Ratko Ćosić - lamentations of one programmer

Hola, I've got lazy in writting my blog recently, but for that there are two justified reasons: first, I broke my finger on right hand, and second, I was preparing myself for Devscovery 2008 conference in New York. And then, I'm writing here some of my own impressions from the journey and the conference itself ...





Anyway, it's my first journey to the States, so I was twice excited to go. Flying from Zagreb via Frankfurt, and then over the Atlantic (around 8 hours) was exhausting, especially 'jet leg' of 6 hours backwards. One way or another, the city of New York is really beautiful and you have lot of it to see on the Manhattan, which counts 9 millions of residents, 18 thousands of restaurants and myriads of taxis, shops, delis, excitements, skyscrapers.



(me on Broadway)

What is worth buying, especially if you go on a week or more is certain CityPass card which costs 65 $, and for its price offers sightseeing of six different city attractions.





Kept in mind that the entrance fee for just one attaction is 20 bucks or more - it's worth its price. We managed to see each of the attractions except Guggenheim Museum:
- American Museum of Natural History - phenomenal museum of dinosaurs, decayed animals, mammals, and then a great hall of meteorits, rocks, planetarium. This is the place where the movie Night at the Museum was shot (my kids and I love it),
- Metropolitan Museum of Art with the genuin pieces of Rembrandt and other masters of medieval time,
- Museum of Modern Art (Picasso, Matisse, ),
- two hour boat cruise around the Manhattan (you pass near west, south, and east coast of the island, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Governor's Island, sailing below the Brooklyn bridge, etc),
- Empire State Building (186th floor).

It's nice that New York, little bit rushy during rush hours from 10 am and 6 pm. What just went on my nerves was those bribing the money! For a whole day a man just got tired of different kinds of 'offerings' - each price is stated without tax (VAT), and at each place you are advised to leave a tip! It's just different from Europe, especially Croatia where I come from. So, for a cup of coffee, which is around dollar and a half, you should add at least a quarter for tax, and then a quarter more for a tip, and finally, coffee is two dollars at min. And so on..

Regarding communication with Croatia, I advise you not to make the same mistake I made, and that is to call home by phone from a hotel. For one minute and 35 seconds of phonecall, you will get sacked for 36 $!
Also, my cell phone by some misterious reason just couldn't get connected to t-mobile network, so it's been unusable for a whole trip. I went to a local t-mobile shop there, but clerk told me if the mobile phone is bought in Europe and there registered, it's not compatible with America! Great!
I rely on Skype, but the problem was that there are not a single internet caffee with Skype available!
So I was practically dead for my dearest for a week!



(me and skyscrapers of Manhattan)

More of my pictures from New York City you can see here.

So much about NYC, next time I will finally try to write about the conference ...

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