As soon as the famous silhouettes of skyscrapers shining with millions of windows appeared against the night sky on the way from Kennedy Airport, my heart trembled. It was so beautiful and so unlike anything that it was simply breathtaking. This is probably the most important thing that can be said about one of the most popular cities in the United States — it is like nothing else. The city is so different from everything that I have seen before, and these were Ukrainian, Russian and European cities, that they could not even be compared with each other. It seems that New York was built by representatives of an alien civilization. And the triumph of the human mind is felt here like nowhere else.
Raising your head, you see that the New York skyscrapers, including the Empire State Building, Trump Tower and Rockefeller Center, end somewhere in the clouds, and helicopters hover over the streets in the gaps between them. No wonder, because almost every «high-rise» has a helipad. Along with skyscrapers, the streets of Manhattan amaze with cleanliness and well-groomedness. Before the trip, I often heard that there are very few trees in New York, they say, this is a city of glass and concrete. There are really few trees there, but one must see what love and care each of them is surrounded by. Many of them grow in special boxes, ornamental cabbage is planted on the lawn around the tree, in addition, all the trees of Manhattan are twined with electric garlands with white bulbs. In the evening they are lit, and the atmosphere on the streets immediately becomes festive.
The windows of New York shops, as they say on such occasions, amaze the imagination. Recently, many expensive stores have also appeared in Moscow and Kyiv, but there are more of them in Manhattan and, as it were, so as not to offend anyone, they are more luxurious, or something. These are expensive Fifth Avenue stores, including the famous Sachs, and masmarket stores, and stock shops where you can buy a coat from Donna Karan from this year's collection.
Another distinguishing feature of New York is the exceptional friendliness of its people. Here people smile everywhere – on the streets, in the hotel, restaurants, cafes and shops. I want to say especially about the latter. After the general rudeness of domestic cashiers and sellers (in the supermarket next to my house, this, in my opinion, is the main condition for hiring), the courtesy of the local merchants is simply stunning. As soon as you go into a small shop, they immediately rush to meet you with the question “How can I help you?” When at the Disney store on Fifth Avenue I couldn't make out the amount I should pay at the cash register (New York English is sometimes very difficult to understand), they simply unrolled the cash register for me.
But most of all I was struck by the case in the supermarket. On Sunday morning there were very few people there — there were three or four people in the whole huge hall, no more. When I got to the cash register, a woman was already paying. I patiently lined up behind her, for our buyer and ten people is not a queue. But the cashier, seeing me, shouted something into the back room, and the second cashier immediately came out. To serve me! As they say, no comment. However, in Manhattan, rudeness simply does not exist in nature: even if you can be offended only theoretically, they are already apologizing to you. in advance. And the usual “Where are you going!” you won't hear it here. Well, maybe only in Brighton, but I didn't get there.
The famous Central Park is a real paradise in the city center. It is beautiful at any time of the year, but especially in autumn. Here you can spend the whole day, the benefit is where to dine or drink coffee. Here you can go ice skating on an outdoor rink and go boating on the lake named after Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis. Here, horses harnessed to carts decorated with plumes and paper flowers ride along the paths, and huge gray squirrels languidly jump across the lawns, not frightened by anyone, and therefore phlegmatic and trusting. Central Park occupies 340 hectares and has existed since 1853, when the city authorities bought the land from private owners and landscaped it. Since then, there have been many developers who want to buy the territory from the city and build skyscrapers on it, but fortunately for all of us this did not happen.
The local cuisine deserves special attention. It's almost impossible to starve to death in New York. You can satisfy your hunger here literally on every corner, moreover, for every taste and budget. From roasted chestnuts and McDonalds sold right on the streets (by the way, they are not at all like our clean restaurants, rather, ordinary eateries) to expensive restaurants with linen tablecloths, silverware and collectible china. To match the interior and accessories and kitchen. In expensive restaurants, you will be fed fish under a salt shell. But perhaps the most delicious thing I had a chance to taste in New York was the Caesar salad at JFK airport.
There was still time before the plane, so we went to one of the many restaurants located there — a real tavern in the Wild West. The food there was served on huge plates and it was truly American — incredibly harmful (one solid cholesterol), terribly high-calorie and just terribly tasty.
There are practically no colored cars in New York, mostly black and white cars drive here. This is probably why the traditional yellow taxis can be seen from afar. And in order to “catch” them (it can be difficult during rush hour), city residents go out … to the middle of the street and wave their hands. Many streets in Manhattan are «one way», that is, with one-way traffic. Even here, no one rushes at extreme speed, you don’t hear loud music from the windows of cars and the squeal of brakes. New York drivers are law-abiding, they almost never exceed the speed limit. And there are no red-yellow-green traffic lights here.
Walking around New York is better in sneakers or, if you get there in the summer, light shoes without heels. Firstly, New York distances simply cannot be overcome on model shoes. And secondly, the majority of Manhattan residents don't wear heels.
Don't lose your financial vigilance. Faced with prices, you very quickly cease to realize that they are indicated in dollars. We, who are accustomed to recalculate all prices in dollars, for some reason stop doing reverse financial transactions overseas. As a result, we spend much more.
Prices for goods in the USA are indicated without VAT, so when calculating, the cashier announces you a slightly higher price than what is written on the price tag. Keep this in mind so as not to get into an unpleasant situation.
