Day 6 - Brooklyn

American school bus

eating icecream whilst looking at Brooklyn Bridge

Typical Brooklyn Heights architecture

Walking across Brooklyn Bridge

Flatiron Building - Manhattan

There are 2 main areas of NY that I have been to to date, staying in Queens, then crossing over to Manhattan (I call it "they city" but don't think M/hattan-ites would like this).  I decided to head over to Brooklyn today, and had another sleep in as very little sleep last night (I think I am now over jet lag and now my mind is going a hundred miles an hour planning what I want to see and do....in other words, I am still not yet in holiday mode but that will come).


I used the subway to get to Brooklyn (on the Queens side of the East River).  I started off in Dumbo (short for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), looked around the shops then headed NW to the park under the Brooklyn Bridge.  The Bridge is a NY icon...opened in 1883, and was the world's first steel suspension bridge.  It really is lovely, and I kinda also like the Manhattan Bridge which runs parallel to it but you don't want to say that too loud as most people think it is a steel monstrosity.


I spend time wandering around the Brooklyn Promenade, eating icecream, enjoying the sun (23c today!!) and admiring the views of Manhattan.  I then continued along the Promenade and walked through Brooklyn Heights (oldest unchanged n/hood in NY - according to Lonely Planet) which has gorgeous multi-level buildings made of brownstone.  Just like movies I have seen in the past.  From here...yes, still walking!!...I walked through Brooklyn to the Bridge and walked across to Manhattan (took about half an hour after stopping many times and taking photos). I was talking to a guy who told me he grew up in Brooklyn but had not ever walked across the bridge.  The view was spectacular, and it was even better because of the gorgeous weather, now 25c.


Heading uptown (all very logical in NY, you have the east side, uptown, downtown, and streets in numerical order...makes it oh so much easier to navigate), I was crossing Park Ave when this lady was going by in a cycle rickshaw with a man sitting next to her.  Before I knew it I said "OMG it's Jacki Weaver".  How embarrassing....she heard, as did the others around me.  She waved and said hello with a big smile on her face.  It is bizarre, only celebrity I have seen to date is Australian and I watched Animal Kingdom on the plane - she was really good!!


As it was a really mild evening I grabbed a iced green tea with ginger from a great place (Argo), a Wall St Journal, then sat in a park filling in a couple of hours.  Before meeting Kitty I went shopping for jeans - new season Levi's only $47!!!  There are a lot of bargains here. Kitty and I headed to an Indian restaurant that was really good, and got home about 11pm.  Another fabulous but exhausting (I need a thesaurus) day.


Am I boring you all yet????