Traveling is a balance - sure, we'd all love to be on the road but there's life to consider - careers, friends and family, money, time. But for those of us who don't have the ability or desire to make the big leap to full-time vagabond, there is a second-best thing: living in New York. For the kinds of people who like to travel to see different types of nature and scenery, perhaps "California" should be substituted. But for those of us, like me, who travel out of a sense of curiosity and exploration for people, cultures, and (especially) different types of urban areas, New York is definitely the place to be. Instead of going to see the world, the world comes to you. And the world may not think so highly of America right now but let me tell you, they LOVE New York.

Everywhere I went in South America, people wanted to be associated with New York - the people in the big cities would always ask "so this city is like New York, right?" But it wasn't just the people - even the buildings wanted a piece of the action. And not even just New York in general, as in this Resto-Bar in Montevideo - even the boroughs get love, as is evidenced by Edeficio Brooklyn (literally translated "The Brooklyn Building") in Rio, and this clothing store in Buenos Aires' Chinatown - which is made somewhat ironic by the fact that while Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn all have significant Chinatowns, the Bronx does not. The Bronx actually seems to be more popular abroad than at home - I also ran into a clothing store called "Bronx" in Valencia, Spain.

But anyway, it's tough to get bored in New York, which is good for the kind of people that like to travel. There's always a new neighborhood to visit, new types of people to meet, something going on that you haven't seen (or even heard of) before.

Of course, if you live here, it doesn't take that long to do all the basics. If you stay interested, you start to get further and further off the beaten trail. At this point, I've been most everywhere in this town you can go without a badge. I get some satisfaction from being a tour guide and showing others around the more obscure parts of town (e-mail me at NYCTourGuide@gmail.com if you'd like one of my custom tours of New York City), but there's still an exploration fix I need when I'm not on the road.

Luckily, there are still some interesting places to go that I haven't been - although they aren't always the easiest (or most legal) places to get to. Still, I've been on quite a kick since I've gotten back. New York is great in that it's a three-dimensional city - meaning some of the best places aren't on street level, they're actually above or below ground. Since I've been back I've hit some of each that most New Yorkers never even know exist - let alone get to see.

I'll give you a quick example of both a below- and above-ground place. First below ground: While not as numerous as the abandoned stations of the London Underground, the New York City subway system does also have several abandoned stations that are pretty fascinating. While looking at pictures is usually good enough for your average subway enthusiast, there's really something about seeing them in person that appeals to me (my friend and colleague in Guerilla Urbanism, Steve Duncan, really puts in better than I can here). And to boot, you find stuff written in the tunnels of the New York City subway system you won't come close to finding anywhere else in the world. For instance, there's a graffiti writer, REVS, who for about 6 years wrote his diary on the subway tunnel walls (I actually went to go see his very first entry, dated 12/11/1994, a few weeks ago).

I've had the good fortune to be able to visit two abandoned stations recently (well, two and half if you count a very quick, aborted attempt at the 18th Street station). One of these was the old Worth Street Station on the Lexington Avenue line. While this trip very extremely fun (and educational), it was also one of the dirtiest times I've ever had. And for those of you who've known me a while, that's saying quite a lot.

The Worth street station was closed in 1962, after new construction on the City Hall station directly south of it led to an entrance only a block away from the entrance to Worth street, and the MTA decided it was no longer necessary to keep it open. You can read and see more of what this station's now like 43 years later here (and if you poke through that site you'll find a few more underground adventures I've been on lately).

As for the above-ground example: Remember one of my very first entries where I linked to that strangely phallic building the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Building? Well, back when it was the tallest building between Manhattan and Paris, it actually used to have an observation deck, which was closed to the public in 1977.

Now the view actually leaves a lot to be desired. Downtown Brooklyn and Downtown Manhattan look like a big jumble, because the deck isn't high enough to see the Hudson river between them (the deck is only about 400 feet high. Contrast this with the soon-to-be-opened Rockefeller Center observation deck at 850 feet high, the Empire State Building observation deck at 1,050 feet high, or the old World Trade Center observation deck at an astounding 1,400 feet high). It's also too far away from Midtown to get a good view of it, you can't see the Brooklyn Bridge at all, and there's so much masonry and fencing obstructing the view that you almost feel like you're indoors. Probably the coolest part of the view is getting a close up look at the big clock.

However, there is one interesting thing about the deck. The Williamsburgh Savings Bank building is a landmark. This means the exterior can't be changed. So the old signs from when the deck was active are all still up. They're all about the Revolutionary War, and point out various spots of historical interest that you can see from the deck. Unfortunately, in a month the entire building is going to be converted to luxury condos - I'm guessing the 2-floor penthouse that happens to have this deck will probably go for about 3 million dollars. I did take pictures of all the signs (although #10 is already missing), as well as close ups of the text, pictures, and maps on them, so they can be viewed and appreciated virtually by someone other than whatever yuppie stockbroker happens to buy the penthouse (check back on the forgotten-ny link I gave above - that's probably where they'll be). Hopefully, the new owner will have an appreciation for either the historical value of those signs or at least for the landmarks law, but I'm not optimistic. If you pay 3 million dollars for an apartment, you're probably going to want to remodel it how you like.

You can look forward to one more entry about the people I met on my travels, but in terms of places seen, that's it's for this blog. I had a blast writing it, and I hope you guys got a kick out of it also, and maybe even learned something for when you go traveling. I can't say I don't miss being on the road, but it's OK. There's a lot to see out in South America and the world, but thankfully, there's almost as much to see among the Bright Lights of New York City.