xD You have to improve your english...
It means:
Has anyone of you ever been in New York (or in another big city in the USA) and can tell me his/her expirences?

Correct it please!
I can't see wrong english...sorry^^

By the way:
I haven't ever been in the USA. But I think it is nice to be there.
The statue of libterty is very admirable...

bye
Mercator

I think New York isn't very exciting. It's just a big city like there are many in the world. If you want to see a technological well developed city then visit Tokyo. For me California would be much exciting. Beautiful Countrysides and spots you have already seen on TV (many films or TV-series are filmed in California). And of course Hollywood would be worth a visit.

I have never been to the USA, but I'd like to go there at least once in my life. But I think I couldn't live there because I like Germany very much and I would never leave it for years.

Greetz,
Fireball

I´ve never been
But anyway, I`m looking forward to visit NY

@gunmachine, mh i think you can't speak and understand english so you are not able to understand the headline! no you can't learn english in this thread maybe in this part of the forum but not in this thread!

nochmals in deutsch für gun, nein hier wirst du kein Englisch lernen können, zumindest nicht in diesem Thread, in dem Forumsteil vlt. aber da du die Überschrift hier schon nicht verstanden hast wird das wohl eher schwer!

@topic, i never was in NY or other places in the USA! but my mum and my dad has won an trip to the USA and they were intrigued with this land the people and the sights! they said that there is more police then in germany (or better, you see more police as in germany!) but the prices are ok (but they were only tourists, i think if you live there you need a little bit more than a tourist!), the people were friendly (also the mufu guy at the airport who asks many fu*ing questions ^^) and the only think my mum has hated was the point that she couldn't smoke at the 16h flight ^^.

I´ve been there four times.
You love it or you hate it!

Mercator schrieb:

xD You have to improve your english...
It means:
Has anyone of you ever been in New York (or in another big city in the USA) and can tell me his/her expirences?

and since we´re so busy correcting people and talk about improvement - wouldn´t the correct term be more like "...been to New York" !?!


hmmmmh, what´s this guy actually up to?
whatever your plan is, don´t get caught, you definitely don´t wanna end up in the prison shower...

but since this thread is pretty old by now, have you been to ny and what are your experiences?

hehe,
i plan to go to NY before christmas, with my family and a friend.
But, I heard, that you aren't allowed to bring things to germany with a worth over 170 dollar. Does anyone know something about that

Greetz

m4tik schrieb:

But, I heard, that you aren't allowed to bring things to germany with a worth over 170 dollar. Does anyone know something about that ^^Greetz

there is no such limit.

you are allowed to import new goods with a maximum value of about 20€ taxfree. this limit will be raised to about 170€ by the end of this year.

if you e.g. bring a notebook that you bought on your vacation, you will have to pay tax (einfuhrzoll) -19% based upon the price of the new item. in addition to that might be another tax (e.g. 4,5% for plastic made toys).

You also might wanna take your chance and just walk through the "nothing to declare" gate at the airport, however the zoll taks spot checks, especially in case of flights from the usa. getting caught you will be fined - and whatever you bought then wasn´t a bargain anymore.

I would really like to be in the usa, and eat a supersize menu of mcdonald xD
nah, but id really like to see some cities there.

well frake,

actually i can't agree with you! i have been to new york about one year ago... and i have to say that i haven't seen enything really impressive...

there are of course some interesting sights, the empire state building, the times square and so on...

but for me it was strange to see how dirty famous places are... i m living in hamburg and i think that the old town of hamburg is much more impressive (only an example)...

also the people in hamburg arent running away if you ask them the way^^

Hi @everybody (generally)
& @hanswunso (especially, since you asked these questions)—provided that you’re still around,

This thread has been abandoned for quite some time now—two months mean aeons in the universe of discussion forums. However, I’d like to join in on this topic. And it’s going to be a longer post. So I hope you stay with me.

I have been to the U.S. of A. as many others of you have; even though I focused on the eastern part, since this was and still is more attracting to me. But that’s my point of view and as we all know—tastes differ.
I was in some of the major cities along the east coast, e.g. New York City, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and Baltimore; I went up north to Niagara Falls and down south to Miami Beach.

As far as NYC is concerned—yes, you either like it or hate it. Period. There are quite a lot of one-way streets in Manhattan with traffic jams even on Sundays. So forget about driving a car there. Even if you manage to do so—good luck on finding a parking space. Other than that … you feel just tiny and overwhelmed being surrounded by all the tall buildings and skyscrapers and by the enormous size of the city.
There are blocks, where you'll never see the sun at any given day of the year, because it’s always hidden behind this or that building.
And it’s definitely the city that doesn’t sleep. Sometimes you might not even get the least bit of sleep because of the constant noise you’re not used to: the honking horns, the wailing and yelping sirens of police cars, ambulances and fire engines and all the other sources and kinds of imaginable sounds. The city is restless. That also holds true for the New Yorkers that seem to race through the city trying to be faster than all the other pedestrians around them. They are always in a hurry and will most likely never stop at a red traffic light—or only for just a second. A short glimpse towards the direction where the traffic comes from and on they go. They cross the street wherever they see a chance to do so. That’s why jaywalking is here regarded almost harmless and remains unpunished in most cases.

Is New York dirtier than other (European) cities? Probably. But that depends. Usually bigger cities are a bigger mess for two reasons: first of all you have more abandoned areas covered with litter that nobody seems to care about. And where there is litter, it will be joined by more and start to mysteriously spread itself. Secondly, areas highly frequented by tourists and commuters tend to be dirtier than other parts of a city. Of course they are also cleaned much more often, but people care less about areas they are not attached to, i.e. they just pass through, than compared to the district they live in, the streets just outside their front door. That holds true for almost every bigger city in the world, except perhaps for Singapore. There the import, sale, and possession of chewing gum, which is likely to be spat out right on the streets, is prohibited to keep the city clean. And littered cigarette butts will cost you US$ 1,000.00 if you did it the first time and will double up and even go beyond that in case of reoccurrence.

Prices. Even with the weak dollar we had for the last months, living in NYC was and is everything but easy—or better said: affordable. Again, it depends. Here, it depends on the district you’re living in. But in Manhattan the average rent for a 60 m² apartment would be beyond € 2,000.00 a month. And everyday products like food and drinking are not always that cheap either. Good chocolate is hard to get; at least when you’re looking for the varieties of flavor you can enjoy in Germany. And things like multigrain or whole grain bread are not everywhere to get. There may be bargains or items on sale but all in all, especially when you are looking for beloved products form Good Ol’ Germany, you sometimes have to dig deep inside your pockets.

Police. Already prior to 9/11—but the more so afterwards—there were and are lots of police officers out there on the streets of NYC. And at least since 9/11 they are constantly on standby and are doing surge drills with approximately 200 officers every God-given day somewhere in the city. But hey, this is a megacity with an equivalent crime rate. In other parts of the U.S. there may be nights where there is no state trooper on patrol within a 300-mile range. That’s just the way it is. Go to the Australian outback: it may take several hours to get to the next phone to call the police or for any kind of help and chances are that it will take about the same amount of time until somebody comes to the scene.

Don't worry about cameras. There aren't as many as in London; at least it wasn’t reported or came to my knowledge. But even if there were that many, would you really care? I’d say no, only if you are getting involved in some kind of criminal activity, where you might/should peek over your shoulder once in a while to make sure the cops aren’t already after you or have you on tape. A lot of cameras you won’t even recognize, because you hopefully try to enjoy the day, your company, and have only eyes for the beauty of the city. Of course, Big Brother is watching you, but not only with cameras and not only overseas. Or do you know what exactly happens to all the information you provide by filling out forms for sweepstakes, by using some kind of bonus card or your credit card, by blogging or creating a public internet profile at myspace or facebook or the like? How do you know that this kind of information is processed and stored according to data security laws and not transmitted to third parties that might use your information the way they like in order to make a profit? You don’t. And there is almost nothing you can do about it. Neither here nor in the U.S. So don’t care about the cameras. They may help to find the guy that stole your wallet.

Food/meals. Since the U.S. is a country of immigration there is no such thing as an “American kitchen”, at least not that I know of, besides perhaps the inevitable turkey on Thanksgiving, apple pie, pancakes with maple juice, and ham & eggs for breakfast. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit. But what’s true is that many people love to go to diners or a “restaurant” of one of the many (fast) food chains. I put the word in quotation marks because that’s not what Germans would normally call a restaurant. Those—if you will “real”—restaurants do also exist but are usually beyond the ordinary. They are more exclusive, with meals of this also rather exclusive kind like “Filet Mignon” and “Crème Brûlée”, with a Sommelier suggesting and presenting you a wine, and are thus likely to be expensive. These are the ones you know from Hollywood movies, where you have to make a reservation and wait inside near the entrance to be seated, drink expensive wine or champagne, and where a man might get down on his knee to present his loved one the diamond engagement ring and ask her to marry him. That’s a restaurant for Americans. Or can you imagine a German proposing to his hopefully bride-to-be in what Europeans or Germans consider an average restaurant? Not me.

People. From my perspective they are more open when compared to Germans, at least in bigger cities. That may be different in rural areas on both sides of the Atlantic. But in cities like NYC, you might get a smile or a “Hi” from a perfect stranger when glances meet; something I have rarely seen in Germany, where there seems to be some kind of intrinsic fear towards each and every stranger, however kind he or she might look. Anyhow, Americans are said to be a bit shallow or superficial with regard to social contacts beyond their ties to families and friends. This doesn’t need to be true neither for every situation nor for every person, but after a while you will get annoyed by this constant, almost always ueber-friendly shop assistants’ attitude of greeting you: “Hi, welcome to … my name is … how can I help you? If you have any questions feel free to ask me and I would be glad to help”.
If people ask you: “How do you do/how are you doing?” they don’t necessarily want to hear how you really feel or that you might be in pain at the very moment. They just expect you to answer: “Fine, thanks. How about you?” It’s all about politeness and a good (first) impression—at least within business relations. When you are at a party and get to know people who invite you to come and visit them, don’t do so without checking back—they might not only have forgotten the invitation, they may not even remember who you are. The invitation could just have been made during a conversation, as some kind of applied small talk or “shmooze” as some would call it. That can be found almost everywhere. Not only in New York City.

As I stated at the beginning, you either like or hate New York. There is nothing in between. For my part, I fell in love with that city, even though I think I couldn’t live there till the end of my days. A tourist’s life differs immensely from the life of a resident, no matter if it’s temporarily (for a number of months) or permanently. You get to see behind the inviting curtain of sightseeings, myths and hype, and get to see the sometimes rough, tough and messy backstage area of living-in-NYC, where you don’t venture through Central Park every weekend, go to the MoMA or the Guggenheim, shop at Macy’s or let your eyes hover over the pretty skyline of the city from atop the Empire State Building. That’s all nice but it’s not daily life.

Last but not least: Customs. I’d like to clean things up a bit and clarify.
When you return to Germany you are allowed to bring items with you that may sum up to the equivalent of € 175.00, depending on the latest official dollar-euro exchange rate published by German Customs on their respective website. It doesn’t matter though, whether or not things were given to you as a present or you purchased them. Everything counts.

When you leave through the green exit, you’re silently completing a customs declaration, namely, that you have nothing to declare. So, if customs officers perform a spot check on you—which is not uncommon for tourists coming back from the U.S.—you might get yourself in trouble when you actually have items with you you should have declared. If you take the red exit and declare that you have goods exceeding the value of € 175.00 but not exceeding € 350.00 you pay 10 to 13.5 % of the total value as a flat rate customs fee for items you have with you and that are presents for friends or for your personal use only (no trade).

If the value exceeds 350 euros, you pay 19 % (or the reduced 7 %) EU import tax and potentially applicable excise taxes, like there are on tobacco, beer and wine, and you pay a customs fee. Here also the kind of product and what it is made of decides how much you actually have to pay. If you don’t have receipts for the items, the officers will check online for prices or assume the price based on equivalent items and check with the EZT-online or the TARIC database for the individual fees with regard to the kind of product and the fabric it is made of.

If the goods you’re trying to bring into the country are worth quite a lot of money it may be that the customs fee will be as high as the EU import tax, which means 38 % taxes, especially if you tried to leave through the green exit and got caught (if I’m not mistaken). That would evaporate almost everything you called a bargain while you bought it in the States, plus, if you cross a certain line concerning the overall value you may be facing a charge for tax evasion—the thing Al Capone got finally charged with. And tax evasion is nothing I would like to have on my record. Also please inform yourself prior to your travel about the things you are not allowed to import, because the oh so lovely knife you bought might stay with the German customs officers, according to the specified regulations.

Well, so much about bringing items with you. When you get items sent to you, the still existing limit is € 22.00; up to this sum you don’t have to pay any taxes or fees. The limit is actually a little bit higher than € 22.00, since—depending on the sources you read—customs officers don’t enforce fees less than 3 or 5 euros; which means that goods up to € 27.00 might be free. However, it seemed that the aforementioned limit of € 22.00 was about to be lifted up to € 150.00 by Dec. 1st, 2008. But German Customs now states that up to this sum you simply don’t have to pay customs fees, but still EU import tax, which undoubtedly remains the bigger part of the fees you have to pay. So there is not THAT much of a change from what we are having right now and we’ll have to wait what they make of it in December.

So—as far as I understand it—up to € 22.00 (or € 27.00 if you will) item value (shipping costs excluded) you pay nothing customswise (anyhow, for items like alcohol, tobacco and perfume you have to pay—regardless of their value); up to € 150.00 (shipping costs included) you pay EU import tax but NO customs fees; above € 150.00 you pay EU import tax and applicable customs fees.

That’s it. I think I’ll leave it here and hope to have answered at least most of your questions. If not, feel free to ask and I or any other person here will try to help you and find an answer. Or maybe other people made observations completely differing from mine. Then I would be glad to hear/read about the experiences they have made.

Sorry for that long post. I hope somebody found it interesting and read it, though. Thanks for sticking with me!

All the best,
— CentCom

not bad. i have to say that i didn't read the whole text, but most of it:D
but i can imagine what nice experience you made in usa. of course, usa is engaging. my goal is to visit the westcoast (especially the westcoast) within four years. i think this is a possible limit of time to save enough money. as you have written - all your activities - are certainly not cheap.

yep , i 've been to Amerika several times : San Francisco , Los Angeles (L.A.) , Santa Barbara , New Orleans ( before the flood ) ,Pennsacola , and last but not least New York. From all these citys i really loved San Franciso, its a really lovely town.
N.Y., on the other hand , doesn't impress me too much .I was there in 1999 - The most impressing thing for me was when i was standing on a visitor platform on top of the WTC ( World Trade Center) and had a look around ...that was really impressing.But what else can you see ? Nothing else!
Only buildings and buildings and buildings. When you use the subway ( you can easily find a map in internet ) make sure that you don't look to other people's faces. They don't like that. Read a book , newspaper or something else.Otherwise you can be in trouble earlier as you guess. Never go with somebody that you don' know to places that you don't know.First rule : Do not trust anybody.
2.nd rule: always remember the 1st rule.
An interesting place for example is China town , but i felt more save in China town of San Francisco than the one in N.Y. - And all germans are called Hans and Peter.
For me i cannot say that i loved N.Y. but also i didn't hate it. For me it's just a city with high buildings and many many many people walking around.Also it depends on your expectations and the people you are travelling with. It might be fun.
"Have Fun" and "You're Welcome" .

greetz
arup


godisnowhere

I have been in the US quite when I was a little hoeni. From east coast NY, Washington, Florida (Atlanta, the Keys, Orlando, Miami), New Orleans to the west coast LA, San Diego, San Francisco and Vegas. It was basically the heritage of my family.