"Gotham city" a New York City Travel Page by Samanthi

New York is the only city I have visited more than once as a tourist. Will go again as long as the dollar remains low for shopping. And yeah yeah some old ghosts from my previous life happens to reside here.

First trip was an adventure. Trying to figure out how the subway happens here. You need to be prepared to climb up and down loads of stairs and it can be extremely hot and incredibly noisy in the summer. Its not an easy task to figure out the subway map. Most of all you need to take a note of the schedules during weekends . Some lines will become express and will not stop in mid town. This happened to us the first time and we were out in East Harlem. West Harlem is completely safe but East should be avoided as a tourist I was told. We walked all the way from East to West Harlem like two brave soldiers. Thankfully there was a cop who kept an eye and followed us until we reached the West part.

People were friendly and open. We were invited by a couple we briefly met in a pub for a members only event at Tavern on the Green. This was a fun event if you are into Salsa dancing. We had a good time meeting stranges and all that dancing etc

Second visit was all about shopping , seeing old ghosts, enjoying blues and Jazz. We stayed two nights with Dave and his wife in Queens. He knew NYC inside out and showed us some hidden gems.

Most frustrating thing was that 80% of the phone booths were out of order. And there is no indication as to whatsoever to know that you are accessing something dead. You will be dialing and re-dialing for 30 minutes……I was told by a native that these are for the use of homeless or the poor and just few tourists. Therefore lack of maintenance.