New York. The Big Apple. The City That Never Sleeps.

Home of the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, the Village, Broadway.

Hundreds of "Gap's", thousands of suicidal taxi drivers, millions of residents, and - for those of you uninterested in any of the above - infinite places to get a cold beer.

Pack light: you can buy anything you've forgotten at an exorbitant price. Longing for Milo or Vegemite? Try Chinatown. Unable to sleep without your foreign brew? Try Peculiar Pub. Looking for company? Just step outside...

NYC is comprised of five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island.

Most travelers stick to Manhattan, but the more adventurous (and those with a few more days here) will find that exploring the outer boroughs is about as "off-the-beaten-track" as you can get here.

Whatever your scene may be, you will not be disappointed: museum goers, fine diners, people watchers, tormented writers, sight-seers, all-night clubbers... this is the place.

Descend into the smoky depths of a no-cover jazz club, retrace the steps of your favorite Seinfeld episode, enjoy lo mein while being serenaded by scantily clad transvestites. Be brave. Blend in. (itıs hard to stand out). And don't sleep too much... you'll miss something.

When you arrive, check out the tourist office in Times Square. Grab a subway map and get oriented. Figure out your priorities, drop off your pack, and set out.

Some helpful sites on NYC:

Try New York CitySearch.com for more mainstream current info.

There's always the Village Voice, although picking up an actual copy (free) would be better, because the real scoop is in the ads.

The "Official" NYC site.

New York related sites (museums, teams, etc).

For listings of arts events in the city, try the front of The New Yorker magazine.

In which case, this page is not for you.

This page is dedicated to those who make their homes in the East Nowheres of the world - where the shops close at 6, the high schoolers smoke in the church parking lot, and everyone's talking about the new Target, or how Mary and Ross's son is going away to college.

It is you - the dwellers of suburbs, farm counties, and isolated towns around the globe - who can experience a special feeling that is lost on urbanites: a feeling best expressed as, "Holy Shit! I'm in New York!"

Sometimes this feeling is called up by the most over-visited, tour group exploited sites - the view from the top of the Empire State Building is pretty impressive, even if it is cliche.

Other times, you find yourself at some corner, surrounded by New Yorkers living their daily New York lives. And if these lives are different than the ones you are used to, that moment can be the most memorable and real experience of a trip.

Below is my in-progress list of places where you just might experience an H.S!I.I.N.Y. moment. It's worth wandering for.