The New York Subway is at the same time great fun and annoying. Fun, because you see all New York life there, from old ladies reading Russian to cellists struggling with their instruments, to Latina mothers with their daughters heading downtown to shop. Annoying, though, because although it works all night in theory the G train just now is suspended at night, and so I take the shuttle bus towards Queens, not quite knowing when my stop is and how long it'll take. But at least the shuttle didn't take long: in that sense it's far superior to any London rail replacement service, three words that strike terror into any but the stoutest British heart. On emerging unproblematically at Bedford Avenue at about 2 a.m., I needed to ask directions from a woman and a young black man standing on a street corner; they set me straight but warned me to walk by a slightly circuitous route. "Take De Kalb" the young man says. Then, gesturing towards Lafayette Street (the route not to walk) he explains: "Dem niggaz deh is wild". I took his advice, needless to say, and I might just take a yellow next time I'm out this late.
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