In stark contrast to the rudeness that we encountered from service providers,
the 'average Joe' on the streets of New York was very helpful and polite. For
example, whenever we got our map out on the subway or on the street two or
three people would immediately offer help with directions. On one occasion in
Central Park a young man approached us and started telling us what there
was to see in the park. He had been attracted to us by our British accents and
used the excuse of providing information as a means of trying out his ‘English’
on us, using such common place British phrases as 'Jolly good.' It really is
hard to keep laughing after the 50th time....
Interactions such as this with 'real' people were at least as interesting and
memorable as visiting such famous landmarks as the Statue of Liberty. We
made a concerted effort to visit places that were off the tourist path. On our
first day in the Big Apple we spent the morning in the Empire State Building,
(the one foggy morning in a week of blue skies – good choice!) but the
afternoon walking around Greenwich Village. This walk included one of our
highlights of the week, watching canines and humans socialising together at
the local Dog Park. It was very entertaining observing the smallest dog trying
to 'make friends' with all the other, bigger dogs - or in fact with anything that
moved. We would have been happy to stay there all afternoon but wanted to
follow a walking tour through the Village before it got dark. The walk was
lovely and included our first proper look at the Hudson river and the Statue of
Liberty, unfortunately the walk also took longer than we were expecting and
night did catch up with us while we were still deep in the Meat Packing District