Travel Stories and Advice

[corncobman]

Yes, but it would be difficult to tell whether or not it's pre-New-Coke-Coke or post-New-Coke-Old-Coke.

I didn't upload pictures of me or my family but if I'm thinking of whether I want to posting them in here or not.
Hmmmm...

[Auxivele]

Your pictures give me this huge amount of second-hand excitement.

[Cancvas]

To big apple and back

Basically experiences could be divided to three things, the good, the bad and the what. I'm not going to sights, becaus everyone can just google those if they like, more on these daily occurences.
 
Good things were surprisingly clean city, despite of the size, and general feeling of safety, we did not encounter aggressive or threatening behaviour at all. Naturally there was quite bit to see and not all could be visited at once. People in general were nicely indifferent, nobody was pushy on sales, and street service vendors (like bike rentals, hop-hop busses etc) took polite "No thanks." with grace. Also, to foreingner inequality seemed to be rather nonexistent to casual observation, everyone being part of same society. Subway was surprisingly good (=excellent) way to move about, especially to one who's not used to public transportation actually to be reasonably working option. Also ease of finding clothes of appropiate size.

Bad things were excessive (unseasonal they said) hot spell on weather, rush hours in trafic and at sights where standing in line was norm and when weather took turned to hot, appearance of homeless. Very little these, comparad to expectation built on education at eighties, based on information from seventies.

There were quite few of these "What?" experiences. Tips? Like... every time?  On this narrow range of 15 to 20%? Ok... and a pro tip from guide, double the tax to be in ballpark. Also size of food protions delivered. Triple size we're used to. Everyone was with this "Sir" ... like in every other sentence or so. Polite but wierd. Subway show bits... breakdance and italian opera, just like that, on moving train. Chronic (unnatural) smile on TV news achors... just wierd, not in good way. A lady asking me about nearest organic veggie restaurant on subway station ... like I would know "Sorry, I'm not a local." Paying with credit card... like it's been decade since I last signed card payment manually, or any other method than pin. Or if there was complication just an casual "try an other" ... like who has more than one credit card? Everyone in US it seems.

Well... that was New York City from point of wied of one finnish person. All in all, it was nice place, not an overbearing or pushy.

-C

[fija]

Oh I have so many strange stories from travelling. My family has never had a trip abroad that didn’t require using health insurance :'D
My advice I guess: ALWAYS pay for (good) insurance. You can’t count on your luck.

[urbicande]

To big apple and back

Basically experiences could be divided to three things, the good, the bad and the what. I'm not going to sights, becaus everyone can just google those if they like, more on these daily occurences.
 
Good things were surprisingly clean city, despite of the size, and general feeling of safety, we did not encounter aggressive or threatening behaviour at all. Naturally there was quite bit to see and not all could be visited at once. People in general were nicely indifferent, nobody was pushy on sales, and street service vendors (like bike rentals, hop-hop busses etc) took polite "No thanks." with grace. Also, to foreingner inequality seemed to be rather nonexistent to casual observation, everyone being part of same society. Subway was surprisingly good (=excellent) way to move about, especially to one who's not used to public transportation actually to be reasonably working option. Also ease of finding clothes of appropiate size.

Bad things were excessive (unseasonal they said) hot spell on weather, rush hours in trafic and at sights where standing in line was norm and when weather took turned to hot, appearance of homeless. Very little these, comparad to expectation built on education at eighties, based on information from seventies.

There were quite few of these "What?" experiences. Tips? Like... every time?  On this narrow range of 15 to 20%? Ok... and a pro tip from guide, double the tax to be in ballpark. Also size of food protions delivered. Triple size we're used to. Everyone was with this "Sir" ... like in every other sentence or so. Polite but wierd. Subway show bits... breakdance and italian opera, just like that, on moving train. Chronic (unnatural) smile on TV news achors... just wierd, not in good way. A lady asking me about nearest organic veggie restaurant on subway station ... like I would know "Sorry, I'm not a local." Paying with credit card... like it's been decade since I last signed card payment manually, or any other method than pin. Or if there was complication just an casual "try an other" ... like who has more than one credit card? Everyone in US it seems.

Well... that was New York City from point of wied of one finnish person. All in all, it was nice place, not an overbearing or pushy.

-C

We only got chip-and-pin in the US a couple of years ago.  (Interestingly, when I travel in Europe I need to sign for my US card; it won't accept the PIN)

As far as "foreigner inequality" -- NYC is a very international city.  We get everyone coming from all over the world all the time, so we don't really have a "you're from <X> so you're not as good" thing here.

[Cancvas]

We only got chip-and-pin in the US a couple of years ago.  (Interestingly, when I travel in Europe I need to sign for my US card; it won't accept the PIN)

As far as "foreigner inequality" -- NYC is a very international city.  We get everyone coming from all over the world all the time, so we don't really have a "you're from <X> so you're not as good" thing here.

Chip card is nice, and I've recently warmed to NFC payment, nice for small transactions and doesn't require PIN (all the time). I was bit surprised as our guide told, that bills are paid by posting cheques in snailmail... where as nowdays here getting paper bill in post cost extra and everything is expected to done in net bank (e-mail bills are dropping off from the use).

Yes, it was comfortable, the internationalness. Still bit 'acclimation' was needed.
-C

[urbicande]

Chip card is nice, and I've recently warmed to NFC payment, nice for small transactions and doesn't require PIN (all the time). I was bit surprised as our guide told, that bills are paid by posting cheques in snailmail... where as nowdays here getting paper bill in post cost extra and everything is expected to done in net bank (e-mail bills are dropping off from the use).

Yes, it was comfortable, the internationalness. Still bit 'acclimation' was needed.
-C

Some bills are paid that way, yes.  I think I write about 3 cheques per year now, all of them for charitable donations. 

What actually boggles me is that I have my car loan set to automatic payment from my bank to the bank holding the loan, and apparently THAT payment is made by my bank writing a physical cheque and mailing it to the other bank.  I only discovered this when a payment was marked as not made, which just boggled me -- how could a bank-to-bank payment not be made? (Apparently the receiving bank, a small one, isn't set up for bank-to-bank transfers.  Unbelievable!).  When I lived in London, OTOH, I never even had paper cheques?  For what? Everything was paid by bank transfer and direct debit!