NYC vs. DC

We thought the Amtrak car looked a little funny, but it was the only one that had 2 seats together. It's real nice when the train is full of single travelers, and they each think they need to take up a whole row so that when two people are traveling together, they can't sit together. So anyway, we found seats in what was apparently the "third class" car. The seats were red instead of blue. There was very little legroom. No electrical outlets so that we couldn't watch all of the movie ("Ray") we'd brought. There was no air conditioning. This last was the killer. We complained about it, but thought we were stuck. Until we went through the other cars to the snack car and we saw how good they had it. That made the last part of the journey go soooo slow. I hate being stuck in a train car that is about 90 degrees for no reason. Especially when our train trip cost almost as much as our hotel.

4 hours later, we arrived in DC. Our hotel was just a quick Metro trip from Union Station, so we set about learning the Metro system. I have to say that I prefer NY's subway system. Sure, DC's are newer and there are fewer lines to figure out (they use colors to name them instead of letters and numbers - isn't that cute?) but DC's are arranged in a bad way. The seats are closer together, facing front & back instead of sideways, which fit more people, but it is very difficult to get on & off during rush hours, especially with luggage. NY's trains have more cars too (4? that's cute). Because there are fewer trains running, you have to wait longer in the station. When the trains DO come, however, it is very clear which train is coming, where it is going, and anything else you might need to know.

NY's trains are a flat rate of $2 per ride - you can go 1 block or across 3 boroughs, and it's always $2. DC's rates varied on your trip, but the minimum was $1.35 so even though we never went very far, we always had to make sure out farecards had enough on them to get there. NY metrocards can be bought only in increments that make sense; $2, $4, $10, or unlimited, etc. DC farecards can have any combination of dollars and cents on them which probably works for those that know how much each route costs, but it's less efficient for tourists.

One other complaint I have about DC: the crosswalks tell you the number of seconds you have to safely cross on the light. This in itself is a good thing. However, the seconds given to you have no relation to the length of the street you are crossing. I saw times ranging from 70 to 15 seconds for streets 10 feet wide to 4 lanes. And it wasn't like all the same length streets had the same number of seconds. It just seemed totally random and it was kinda fun to see if we could really take that long. The drivers didn't like this because you can turn right on a red there and we were holding them up.

DC has a 10% tax on hotels and food. Ouch. And the weather sucked - hot and humid until there was a brief thunderstorm Saturday night.

So that's it for my comparison between the cities. I know I've only been to the touristy part of DC and I'm biased as a New Yorker, but these things were new to me even as a Californian. And the Amtrak wasn't necessarily DC's fault, but it was a stupid way to start the trip. Later I'll post about our actual trip, with photos and fun for all.