Tourist father to family, crossing mid-block: Okay, this is our first jaywalk!
Little kid: I'm so excited!
–45th St & Broadway
Overheard by: Linda Stein
Tourist father to family, crossing mid-block: Okay, this is our first jaywalk!
Little kid: I'm so excited!
–45th St & Broadway
Overheard by: Linda Stein
Tourist #1: Something’s wrong. We’re already at 36th Street, and we were supposed to get off at 49th.
Tourist #2: We’re not in Manhattan yet, stupid.
Tourist #1: Oh, right, we’re still in Bronx!
–R train, 36th St, Brooklyn
Overheard by:
New Yorker: So, having a romantic evening in New York?
Tourist: Yeah… I went sex toy shopping last night.
–Columbia University
Overheard by: laughing awkwardly
American tourist #1: Wow, your English is really good!
Scottish tourist: Um, thank you.
American tourist #2: Yes, it's really very good. You sound like a native speaker. What language do you normally speak in Scotland, anyway?
Scottish tourist: English.
–Empire State Building
Overheard by: rachel
Ticket seller: The statue is permanently closed, sir.
Tourist: What does that mean?
Ticket seller: The statue is permanently closed.
Tourist: For how long?
Ticket seller: Permanently.
–Battery Park
Tourist: Are you Teddy Roosevelt?
Costumed interpretor: No…
Tourist: Can you be Teddy Roosevelt for the next five minutes?
–New York Historical Society, 77th & CPW
Overheard by: Miranda Morrison
Tourist man to tourist wife: Look at that sign: “No honking, $350 fine.”
Sane-looking New Yorker: It's unreal, isn't it, how the government continues to discriminate against geese? No justice, no peace.
–5th Ave & 13th St
Overheard by: Richard Nixon
Tourist #1: We should visit Chinatown.
Tourist #2: Why?
Tourist #1: We can see real Chinese people in their natural habitat.
–Subway station, West 4th St
Older tourist woman to NBC tour guide: So, we are going to see the rock at the top?
Guide: It's called “the top of the rock.”
Woman: Well, that doesn't make any sense?
–30 Rockefeller Plaza
Overheard by: Michael
Tourist: Why does everyone on this train look so sad? Everybody looks like they’re having the worst day. [To girl sitting next to him] Are you having a bad day?
Girl: No.
Tourist: Probably because it’s so cold here. Is it always so cold here?
Girl: No. It’s really cold for March.
Tourist: It’s too cold to go swimming, isn’t it?
Girl: Yes.
Tourist: Oh, well. We’re headed uptown. What do you think my chances of seeing Woody Allen are?
Girl: Very slim.
–Manhattan-bound 4 train
