Brooklyn bridge at night
Brooklyn bridge at night
Brooklyn bridge at night
Manhattan bridge
Brooklyn bridge at night
view of brooklyn bridge
View of building to be demolished and new high rise built
Brooklyn bridge
view of ice cream factory
Brooklyn bridge
Brooklyn bridge and park
Tiffany stained glass windows in Brooklyn Church
A piece of real plymouth rock in Brooklyn Church
Inside Brooklyn Church
Some of the most expensive property in NY
Manhattan skyline
Manhattan skyline
Property in Brooklyn
Location of main underground in Brooklyn (help escaped slaves find their way to Canada)
Houses in Brooklyn
Traditional brown stone houses in Brooklyn
Traditional brown stone houses in Brooklyn
Heavily ornamented door in Brooklyn
Brownstone house in Brooklyn
Different ornamentation used to differentiate houses on same block
Random statue of Columbus
famous preacher who played a role in freeing slaves and drafting elements of American Constitution
One of Brooklyns many churches
Heavily ornamented archway in Brooklyn
Church in Brooklyn
View of Manhattan from Staten Island Ferry
Civic square in Brooklyn
Brooklyn bridge from Staten Island Ferry
Deckway on Staten island ferry (everything is very orange on board)
Art from the National Museum of American Indian (NMAI)
NMAI
NMAI
Grand building housing NMAI
Statue of remembrance for WWII
NMAI
NMAI
NMAI
NMAI
NMAI
NMAI
NMAI
Archway in NMAI
Park in Harlem
Harlem brown stones
Street in Harlem
Main street in Harlem (125th street)
Old Synagoge in Harlem
Church in Harlem
University of Columbia
University of Columbia
Day Five.
Started the day with an organised walking tour of harlem. Well it was an experience. I had some preconceptions about Harlem from what i had seen on the TV. The area is full of really lovely houses and architecture. The place is littered with Churches. Before the turn of the century the area was an area where people from Manhattan has their summerhomes. The houses were big and grand. Harlem is on the Northern Bit of Manhattan Island - from 125th street up. I was staying on 103rd. The area changed after the tun of the century when people couldnt afford to keep the houses anymore, so lots of poor (mainly black) people moved in. They shared the houses many familys to a house. The guide was really knowledgable and pointed out were famous Jazz atists had lived, famous Jazz clubs etc. He also worrying pointed of traces of neighbourhoods drug problem. He picked up empty cocaine viles, empty crack packets etc when we were down seemingly residential roads. The locals were okay but you could tell they knew we were on a tour and would stop and watch us. One man even came up to us and told us to "get the f*ck out of harlem". Nice. Apparanetly there hasnt been any nastiness towards tours for a year and a half. Lucky us.
After heading back to the hostel i moved onto the National Musuem of the Amercian Indian which has some really superb sculture and moden art work, all crafted by Native American Indians. There was a lot of history also documented on the walls. I then got the Staten Island Ferry which crosses every 20minutes of evry day of every year to Staten Island (30 mins journey). The ferries are big bright orange monsters steaming across the water. I did the round trip twice so that i could see Manhattan at night. It was absolutely freezing. I havent got many pictures from the trip as it was so cold i couldnt hold the camera still enough for a clear shot. I then headed into Chinatown. Walked about a bit and was disappointed by the cheap knockoff shops and so headed back!
Day six and i signed up for a walking tour of Brooklyn. The guide, Bill, was really nice and knew so much about Brooklyn. He does the tour for free every other Monday. Brooklyn has some amazing buildings and architecture. He pointed out in partcular one of the safe houses used to smuggle escaped slaves to Canada. We walked right up to the River front and saw some of the most expensive real estated in NY. The houses face straigh onto Manhattan. Amazing.
After that we headed into the Area known as DUMBO. (Down under the Manhattan bridge Underpass), NYers are always abbreviating and shortening things! We then spent some time just gauping at the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. It was definately the best view in NY. Bill then took us to the best pizza place in the city for a (rather dissapointing) pizza. The pizza had not enought toppings or cheese.
I then walked across the Brooklyn bridge. It was slightly snowing, freezing cold and dark by then. The lights from Manhattan and the bridge itself were amazing! I was walking quite slow and so i think it took 45mins. Well worth it!
Things i wasnt expecting from my trip to NY:
The number of homeless people (so many everywhere)
People were really nice and courteous
How difficult the accent is to understand
the proliferation of Spanish - more often overhead than English
Dirtiness - subways and streets were really dirty
How difficult it is to navigate the subway!
No comments:
Post a Comment