If you're going to NY for the first time: 5 things you need to know

This week I found a stack of old Marie Claires. Despite the weather, I still had spring cleaning urges. I found that impressive myself and as it goes, my cleaning attempt immediately stranded because I drowned in all the stories and memories. One of them was a foreword I wrote about New York in which I ‘famously’ mentioned that I had only been to New York for the first time at the age of 34. And that while I did master the English language in speech and writing, had an income that could afford a trip there, and had no fear of flying. So why hadn't I been there? I have made up for the lost time quite a bit and I think that New York – after Paris – is among my list of most visited cities. Because there are quite a few unwritten rules in the Big Apple, I’ll share them with you.

1. Just the pronunciation

Greenwich is pronounced as Grennitsj and not as Green-witch. Houston is pronounced as Hauston. SoHo is South of Houston. Houstoen (Joeston) is a city in Texas.

2. Then the directions

Downtown does not mean the center in New York. It means either the direction in which you (or the traffic) are moving. Uptown is northward, downtown is southward. The area in New York that you label as Downtown is everything below 14th Street. Uptown is everything above 59th Street (and chic, hence the song Uptown Girl) and Midtown lies between 14th and 59th Street.

3. It’s not rude…

…but New Yorkers don’t really look at each other on the street. I think it’s their way of living with a lot of people on relatively little ground without bothering each other. That’s why they often walk around with their earbuds in and you see them quite animatedly gesticulating with someone on the phone, which, at least I thought, looks quite odd. It seems like everyone moves in their own microbubble next to each other. Saying ‘Good morning’ to someone else is, even if you pass someone on a quiet street, really quite unusual. That doesn’t mean they are rude, though. If you approach someone, they will be very willing to help you.

4. Walk fast

New Yorkers do a lot of walking and because time is money, they walk fast. On busy sidewalks, unwritten ‘fast lane’ rules apply. Fast walkers walk on the left side of the sidewalk, if you want to take it a bit slower and do some window staring, you walk on the right side of the sidewalk. Don’t take an extensive photo of your friend on a busy sidewalk, they don’t like that. If you’re biking, the same rules apply. Keep to the right, because New Yorkers will zoom past you and find it really annoying if you take up the whole bike lane.

5. Public transport

I’m a spoiled creature and prefer to move above ground rather than underground (otherwise I would have become a mole), so I prefer to take a taxi (if its light is on, it’s free and no, you don’t have to shout ‘taxi‘, just raising your hand is enough), but the subway works really well. If you want to take it often, I recommend buying an unlimited pass for seven days. It costs a little more than thirty dollars and then you’re covered for the whole week. I’m a fan of the bike plan. Swipe your credit card and grab a bike. Just be careful to return it regularly to a bike docking station, otherwise the costs can skyrocket. I once biked to Brooklyn and kept two bikes ’loose‘ for a day. The next day I was called by American Express to confirm if it was true that I had rented bikes for two hundred dollars. They had never experienced that before, of course.

Anyway. Have fun. Just click on the thumbs up below if you found it helpful, and if you have any tips… you know where to find us. Bye!