20 percent of what your original fee was. Not to talk of the one in little Italy that allready had the tip included on the fee. Does anybody have a clue why that is or is that mandatory or something.

I have no idea if the following is true for the USA, but I know that in some countries the waiter/waitress is dependant on the tips for (a large part of) his/her salary. Over here, tipping is voluntary since they're paid full wages. A tip you give to someone over here is just a nice bonus, which you might give if you particulalry appreciated the service you recieved, and it will often end up in a jar with which some yearly employee party is paid or something. I can imagine that tipping is made mandatory if it is the primary source of income for the people bussing tables.

The fact that the fee is included on the bill could also be viewed 'the other way around' as in: it's on the bill here, too, except you don't see it. Know what I mean?

Anyway, glad you're back & had a good time!

[Jacob Orlove]

In a lot of places in the US, people waiting tables earn far less than minimum wage, because they're expected to make up the rest with tips. Places will often have mandatory "gratuity" fees for large parties, and sometimes for everyone.