New York 2001
Post-Trip Thoughts
2001, Christian Sauvé
Total Expenses (as far as I can obsessively remember)
| Pre-Trip | |
| 1.00$ Can. | Larousse New York Tour Book |
| 464.55$ Can. | Ottawa Valley Tour New York Package (929.10$/2) |
| 13.79$ Can. | Black's, Passport photo |
| 60.00$ Can. | Passport Office: New Passport |
| 15.00$ Can. | Various Snacks for Trip (Chips, fruits, soft drinks) |
| Day 1 | |
| 7.43$ US | Lunch: Ponderosa: buffet + Mountain Dew |
| 5.10$ US | Tickets from/to Teanack/New York (2.55$ US each) |
| Day 2 | |
| 1.00$ US | Tour Guide Tip |
| 15.00$ US | Lunch: Applebee's: Applebee Burger + tax + tip |
| 24.87$ US | Entertainment Outlet: 3 music CDs + tax |
| 4.50$ US | Ben & Jerry's Pineapple & Banana Smoothie + tax |
| Day 3 | |
| 1.50$ US | Subway token |
| 20.00$ US | Lunch: Florio's: Sauce-Sausage-Mozzarella Pizza + tax/tip |
| 12.99$ US | Barnes & Noble: 1 book + tax |
| 3.00$ US | Supper: Street Vendor: Hot Sausage + Welch Pop Can |
| 1.00$ US | Snack: Hotel: Pepsi Pop Can |
| Day 4 | |
| 1.58$ US | Breakfast: McDonald, Chocolate Milk Shake + tax |
| 5.50$ US | Lunch: Arby's, Swiss Cheeseburger + tax |
| 1.00$ US | Snack: Duty-Free Shop: Mountain Dew Bottle |
| 4.00$ US | Driver / Tour Director tip |
| 1.60$ Can. | Ottawa/Orleans Bus Ticket |
555.94$ Can + (108.47$ US * ~1.50 exchange = 162.70 $ Can) = 718.64 $ Can.
Add to that an inevitable 25$ in inevitable bank charges and other silly costs I have probably forgotten, and you still end up for a darn fine trip to New York for less than 750$, which stands for pretty good deal. If you've got a passport, won't buy useless books or CDs and can effectively plan a weekend's worth of snacks, you can get by with much less.
Must-see sights:
- Broadway in general, Times Square in particular
- Central Park
- Grand Central Station
- The intersection of Wall St and Broadway
- The skyline from the Brooklyn Bridge
Parting thoughts:
New York is an amazing town. Everything is bigger and more expensive than anywhere else I've seen so far. The density of cultural landmarks is remarkable, and the sights are truly exceptional. Even if our lighting weekend visit most probably didn't give us a good feel for the working, living New York, we saw enough to get a good feel for it.
By the same logic, though, New York is one city that's despicably overstuffed with people. While we're told that things have improved, the heat, grime, humidity, rotten odors and overall feel of claustrophobia can quickly annoy; it's no accident if we found our peace and quiet in Central Park, and stopped at all the other parks we could find. Fabulous place to visit, but there's no way you're going to convince me to live there.
This being said, it's a certitude that I will eventually go back. While I don't feel particularly concerned about missing the Statue of Liberty or not climbing the Empire State Building, we did miss out on several astonishing museums that, if we believe the guides, could easily gobble up a day's worth of time each. It's also a shame that we couldn't get inside the New York Public Libraries, but that'll just give us another reason to go back. On that second visit, I'd probably also like to spend some more time walking through the neighbourhoods (Upper East Side and Greenwich Village spring to mind), preferably during the week rather than the weekend.
(I didn't come across any deep understanding of Americans during the trip, though I might have had an epiphany of sorts while stuck in the traffic and staring as a religious sign; the reason that Americans have embraced religious fundamentalism might not be a function of how they were attracted to it by itself as much as it is a reaction to other opposite violent extremisms. Remove "the filth of the world", and fundamentalism becomes hollow. Canadians, probably through a more homogeneous ethnicity from the beginning, have seldom had to deal with irreconcilable differences. That's why most Canadians tend to be deeply committed to a center political ideology without excesses. Americans, unfortunately, tend to polarize the debate and paint alternatives as either-or. How many Democrats exist solely in opposition and reaction to Republicans, and vice versa?)
I should probably take a moment to pat Karine and myself on the back for a job well-done. We embarked on this whole adventure with a clear idea of what we wanted to do and see, and by and large achieved everything we'd set out for. We did our homework, didn't make many stupid mistakes, didn't spend too much money, slogged on like troopers even though we were often bone-tired and managed to get along famously well with each other -almost non-stop- for four days. Whew!
Needless to say; if you're reading this and haven't yet been to New York City, well, what are you waiting for?