Gav

Well, my first visit to the good ol' US of A is over and certainly some of my ideas of what it would be like have been blown away.

[LIST][*]I certainly didn't see as many burger-eating fatties as I expected.:blush: In fact, the majority of people I saw were fairly fit (including a lot of joggers). There were fast-food places and coffee bars all over the place, but they all had the calorie content of everything printed too.[*]Before I left, I read a report that said that the Subway is now only used by the "under-classes" as the "normal" people don't feel safe using it any more. On the recommendation of the hotel concierge, I gave it a try and it was full of tourists and commuters. :confused: Not to mention that it was fast, reliable, clean and the carriages were twice the size of our London tubes.[*]Gas-guzzlers! Well, there were quite a lot of 4x4s and people carriers, but there were also a lot of hybrids, including clean-air/hybrid bendy buses.[*]Having seen a few films etc where "jay-walking" seemed to be taken very seriously, I was quite cautious when walking through the city. It didn't take long until I saw people crossing in dodgy places, right in front of Police cars so I could relax about that one![*]The "accent" and "have a nice day". I didn't find that quite as annoying as I though I would. I got a few comments from people about loving the British accent, but not as much as I was led to expect. :rolleyes:[*]Grid-pattern streets. Although the naming conventions could have been more sensible and it's not entirely a grid pattern, it's soooo much easier to find your way around NY than it is London.[/LIST]
Overall, just a mostly nice city. Similar to London in that if you look above street level, there's so much more to see. Comparatively, I'd say it seemed cleaner, easier to get around and slightly friendlier than London. If I had to move there or work there for a while, I certainly wouldn't consider it a bad thing.