Home Travel Inspiration

3 things they never tell you about New York

Even if we've never set foot inside New York ourselves, American movies and TV have instilled in us a vague familiarity of the city that never sleeps, so much so that we may think we already know it.

Even if we’ve never set foot inside New York ourselves, American movies and TV have instilled in us a vague familiarity of the city that never sleeps, so much so that we may think we already know it.

Recently, I finally got to discover what all the big fuss was over the Big Apple.

Here are three things that I found out about New York that no one ever seems to tell you about…

 

1. There are hardly any public toilets

giphy-3

via giphy.com

Seriously, finding a public loo in New York is a nightmare – they just aren’t that many around. Even most train stations lack public facilities, which is just insane! ATMs, on the other hand, are literally everywhere…

So where to regular New Yorkers go to pee when they’re not at home, school or at work? Turns out most rely on chains like Starbucks and fast food restaurants to relieve themselves. So the next time you’re in New York, make sure you go before you leave your hotel, and take every opportunity you can as a paying customer to go to the loo, because once you’re outside, it’s going to be a struggle.

Luckily there’s a cool website that you can use in those times of frantic searching.

 

2. Everyone is actually really nice

giphy-1

via giphy.com

For a city clocking over 8 million souls, you wouldn’t expect New Yorkers to be so darn nice and friendly, especially when navigating through crowds of camera toting tourists is a daily struggle.

But this isn’t the case at all. New Yorkers are actually very respectful and helpful with each other, especially to tourists, and although they may look like they’re totally stressed out (and they probably are), they’ll still help you with directions with a smile and go out of their way to help you.

 

3. Brooklyn is HUUUUUGE

giphy-2

via giphy.com

When I first heard of Brooklyn, I thought it was about the size of a suburb – kind of like a slightly bigger Fitzroy or Brunswick. But hell no. Brooklyn is MASSIVE, sizing in at over 180 square kilometres with around 2.5 million people calling the borough home.

Brooklyn is so big, in fact, that it was its own city, it’d be the fourth largest in the USA.

Were you surprised with anything that you uncovered in New York?