I window-shopped around glitzy SoHo, walked through grimey Chinatown (it is, by far, my least favourite part of Manhattan) and took an amble on Brooklyn Bridge. My feet are now covered in blisters because I have a propensity for bad shoes and long walks - which make for a very potent combination - but because the blisters didn't burst, they wouldn't make as grand a montage as this would. Closed blisters are good - when they heal, they form an awesome armour of dead skin for my poor feet.
The bridge from ground level on Manhattan. Totally reminds me of the Spiderman computer game. I got a little lost trying to figure out how to actually get onto the bridge. It was right before me, but I couldn't figure out a footpath. I walked passed a dingy little skate park which was under Brooklyn Bridge - quite a stereotypical place to be skating and doing graffiti, I bet. But the place stank of urine. It's called Brooklyn Banks, btw. I am surprised that the place actually has a name. The ramps all look so dodgy and half-assed.
I had a map with me but it wasn't very useful for pedestrian footpaths. I had half a mind to just return home, when a policeman approached me and asked me where I'm headed for, and he gave me some directions. Friendly guy. I bet he's used to lost tourists.
The way up the bridge was seriously ulu. Pigeon droppings on the floor, rusty metal railings and worm-eaten wooden beams on the ceiling.
This doesn't look like anything, does it? But go through the opening on the right and...
Stairs that are ulu too.
And civilisation! Not very efficient, the city's refuse clearing service.
Oh I think I'm acquiring a tan from walking under the sun so much. Just as well.
Rusty bridge.
Metal cables and some random guy wearing a Vans t-shirt.
This would've been a pretty ordinary view. Just that the sticker looks like it was stuck a leetle far out. The lamp was probably about a metre or so off the edge of the ledge, maybe two metres from the closest I could get. There are cars underneath! I wouldn't want to climb on this rusty thing to stick my sticker. But I bet sticker-sticking people would, so yea.
I bet this place would be really pretty at night.
Totally cheesy sign. Cheese is only acceptable with irony.
Oh, about being accosted. So I was peering at my map, trying to figure out how to get to the subway station to take the subway back - didn't want to walk across the bridge again. I had been walking for about three hours already. This guy walked beside me and said, "Does that actually work?"
"What?"
"The map, does it work?"
"Not really, the map doesn't show much of this area." The map was largely a map of Manhattan, and only pictured a small corner of Brooklyn.
So we ended up chatting a bit, and he mentioned how people normally perceive New Yorkers as mean, and I told him I don't think that is true at all. I had wanted to go to McCaren Park to watch a free outdoor movie screening, and he said "If you go there you might never get back." Then he told me how some people there wouldn't think twice about stripping him of his possessions in broad daylight. Thank goodness I was tired enough to change course.
So while he was walking me to the subway station, it suddenly occurred to me that he might do something funny. He could be trying to get me to let down my guard; you never know. But here I am, all orifices intact, so no worries. It was definitely good to chat with someone non-familial in the flesh. It is definitely good to have someone show me the way than have to figure it out myself. GMH, much? Hah. I am also convinced that people here are a lot more interesting than people back at home. I overhear funny things all the time.
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Quote on an item in the MoMA design store: "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana." - Groucho Marx.
Some geezer in Union Square set up a booth with a placard that said something like "try a different approach to your questions". What, I'm going to pay him a buck or two for useless, wisecrack advice? I think I might set up a booth of my own too.
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