Tuesday, June 03, 2014

New York State of Mind

Rebecca and I were in New York City last week, something we hadn't done together in many years.  I had a long list of things I'd like to do, but as I look back, most of our time was spent riding subways, walking to subways, looking for subways, turning around at the wrong entrances and walking from subways to some mystifying address.

Of course, this wasn't all that we did.  We also spent quite a bit of time deciphering subway maps. And being technologically savvy, we frequently gazed in confusion at Google Maps on our cell phones or iPad. Sometimes, for a change of pace, we turned on the audible walking directions. But since the decibel level on a Manhattan sidewalk is only slightly less than a Deep Purple concert I went to in high school, we couldn't hear a thing.  (By the way, if you reply "What?" or "Huh?" to the Google Maps Navigation, it just ignores you. Very rude.)

And sometimes we just walked around and looked at things, or at people, which there are a lot of in Manhattan.

Lest anyone think our trip was uneventful, that's far from true. We also stepped out and tried something new--using the fast-growing Uber transportation service.  Uber-driving seems to be a very popular new career for Eastern European emigrants. One of the benefits of Uber over taxis is that now the driver and I have each other's cell phone numbers, in case we want to get together for some stroganov and pickled herring.

We did some other stuff, too, but I don't recall what it was.