NYC Quirks

Here are some random and awesome quirky things or people I have found in NYC.

Grocery stores - I have mostly done my grocery shipping at Trader Joes because it's convenient. This is a two story grocery store. How does that work you ask? Well, there is an escalator for humans and this escalator contraption thing that will take your cart up from one level to the next. Hilarious. Oh and this place has over 25-30 checkouts and the line up will still wrap the entire store. That's not an exaggeration. When you walk into the store, the checkout line is right there with a guy holding a sign saying "end of the line".

Metro newspaper guy - this guy cracks me up. When you get off at Wall street on the 2/3 line there is this guy handing out free Metro newspapers. He is hilarious because of his enthusiasm. Man, I need to get video of this guy. Okay, new goal, get video. Every morning he's standing there in his booming voice yelling, "Happy Monday! Good morning! Happy Monday everyone! Good morning! Happy Monday!" Oh, he makes my day, everyday.

Crazy homeless guy - there's this homeless guy who goes around wearing a dress. This isn't just any dress. It's like the bridesmaid's dress from hell and is frilly and has toule to spare. Pretty great. Not only that but he has his regular shopping cart and a pet parrot that sits on his head. Class act. I'm telling you! Haha!

The smell of rain - in Canada, the smell of rain is fresh and fantastic. In NYC it accentuates the smell of garbage. Not the most pleasant thing.

Subways - subways really do have the strangest and quirkiest people on them. My recent finds are the chick with a pet rat and the guy with the world's ugliest pony tail. Oh and one of my favorite things is watching people try to lean away when people fall asleep and start leaning on them. I love watching people be awkward.

Walking on the road - okay, this is just awesome. In Times Square the sidewalks are nuts and you have to deal with tourists taking pictures and randomly stopping and not knowing how to J-walk properly and it is mostly just super annoying. BUTTTT I have discovered the fantastic sidewalk on the road. Apparently NYC didn't think the sidewalks were wide enough and could hold everyone, so they just painted the road next to the sidewalk blue and made it a pedestrian walkway. Soooo awesome. You can totally skirt all the annoying people... If you can make it through the crowds to the blue zone that is.

Shake Shack - this is a famous burger and shake place. They have one location that is this tiny little shack, hence the name. It became so busy and famous that there is actually a camera installed so you can go online before heading over to see how long the lineup is at that time. Cuz I guarantee you there will be a lineup.

Kids sports days on Wall Street - this was the most random thing I've seen over lunch. I came out one day to find the area around the NYSE all blocked off and it was filled with kids, lots and lots of kids. They were playing soccer and basketball and having hula hoop contests and running around like crazy. Not something you expect to see in front of the stock exchange.

Harlem Hangout - this isn't really quirky but I love it. Harlem, as you probably know, is approximately 90% black, 9% Hispanic, and 1% white. Nope, there aren't even that many white people in my area. So, it's just a tad bit different than things back home but I have loved it. When you walk down my street it is like you are on parade because everyone just likes to sit out on their front stoop and hang out. Sometimes they BBQ together. There are often block parties that happen right out there on the street. At one point they rented a blowup bouncy house and blocked off the entire street so they could use said bouncy house.

Emergency Exits - apparently in the New York subway system, emergency exit doesn't mean emergency exit. It means, hey, here's another door you an exit through if you want. And bonus, if you come through this way loud, super annoying alarms will go off and then you can let people sneak through without paying! Win!

There are so many other quirks in NYC that I love but here's s start at least.