I'm going to the states

[Kenos]

On saturday next week I will fly to the USA to visit a collegue. I will be staying a week in New York and another week in San Fransisco and surroundings. I feel that visiting these two fair cities will give me an excellent picture of the average american and his or hers political views ( ). Anyway if anyone here has some personal knowledge to share about good but but not too expensive restaurants (I'm pretty stingy, so no trip to the niagrah falls from NY or anything) and fun activities and such for these areas I would be most appreciative.

Also I will shop around for some stuff while I'm there. Most notably some sporting shoes with that personalised advice where they test how you run, I assume I could just go to the nike store or is this horribly overpriced? Then I will also look into buying some run of the mill electronics like an ipod, what's the cheapest store chain I could go to in NY and SF and is there a difference in price between those two cities?

[Nagash]

Have fun!

[Teanos]

Uh dude, those are the two worst cities you could visit if you want to get an idea of political views.

Not to mention New York is one of the largest and most crowded areas ever, and with that means its the most expensive as well. San Francisco...well they are just a little fruity out there, or so I hear.

But enjoy your trip, if nothing else it will give you an idea of American Life in some big cities.

[owly]

i been to San Francisco and i seen a man walking down the street he had white pants on and his bum was all blood soaked. i can only imagine he got rapped in the ass, i was glad i was in a moving car.

i also went through NY city while riding by i could see the geto. i was glad again for being in a moving car........

Have fun though

[Gerien]

Fuck you all.

I grew up in SF and I recommend staying away from the Embarcadero and Market Street areas (except for touristing) and visiting the Inner Mission and Dolores Park areas. Very latin in an SF style, inexpensive, friendly, mixed. Nob Hill is pretty and of course the Pier is nice in another tourist way. Golden Gate Park is SF's answer to NYC's Central Park, but only if you have a lot of time to explore.

And Teanos is right (though I assume you were being ironic) in that these are NOT what normal American cities are like - though you can probably gather that from these boards.

[Immigrant]

remember the following being well worth investment of time and €'s/₤'s

NYC:
http://www.freemansrestaurant.com/
(one of many freq celeb hangouts w/ great atmosphere & most importantly, drinks)

http://www.mortons.com/newyork/
best hunk of flesh you'll ever have

if you're looking for cheap though (and have friends/colleagues with you) any small dim sum hole int eh wall in chinatown that looks reasonably clean from the outside will get the job done, or I specifically remember a gin fongs or somethin a couple blocks up from the Brooklyn Bridge was out of this world and fun for a big dim sum kind of place with carts rattling around between tables, if youre a people watcher and don't mind the buzz of a lot of people

SF:
The fresh seafood on the waterfront was amazing take your pick and of course the chocolate place right there off the waterfront was amazing too

and there's an italian district down from a church square or just off of it with on street cafe eating/drinking I remember being fairly cheap and a lot of fun, again if you're a people watcher (and I distinctly remember that that same area took on a very different vibe as dusk approached though).

all of these areas were pretty walkabout not far from the [edit]http://www.palaceoffinearts.org/[/edit] if I'm not mistaken, and of course real american culture and food can be experienced at:

http://www.melsdrive-in.com/
http://www.fogcitydiner.com/

fog city was fun but remember the area being fairly sterile and too far to walk to anywhere you'd want to (or would be safe to)

word of caution though - for what its worth, I've wandered 'round many a fair city around the world.. even a couple of shady eastern & far eastern ones at the wee hours after a pubcrawl even and SF is the only one where I've felt in imminent danger of bodily harm, so do so only in daytime and with friends/colleagues to neighborhoods that are more touristy. not knocking the city by any means - loved it and mean that it's also one of the cities I've had the most fun in so have a blast mate!

[bigSparky]

Never been to NY but from what I've read and seen on the news, of the two cities, they will be more in line with the rest of the nation politically speaking. Still, they are decidedly left.

SF, well, even for Cali, is off in it's own little world. But as Gerien said, it IS a beautiful city with a lot to do. There is just no way you can gauge the folks of the USA from either of these cities.

The USA is pretty much centrist, maybe even a touch right of center, as a whole. The problem is that especially now, at this point in time, our elected representatives are NOT following the will of the people. Unfortunately, this has been going on for some time from both sides of the aisle. It's just worse right now than I can ever remember. By going to major population centers (8 mill in NYC and 1 mil in SF, as of 2005) your chances of actually meeting folks who are representative of the lot of us seem pretty slim. Hell, there are more people in the city of Chicago(3 mil) than in my whole state (Oklahoma - just over 3mil), LoL. Of course the numbers seem a bit strange to me. I HAVE been to SF, and I live in OKC. Both have populations of around 1 mil, yet SF seems to have much much more people. Of course they have Oakland across the bridge plus their suburbs are far larger.

Anyway, hope you have a good visit and learn as much as possible about us.
As far as shopping for electronics, on the west coast your major players will be Wal-mart, Target, and Best Buy. Not sure about NY. I would venture that you may be able to get a better deal online, especially if you will have to deal with import duties and the like back home.

[Immigrant]

oh gawd politics lol (altho he asked for it heh)

I think most people are bscially the same everywhere honestly, except for the cosmetic. Some of the most right of center conservative people I've ever met were in communist china ironically - and I mean very socially conservative and also among some of the nicest, generous people I've met.

personally think Brits and Americans are more similar than not on many levels, while those on the continent seem to swing a little further to the socioeconomic left where they'd actually no doubt feel right at home in SF & NYC both, at least from an outsider's perception anyway (could be wrong). Although I've been welcomed in otherwise total stranger's homes in both cities to have dinner with their families, which brings me back to my original contention we're mostly all alike (with a few exceptions;p)

what's the trip for anyway - holiday or business (or heaven forbid, both)?

[Teanos]

G - the reference to SF being a bit fruity was tongue in cheek. But I was actually serious about it not being a good indication of average american life and/or culture. Both NYC and San Francisco kind of have a culture of there own in some respects, just like some other states/cities (Florida for example.)

If you really want a true idea of what average american life is like, pick a random city that has a population between 10,000 and 30,000 and hang out there for a week.

[Nagash]

Wouldn't such towns in the north be quite different from their southern counterparts?

[losmar]

You can find good food in the South, only just edible food in the North...bit of an exaggeration, but not much once you've tasted good bbq and other Southern delights.

I'd say if you were in the Midwest to hit up Detroit, some Ohio cities, the mid and Western sections of Kentucky, maybe Indianapolis, Chicago and Kansas City, but definitely St. Louis and something in Wisconsin.

I most heartily agree with the comment about any city with 10k-30k inhabitants and go for a week to get to know it and the people.

Hope you have a great trip.

[Reylan Talonspyre]

Hang out in the collar counties of Chicago. We are both conservative and liberal. We are diverse. We are small. We have that "Home Town America" feel. Frankly, it is the midwest, that is middle America. We are the American dream in most respects.

[Kenos]

thanks for the answers so far, it will be a 'pleasure' trip although I am visiting a collegue of mine so there is a minute work connection

unfortunately the trip will be dictated by my flight itinerary, I'm staying in NY for a week because I would have had to switch flights there anyway and I'm staying in SF for a week (with an overnight stay in Yossemite for good measure) because that's where my collegue is

anything I buy that is not a souvenir I will discard the packaging and only keep the bare necessities such as the warranty paper, it tends to work to get through customs without having to pay VAT in my own country (which I would have paid in the states anyway, so I am merely avoiding a distasteful double taxation )

also to my surprise I heard that big city people in the US are actually very friendly, if they see like german people mucking about with a map they will offer to help them find their way and such; this is not something I am familiar with at all, in belgium when we see germans we just ignore them, after all they found their way by themselves in 1914, they found their way by themselves in 1940... so we sure aren't going to start helping them now

[Immigrant]

;mfao

Have a great time! 2 wks sounds just about perfect (too bad about having to do any work atall tho)

jealous of you being able to do a side trip to yosemite (never had time to do that meself) - be sure + share some pics if you're of a mind to when you get back;p

[owly]

May security checks and what not aint a pain in the ass for you,