Bus Tour Vs Cruise Ship (Europe)

When I took my Mediteranean cruise on the Norwegian Epic last year some friends mentioned that it sounded like a great way to see Europe.  Having done Europe by bus tour, cruise and a bit of independent travel I thought I would write about the pros and cons of a bus tour verses a cruise ship.

Disclaimer: the experience you have on any cruise or bus tour will vary greatly based on the company you use, countries you visit and the experience you book.  You can't compare a Disney Adventure tour for thousands of dollars a person with an inside cabin on a budget cruise ship.  I will attempt to go with the middle of the line for both catagories for fairness sake. Think outside or balcony cabin on a mainstream cruise line like Carnival, Royal Caribbean or NCL and of a tour company along the lines of Trafalgar or Cosmos.

Accomodations:  If you're looking for space this category is going to a bus tour, if you're looking for a nice new room, then I would give this to the cruise ship.  Cruise ships have notoriously small rooms, with even smaller bathrooms.  However, they tend to make good use of space and tend to get refirbished every few years.  You'll also have twice daily service to your room on a cruise ship.  Hotels in europe tend to be very mixed.  I've stayed in some really nice Holiday Inn's in Germany and England.  But I've stayed in some old crappy hotels with weird layouts in Italy.  Hotel standards in Europe are very different then in the US, cruise cabins, although small, tend to be more in line with US standards.

Food:  I'll give this one to Cruise Ships, as far as included meals go.  First, you get a much wider variety of food (and a menu), often on a tour you get what they make and put in front of you, or maybe a choice of 2 different meals.  On a cruise for every meal you can have as much food as you want, and often 5-10 choices of food.  And if one of those choices isn't appealing to you the kitchen can usually come up with something for you.  You have choices of buffet, sit down dining, room service.  Tour food is usually made by a local restaurant or the hotel and can vary greatly.  One place will make a bland chicken with some veggies.  The next place may make a homemade local specialty, this may be better then cruise ship food, but it's not guaranteed every night either.

Both cruise lines and tour companies will cater to those with special diets, results may vary.

Traveling Experience:  I'll give this one to the cruise ship.  Sitting on a cramped bus isn't fun, though it's not bad either.  On the cruise ship, any cruise ship, you'll be more comfortable and there will be activities, shows, swimming, or taking a nap in a bed.  But, you do miss out on the cultural experience of traveling by land, but I'll talk about that later. Even worse, you miss seeing the countryside.  Of course the traffic in the ocean is typically better then on highways at rush hour.

Cultural Experience:  While this will depend on a lot of factors I'm giving this one to bus tours. I think that cruise ships tend to put people in more of a bubble then a bus tour (which does creates its own bubble), when you're living in the country, you can't avoid the culture. I'll talk about this later, but on a tour you'll typically spend more time in cities or towns.

When driving from destination to destination you'll stop at rest stops or shopping centers for your breaks.  Anyone who has tried to navigate an Autogrill in Italy knows the food is good, but the process is confusing.  And you don't mind paying for the toilet in Germany when it's self cleaning. 

At hotels you often have to deal with the hotel staff, who are locals.  On a cruise you're dealing wtih cruise ship staff who are generally trained to be as helpful as possible and they're from all over the world - but rarely from the destination you're visiting.  When you're staying in a hotel, the staff typically lives locally, and although they are usually helpful, they'll also know the local area and customs.  It can be subtle, but staying in a hotel gives a greater opportunity to interact with a local person instead of a cruise line employee. I will admit though that the hotels you stay at are used to and geared for tourists so they're not necessarily authentic experiences, they just give a better opportunity, even if it's just a simple conversation with a hotel desk clerk about local cuisine.  You'll also have the opportunity to walk around the area of the hotel.

The biggest variation with this category will be what you do when you're in port.  If you're going to take an excursion (from the cruise line or independently) you're often ushered from site to site to site.  The best chance you'll have for a cultural experience will be from your tour guide, you don't typically have much other opportunity to interact with people outside your tour.  On a bus tour you'll usually get a city tour and then be on your own to explore, taking local transport or your feet from point to point.  However, if you're doing a port on your own you'll have a more similar experience to someone on a bus tour.

Finally, on a bus tour you'll be in the city overnight, this allows for a late night out, seeing a show, visiting bars and clubs - basically a chance to experience the nightlife of a city, you'll rarely get that opportunity on a cruise ship.

Time in your Destination: You're also typically in cities or towns longer on a bus tour.  Even on a fast paced tour you'll have a day and a half in a major city, sometimes more time.  On a cruise, you'll only typically be there for about 12 hours, which ends up being a lot less time when you need to factor in an hour or two of commute time from the port in cities like Rome and Florence. You have enough time to rush around and see the major sites and take nothing else in. 

Comfort and Ease:  I'll give this to a cruise.  You get on the ship, a few hours later your suitcase shows up, you unpack and are ready for your trip.  On a bus tour you're switching hotels every 1-3 nights.  Packing and unpacking - depending on the comforts of the tour you may have to drag your suitcase to and from your hotel room.  Instead of sitting in a bus for hours the cruise ship sails while you eat, sleep, drink and lay out at the pool sipping an umbrella drink. 

The choice of taking a bus tour or a cruise in Europe is a personal choice.  I have done both and they both have their advantages and disadvantages.  For anyone who wants to expereince the countries I think a bus tour is a better option (though independent travel would be best).  If you dream of seeing the major sites like The Colosseum, and The David then a cruise may be the better choice.  But no matter which you choose, expect to be tired at the end!

Don't forget you can follow me on Twitter: Travelingiraffe

My neat orderly world

Right now I'm reading the book One Year Off, a review will come shortly. I was reading the part about Rome and how the hotel keeper was letting them park thier van in front of the hotel for the night. What surprised me was, who is the hotel keeper to say they can park on the street? Where are the police? If you let people park wherever they want and let the hotel keepers manage the parking there will be chaos!

I've been to Rome (Egypt and Russia too) and it seems people park wherever they want. All of a sudden it hit me that maybe the Romans are right and the NYers are the crazy ones. We have "organized" parking, 80 street signs for one block. Everyone's paranoid about where you can park and for how long. Parking is stressful in NYC and expensive if you misread the sign. And then you get the people who live there who decide they don't want "x" vehicle in front of their building and lobby to change the parking rules. You can't win in NYC, it's a horror show. We've made it nearly impossible to have a car in NYC, and in some ways it's a good thing. But, for people who need to park it's a nightmare. But not labor the point of parking in large cities my point is that we do so many things to make things orderly that we make them un-orderly. We have a nice orderly system, but it's got a million holes in it that it's hard to call it a system, the same could be said for taxes and medical insurance and everything else we do to make life orderly. The chaos is astounding!

My experiences traveling have made me so much more aware of the chaos we create by trying to make things simple, and fair. Would the world be a better place if we let the guy who owns the business decide who can park in the spot in front of the business? Maybe or maybe not, but it would be a lot easier to determine where you could park, just ask the guy inside...

Language Barriers - Shopping at the grocery store

While traveling through Scandinavia we often bought food at grocery stores and would have picnic lunches, an inexpensive way to eat and healthier then eating fast food. It's also sometimes the only way to eat when there are no rest stops which was often the case in Northern Scandinavia. Scandinavians typically speak very good English, however when they label their food they use the local language, this is a problem when you're trying to buy your picnic lunch. The juice that had a name that sounded like apple was actually Orange Juice. And how does one distinguish between the different meats? Ask a local, though you may have to cluck to help them distinguish what the word chicken is. Ok, I never actually had to cluck, but I was never 100% sure that I was eating chicken instead of some other animal. I suppose that's part of the adventure of traveling - both figuring out what is what, and eating whatever the locals eat.

Men and Women in Egypt

When I went to Egypt everyone was concerned about how I would be treated, as a woman. I didn't have any trouble, though the men have a "strange" way of paying a compliment. "You are beautiful," or "I want to marry you" are first time greetings. At first it would make me feel uncomfortable until I started to realize that they don't prescribe to western ways of complimenting people or courting. Then I just went with the standard response of "I have a husband." It's just easier, but apparently my mythical husband is a lucky man. It's important to say that I never felt threatened nor did anyone on my tour. In the touristy areas I think the Egyptians are catching on to our cultural differences. When asked how many camels I was worth I was told 2 million, so they have a sense of humor too.

I did take note a bit of the roles of men and women too. Men and women were often segregated and men would hug and kiss as a greeting. We most often dealt with men - in the markets, restaurants and ancient sites. But occasionally you would see women working, often in higher end tourism - like hotels. But girls are girls no matter where you go. When we were in Aswan we ran into a group of girls in a field trip around the country. They were FASCINATED by the guys on the trip and wanted to get pictures with them. Eventually that wore off and they started to swarm me and it didn't help when I mentioned that I'm a Police Officer. They thought that was so cool. We had been told that Egypt tried to have women as Police Officers a couple years before but had to disband it after 2 years because the men didn't respect them enough. I felt like I gave them a glimpse of another world and maybe a bit of hope that somewhere or maybe in the future here that things can be different. It's also a reminder of why I'm glad I don't live in a Muslim country. I learned during the trip that woman are segregated for their own good (for lack of a better word), men apparently see women, get all hot for them and have to pray for those sins (and others) 5 times a day. Separating men and women can make it easier for the men to resist temptation. Egyptians see this as showing respect for women, and I think they honestly believe it, at least on some level. Whatever the reason it does also disenfranchise women in their culture whether intentional or not.

Evolution of a Traveler, Part 4

In 2007 I ventured off to Egypt, I wanted to see the pyramids. I found something much different when I was there. I liked seeing the pyramids and all the ancient stuff, but the difference in the culture was so dramatic, and often in a good way. The other thing I liked was that on this tour, which was with Contiki, we only had 20 people on it, the smaller tour size made a big difference. I should also mention that our tour guide was an Egyptian and he was amazing, really made us Westerners understand life in Egypt.

While cruising on the Nile we stopped in some smaller towns/cities. These places gave a glimpse of what life was like thousands of years ago. While technology has come here, there are satellite dishes everywhere, it's obvious some things have changed very little. I guess when you live in a small town and have little need to travel a donkey is just as good as a car. Also, if you live in a mud brick house you don't really need an air conditioner. Life seemed simpler. Even in Cairo things seemed simpler. Just build a building anywhere and don't finish it, then you don't have to pay taxes on it. It was pretty bizarre but it made sense once I had this conversation with Sherif, my Tour Manager:
Sherif: Poor people at home don't do that?
Me: No, you have to get a permit to do work. If you don't get a permit when you build you have to get it when you sell the house.
Sherif: Well here we just pass it down through the family, they don't sell it.
Me: Well then the neighbors might call and report you.
Sherif: That's not very nice.
I'm not ready to move to Egypt just yet, but I can appreciate keeping things simple. It seems that things just get more and more complicated here at home, and the more complicated things get the more there is a need to make new rules and regulations, making things more complicated.

My tour only had 20 people on it and we really jelled as a group. I wont tell you that everyone liked each other and that we were all one big happy family. But we were all friendly and everyone got along and many of us have continued to keep in contact in the past 2 years. I also felt like everyone in the group was always willing and able to help each other out. I think part of it had to do with being in Egypt, but also I felt that since we were a smaller group we got to know each other well and also had to count on each other a bit more. When I did my tours with groups of 50 people I did have good groups, but with the size it can be hard to get to know everyone (or easy to never get to know people), and even with a great group it's hard to really jell as an entire group, you're more likely to get cliques and they're more likely to isolate themselves from the group. After this tour I'm more interested in trying to do things with smaller groups. A friend of mine did a 38 day tour of SE Asia in 2006 with Intrepid Travel, which has small group tours, from his writing I like Intripid. Groups max out at 12 or 16 and the tour company tries to help you get to know the communities more then Contiki does, both pluses.

In my future travel I'm looking to either tour with smaller groups or to spend more time in one place. I think if my tour had rushed through Egypt more then it did (I was there 10 days), then I wouldn't have had a chance to get to know Egypt and the culture. Unfortunately, I have to work and I'm not rich in money so sometimes I have to compromise and that's why I like tours. They get you to see several different places in a short amount of time without wasting a lot of time.

Buying groceries

One great piece of advice I've always heard is to shop where the locals do. It's something kind of subtle, but can tell you about how others live and how it's different from how you live.

When I was in Scandinavia we went to a lot of grocery stores. Many were pretty typical - food, fruits, veggies, drinks, snacks. Then every now and then we would end up in a massive grocery store ya know the ones with lumber departments, clothing and all sorts of non-grocery stuff for sale. Wow, lumber, that was pretty impressive. It was so bizarre, if we had more time I probably could have done a lot of damage there, not on the lumber but on the myriad of other offerings. It threw me off a bit too, I would have expected Scandinavia to be more of a local store kinda place, not the type of place with big giant huge super stores.

Here in the US the closest thing to that would be a Wal-Mart - but groceries are just a section, it's not a grocery stores. Long Island and NYC don't have great Wal-Mart stores though. I hear in the mid-west they are HUGE and have pretty much anything you could ever need in them. I'm going to have to see one of these places one of these days.

Russia was totally different though. We didn't stop at many grocery stores, and I'm not totally sure if the grocery type places were typical grocery stores or just strange left overs from Communism. Everything in the store is behind a glass case and one of the workers gets each item that you need. The selection in the stores was poor, and the girl who I saw doing her nails behind the counter made me wonder about the sanitary issues. I opted to just get candy at that store. I guess when your country has communism and you need to create jobs for everyone, a labor intensive grocery store makes sense.

Belarus was a little different. The grocery store where I went reminded me of what a grocery store in the 70's or 80's in the US would have been like. It just didn't seem as sophisticated as grocery stores are today. The produce was weighed by a person in the produce section, then she would put a little sticker with the price on it on the produce. At the check out the person entered the prices for each item manually. I had exchanged 5 euro, but the prices were so cheap that I couldn't spend that much even when trying to spend the money. I probably spent about 2 euro worth on food and had a large bill, probably the equivalent of 3.50 euro. The girl could barely give me change, and I screwed up her drawer so much that she couldn't give change to my friend behind me. I was with 2 other girls and we played shuffle the money around so that we could each get our change for the groceries.

Shopping can be a great way to see how people really live, and it can help you eat on the cheap too. Next time you're away from home do some shopping with the locals, you might be surprised at what you find.

Returning to The West

Whenever traveling, no matter how far away, there are always cultural differences. It's always nice to come home to your bed, shower, your couch, English but the more dramatic the differences the nicer it can be to return home, or even just to The West.

My first experience with this was when I did my first trip to Europe. I traveled, in this order, to Amsterdam, the Rhine Valley, Munich, Austria, Venice, Rome, Florence, Lucerne, and Paris. At first I didn't mind learning different languages, and paying for bathrooms (some of which were a little sketchy) weren't so bad. But after speaking German for a couple days, then going to Italian, going back to German threw me off. By the time I had to learn a couple words of French I was totally thrown off, I had to resort to point and smile. Ahhh, the English language, it's a beautiful thing.

My next experience was going to Russia, there were a couple issues here. First, the salad... At home a salad has lettuce, tomato, cucumber, carrots and salad dressing give or take a few things. In Russia it was more like cucumber, tomato and dill - huh? What is that? Everyone tried to convince me "it's not wrong, it's just different." It was bad and I couldn't get over it. Next was the water... Rumor has it the water is "safe" in Moscow, but everywhere else it clearly wasn't. In St. Petersburg it had an odor to it. Is it worth it to take a shower when the water is dirtier then you? Ok, maybe it wasn't quite that bad, but we do think that one of the guys got an infection in his throat from brushing his teeth with the water there. In one "city" I didn't even bother with the shower, there was nothing promising about the place. And a piece of wood with a hole in the middle does not a toilet make, but then how do you get to it when their is a toxic scent around it? Poland is one of my favorite countries, it was "The West," my first stop after Belarus and Russia. There was fresh fruit, a really nice hotel, lettuce in my salad, safe water, proper bathrooms, and even though they spoke another language, most people spoke some English - it was almost as good as home - it was The West.

Fortunately, Egypt wasn't quite as bad, or maybe I was learning to appreciate the differences. The water, although questionable, at least seemed to be clean. Brushing your teeth with bottled water was a precaution not a health issue. They had proper salads along with different types of salads (with pastas and veggies), normal bathrooms were accessible. Egyptians generally spoke a good amount of English, especially when they were trying to sell you stuff at markets, not always a good thing. But Egypt was also dirty and sometimes looks strange since you often found buildings half built. It was nice to go home and see grass, not have everything covered in a layer of dirt and sand, and just know that you could go to the store and not be hounded to buy stuff by REALLY pushy people.

But what does it all come down to? Why travel to a place where you're uncomfortable and wishing for things from home? Without seeing these places you don't get to truly appreciate the things you have. How do you learn other ways of living without seeing them and digesting them. For all the things that may be uncomfortable you might find something that is better then you have it at home. How do you find out why people might want to go back to Communism without seeing how foreign Capitalism is to them?

World travel with Children

The other day I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, The K&K Podcast, and Kylie brought up a topic from a podcast she had recently listened to - the topic of traveling with children. The podcast is The Family From the Heart and in episode 50 they discuss Cliff's idea of traveling/living outside of the US with the whole family. They would sell everything and move to different places for 3-6 months each, for 2-3 years. The children would be around 7, 10 and 13 when the trip started. I listened to the podcast myself, it was the first one I had ever listened to so I don't know much about the family but the vibe was good.

This obviously isn't my typical type of topic to discuss, and I have no children so maybe I have no business discussing it, but I thought it was really interesting. I don't know if it's becoming more popular to do extensive travel with children, or if I'm just noticing it more, but it seems like it's getting more popular for Americans. There is a show Six for the Road about a family of 6 who bought an RV and are RVing around the country. The 6 in the World blog is about a family of 6 who sold everything and traveled around the world. When I was growing up a vacation was a weekend trip to Amish Country in Pennsylvania, this seems really fascinating to me. Ok, as a child we did take 2 cruises and go to Disney twice, but otherwise it was just Amish Country. It took me a long time to find out I had a passion for travel.

I think my concerns about it are that the oldest child will be a teenager, which is a time when kids really start to connect with their friends. But with technology today the oldest daughter would be able to keep in contact with friends. Also, I wonder if the youngest will be able to really appreciate being in the different places. But just like every adult gets something different out of travel, so will each child, no matter the age. I suspect they'll look at it as a special time once it is over and hopefully during the trip. But other then that, I think there is so much opportunity for the children to grow - travel does that. I used to listen to a podcast called A Year In Europe, the year is over, but it was interesting to hear the journey they went through. Learning how different people live in different places and then to come back home to the US and to see how different we really are from Europeans. I think no matter where they end up the kids could learn a lot. And their experience will be so unique from other people they encounter in life.

I think this trip will require a lot of planning, and the involvement of the kids. I've only listened to the one podcast, but I think they will include the kids. I don't think they'll learn a language in 3-6 months as they've stated they wish to do - A year in Europe didn't seem to learn more then some basics when they spent a month or more in a country. But they will learn about how different people live, and take in some of the good things and integrate them into their lives. Even though they seem to be seriously considering home schooling while away I hope they will stay somewhere and put the kids in school for maybe an entire school year, or at least part, schools vary so much from country to country, even from school to school here in the US. That could be a great experience for the kids. But too many schools might be overwhelming for the kids, not just adjusting to how different schools work, but also meeting new kids so often. There is such and opportunity for them to grow as a family and as individuals. Yea, they can and will run into some problems and roadblocks, but as a family, if it's done rightish, I think it could be great. I wonder if I can get them to adopt me as a 4th child?

Evolution of a Traveler, Part 3

My third trip to Europe was to Scandinavia and Russia - two very different places and I took something different from each place. I'm not sure I opened up that much to new things on this trip, but I think the whole experience opened me to the possibility of being more open.

Scandinavia isn't one of the most happening places. The cities are nice and there is stuff to do there, but after seeing Paris, Rome, London the cities here didn't jump out at me. What did though was the extreme beauty. I'm not a nature girl, bugs are gross, I'm afraid of animals, hiking is work, and camping is beyond me. But after I spent a couple days in nature - mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls - I was able to really appreciate the beauty and the peacefulness of it. I'm still not into camping, but i can certainly stop to enjoy the beauty and the calm of nature. It was even worth freezing my butt off through Scandinavia.

Russia was my true introduction to Culture. This was the first place that I went that I really had a different culture in my face. It was also the first country that I spent more then 4 days in. There was definitely a difference in the people and the vibe and the whole country. The younger people spoke some English and were generally a little friendlier. But those little old Russian woman, wouldn't want to mess with them! The food was a little different - borst, salads without lettuce (still haven't gotten over that), dill, and high levels of grease - I wasn't a fan of the food. My local guide in Moscow (and the guide in St. Petersburg to a smaller extent) did a really good job of helping us understand the Russian people. Her story about the first McDonalds I think really shows how different of a culture the Russians were in under Communism. Here is a synopsis of the story: You would wait on line for about 2 hours, typical for Russia. When you walked in, the floor was clean, that was the first sign that something wasn't right. When you got to the counter they had a smile in their face and asked what you would like. This was Russia at a time when you hoped they had something at the end of a line, let alone what you actually wanted. You ask for a Big Mac. Then to add to the confusion - they asked how many you wanted? Not only did they have food, you could get as much as you wanted. This caused so much stress and confusion (people thought it might be a trick and the government was listening) that they had to put up a sign limiting the number of Big Mac's to 15, people literally didn't know how to handle a lack of limits and choice. This was Russia where you went to a store and took what they had, they didn't have selection but they did have limits, there was a 2+ hour line behind you after all. In the bathroom they had... toilet paper, and if you took the toilet paper they put a new role on. When I think of this story I think of how hard an adjustment it must have been to change to Capitalism, and to learn to be friendly to people. In one place you would find someone friendly and willing to try and help you, in another they were totally unwilling to help. It was a taste of old and new. And the Communist relics - the idea of how to deal with that as a country. As an American the closest thing we've had to this is the issue of the Confederate Battle Flag when it was still flying in South Carolina.

While I didn't necessarily embrace all these things I started to see them as a positive part of travel. Stepping out of your comfort zone and experiencing something new and accepting it even if you don't like/agree with it. I learned to stop and smell the roses and just be where I was and soak it all in.

More about... You Americans have no culture!

I've tried to write this post several times and I ran into the same problem every time - offending people. I've decided to take a totally different approach to this post and just talk about the stereotypes Americans have about each other and maybe touch on some of the language differences from region to region, basically a more lighthearted approach. Besides, without differences you can't have stereotypes.

I'll start with the Southerners, they're an easy target for a Yankee like me. They're slow - they speak slow, drive slow, talk slow - yup just slow. Ironically thought they seem to shorten terms - like saying Y'all. But at least the men are gentleman and the women ladies. They haven't gotten over the "War of Northern Aggression" - also known as the Civil War, which ended over 140 years ago! And then there is the issue of the inbreeding...

I hear that Northerners like to talk fast - it makes us a bit untrustworthy. Otherwise we're apparently pretty cool. But even within the North we have some issues. Like in Western Pennsylvania they call soda "pop" and use a "buggy" at the grocery store. They've got a wacky accent over in Massachusetts too, that's a whole different thing.

Out in the Mid-West are the polygamists, and the crazy militia people. And out in California the people are all fake and image obsessed, plastic surgeons do well here. And the call the West Coast the "Left Coast," not because it's on the left side of the country, but because all the liberals live there (well the ones who aren't in New York City.)

I hope I gave a little insight into how American's view each other and their cultural differences, assuming any of these stereotypes are actually true.

You Americans have no culture!

I was told this recently by a drunk Asian girl who had just been arrested. I suggested that our culture is to get drunk, do something stupid and get arrested. I don't think she got the joke. But it's not the first time I've heard this, but I'm not buying it. I think if you travel within western countries I think you'll find that cultural differences are much more subtle. Come to the US from Egypt and things might seem a little different. But either way there is culture her in the US, but it's made up of bits and pieces of other cultures and then it evolves over time. I'm going to talk a bit about New York culture in this post and then another day talk about culture in America more generally.

If you come to New York and all you see is the Empire State Building, Times Square and a couple museums you wont find too much culture. The first thing to realize is that New York City is filled with immigrants and decedents of immigrants. We have all the typical things you'll find in other big cities like China Town or Little Italy, but head out to Brighten Beach and you'll find Russian Jews, there are a lot of communities like that. Just a 100 or so years ago the lower east side as filled with tenements, which were filled with poor immigrants from all over the world (what Country might depend on the year). Today you'll still find remnants of the Jews that lived there, only you'll find that their Synagogues are emptier. You'll also find quite a few new bars and clubs in the area. It's a place that Jacob Riis described in How the Other Half Lives and today see this area "gentrified," it's a testament to the perseverance of American's to improve their lot in life. The American dream is to give your children more then you had, and it's a driving force in the way people live their lives.

There is a hustle and bustle to NYC that you wont find in a lot of other cities, people live and work here every day. People are very task oriented. At 8am at 34th Street and 7th Avenue people are figuring out how to get across the street the fastest without getting run over. We cross the street when there is a break in the traffic, we don't wait for the little walking man - who has time for that? But at the same time if you were to stop a NYer and ask for help, they would probably help you. Our Police play a role too. You wont find as many con-games or expert pick pockets as you do in other large cites, we have it here, but it's actively pursued by the Police which isn't always the case in other places. The Police attempt to run everything extremely orderly, sometimes to the hindrance of the people who are trying to enjoy the event. But have you ever heard of people getting trampled at New Years Eve in Times Square? There is a certain orderly chaos to this sometimes rough city, but often you'll find that their is a softer side to it too. We'll help, you just have to know how to ask.