In the few days before Christmas, Manhattan, apart from the big...

In the few days before Christmas, Manhattan, apart from the big shopping streets, becomes noticeably less crowded. People who live here mostly come from somewhere else and at Christmas a large number of them go back to that somewhere else. These departures give the city an unusually peaceful, almost tranquil, atmosphere. It almost doesn’t feel like New York.
 
It reminds me a little of Vienna where the streets are quiet and people walk at a moderate pace and the dogs are well behaved and don’t seem to bark. Even the more heavily trafficked streets don’t have overly-large or overly-loud trucks.
 
In Vienna, no-one seems to be in a rush. You hardly ever see anyone running to a meeting or a class or to catch a train or bus or subway. All public transportation seems quiet, clean, comfortable and well run.
 
For a few days, when I am there, I think this orderliness is wonderful. Then I think of the omnipresent noise and the ever-impatient walkers and workers and shoppers and commuters and I miss Manhattan. Today I saw two huge, matching grey trucks - each  looked about half a mile long – travelling together through Nolita, which doesn’t have the widest streets in the world. I knew I was home.