New York, New York - Part II

On day 2 of our 3-day New York City adventure it seemed that we had a program of 5 days crammed into one, but I sort of gave up the idea of getting any sleep in the city and just decided, as long as I didn't collapse on Times Square, I'd be all right!
The day started around 10 AM by walking through Brooklyn, a part of NYC I hadn't seen before.

Our first stop was one of the best things about Brooklyn: a gorgeous view of Manhattan:

Williamsburg Bridge

 To call a view of Manhattan one of the "best things" about Brooklyn sounds as snobbish as it is and is a phrase I have taken out of our New York guide book, that had about 300 pages on Manhattan and about 5 on Brooklyn ... Well, Mr. guide book writer, I gotta say, Brooklyn itself is pretty awesome, you might want to add a couple of pages, like one on the probably coolest murals in NYC:

And another one on some freeeeaky stores you can find in this hood ... seriously, number 1 slave??? Only in Brooklyn!

And then we crossed one of these to tourists invisible borders, from the hipster side of Brooklyn to ... well, see for yourself!

It turned out to be Yom Kippur that day, the Jewish New Year, and the streets were just full of Jewish families. I am not talking one or two or three or four families. I am talking about walking down the street for two hours and being the only visibly non-Jewish person!

I don't think I have ever been asked if I was Jewish before, but since it is one of the rituals of Yom Kippur to bless every Jew you encounter, I think many of them just wanted to make sure. Just in case ... (and I still wonder, what if I had said "yes"?)

About two hours later, we had reached our destination: Brooklyn's Botanic Garden. To some it might just be another park, but to me it was an oasis of peace and tranquility in the midst of the buzz of the city, as you can also tell from the AMOUNT of pictures I took there, I actually had TIME to take pictures!!!

And this is pretty much as quiet as it ever got on this New York trip. Because after indulging into nature for a couple of hours, it was back to the hectic streets, and into a cab to make it back home in time, just to head right out again, and into the subway (once we figured out WHICH subway to take), and up up up to the Upper East Side for drinks with old friends from Chile while being attended by a Mexican waiter (it seems that if you just start talking to somebody in Spanish in New York, chances are about 75% they'll answer in Spanish), and then rushing back into the subway to the lower East Side (or some place in Manhattan where people look somehow very Japanese), into the next bar, then to a pizza place because we somehow forgot to eat all day, then back to the bar, then out of the bar to another bar where people looked like they were part of a video clip for "The Cure" and listened to surf rock music, then off to the next bar where everybody was dancing to live Balkan/Arabic music ... what am I saying? "Dancing" is not the right word, moving their hips sensuously, is more like it (yes, the boys, too!!!) until the band stopped playing and the DJ decided it was time to play Raggaeton all night long. Which was our hint that it was time to go! 

I am not lying when I am telling you that all I have left of this night is this picture: 

  

Yes! It's a urinal in the shape of a female behind. Why do I have this picture? Because it's NYC, baby! 

To be continued...

Want to catch up with Part I of this adventure? 

http://wanderstrudel.blogspot.com/2013/09/new-york-new-york-part-i.html

Or to see how the saga continues, read on here: 

http://wanderstrudel.blogspot.com/2013/10/new-york-new-york-part-iii.html