brooklyn style \09.16\

brooklyn style \09.16\

Posted by Lauren at 10:48 PM ✪ No comment yet

It's difficult to believe, as I sit on my own couch for the first time in two weeks, that merely five hours ago I was in New York.  As my time wound down, clearly there was no way that I had seen all of the city.  So, Sunday was devoted to a single priority, the Brooklyn Bridge.  Anything else that I fit in would be bonus...I ended up with a lot of bonuses.

First of all, I started my morning with a battle of the bagels.  Yesterday's H&H Bagel versus today's Brooklyn Bagel.  H&H hands down, in case you happen to be in NYC bagel hunting.  I hopped a C train to Brooklyn, leisurely ate a bagel the size of my head on a quiet park bench (you can find those in Brooklyn, I guess), then strolled across the Brooklyn Bridge.

The city views are great, the structure of the bridge itself is amazing, and starting the walk from Brooklyn was genius.  It wasn't until I was nearly into Manhattan again that the glut of tourists was upon me.  By then, I was already done and moving on.

Then it was time to do what I do best, wander.  This is where the bonuses racked up.  I quickly threaded through lower Manhattan, passing the World Trade Center area (obviously packed with tourists) and the financial district (heavily secured, thanks to Occupy).  A mile up Broadway brought me to Canal Street/Chinatown and enterprising folks trying to entice you to follow them for a selection of "Prada, Louis, Gucci".  Not my scene, moving on.

As it happened, the entirety of Little Italy was a giant street festival.  I inched up five blocks, single file, with cannolis, pizzas, and assorted meats staring me in the face.  Tempting, but overwhelming. It felt like time for some R&R and people watching.  Another mile, through SoHo, brought me to Washington Square.

Somehow I managed to get entrenched in an hour and half conversation with the guy on the bench next to me.  It all began when he, a New Yorker, mistakenly assumed me to be a New Yorker as well.  Assimilation took less than two weeks.  From there, we discussed the obvious: college, sports, jobs, favorite places in the city.  And then things got delightfully pretentious, debating the value and classification of modern art.  You know the merits of Renoir versus Pollock, how people mistakenly find Degas' ballerinas beautiful, the richness of the colors in a Seurat.

Alas, it was time to return to the Holiday Inn and retrieve my bags.  The Windy City was calling.  I'm glad to be here, excited to return to life in the Loop tomorrow.  My morning crossover from Brooklyn and my afternoon in Washington Square created a perfect end cap to my NYC adventure though.  (I swear posts will get shorter again as I return to my standard life.)