New York is the Best
In case you, like I often do, find yourself desperately craving a break from all things Manhattan (or Brooklyn or Queens or…), just remind yourself that you could end up like Eric: on vacation in Vermont, unable to find an open convenience store after 7 pm, or in Montreal, wondering why in God’s name restaurants close from 3pm-6pm between lunch and dinner, leaving you, that hapless New Yorker, to wonder why every city on the planet doesn’t follow the game plan of the Big Apple.
Yeah, ok, it’s really great to get away but man, do I love New York right now.
I’m a Montrealer (Metroblogging Montreal) and I don’t know which restaurant you went to but I can assure you that restaurants here do NOT routinely close for 3 hours in the afternoon. We may have a european feel but we’re not Spain – we don’t take a siesta every afternoon. If anything, our city is known for its abundance of restos just like NYC and you probably just happened to come across one that was not open. In fact, our restaurants stay open pretty late and our bars close at 3 a.m. We are nothing like Vermont, although I’ve heard that Vermont has also entertained the idea of separation…
I was ~born and raised in NYC~ and finally escaped in 1973 to Atlanta. When I first left NYC I felt that the whole rest of the world was smaller and less cool and had NONE of the conveniences of NYC, that NYC was the beginning and end of civilization, but after some time opening my eyes to the rest of the world, realized correctly that other places have their own worthwhile unique character and values, and that NYC is not superior (sorry to break your hearts), just different.