Brooklyn and Queens

Before I write a post of all that we did this weekend (TEASER: A psychic told me I have a black aura), I'd better write a quick catch-up of Thursday and Friday's goings-on.

I spent Wednesday wandering through Brooklyn, and it pretty much felt like stepping into the pages of Stuff White People Like. My brother, Caleb, spent a good chunk of his mission there, and he'd probably argue that I was not in the real  Brooklyn. No. To put things in Hunger Games  terms, Caleb served in District 12, I spent Wednesday in the Capitol: Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, and Prospect Park.

On the ride over there, a group of guys did a great performance in the metro. They were super  high-energy and did all sorts of acrobatics. One of them did a double front-flip over  the two other performers, a couple of them formed a human wheel and rolled down the car--it was actually quite impressive, all things considered!

Basically all I did in Brooklyn was oogle at brownstones. Along the way, I stumbled into the cutest  store called the Brooklyn Women's Exchange that had to-die-for children's goods. No wonder every woman in Brooklyn was pushing a stroller! They all want to shop there and in order to do so you need BABIES.

Here are some photos of other pretty things I saw in Brooklyn.

Lower Manhattan from the promenade in Brooklyn Heights.

The promenade.

A tree leans in Brooklyn.

Spring in full bloom!

Gorgeous.

Park Slope. So much variety!

I love how many styles you can encounter on a single street. This Greek Revival brownstone is stunning.

I like the one in the middle.

Even rich kids play hopscotch! Except they use $100 bills, not rocks.

Only a brownstone could make a rain gutter look pretty. Aren't those windows and doors beautiful?

Am I the only one whose heart melts over this?

The next day, Friday, I visited Queens to explore some of the ethnic neighborhoods there. It ended up being a "learning day" for me. For example, I learned that if a metro car's number/letter has a colored diamond around it instead of a colored circle, that means it's an express train. Whoops.

On the bright side, the 7 train into Queens is on an elevated track once you come out of the East River, so at least you can look outside along the way. I got off at Jackson Heights to explore the Indian neighborhood there at 74th Street. It almost  felt like being in Amman again :) Loud music blaring out of shops and passing cars, wafts of exotic spices coming out of restaurants and grocery stores, grimy sidewalks, people talking rapidly in a language I don't understand . . . it was fun to visit, although I don't know that it was quite  worth the trek out there. An hour-plus commute to spend fifteen minutes walking down one street? Yeah. Probably not my best idea. It was funny though--as I stepped out of the metro station and onto the street, I had the craziest deja vu. And then it hit me: On two separate occasions (once with my mom, once with Brock), the Q33 bus from LaGuardia Airport has dropped me off at that  metro station to catch the train into Manhattan. Crazy how your brain can remember small things like that! I spend three minutes cumulatively  on one street, and as soon as I happen to be there again, I instantly recognize it.

The next thing I wanted to visit was a Greek community in Astoria, which my guidebook said was on Broadway Street. Well, I got to Broadway in Astoria . . . and there was a CVS, a Subway, and a whole lotta people who were definitely not  Greek. I walked around for a bit thinking it was probably just  down the way a little more, but my efforts were not rewarded. Maybe next time I'll try getting off at the Astoria metro stop and see if it's any different up there.

So ultimately, Queens was kind of a bust but I'm determined to give it another try! Then I will be the Queen of Queens. HAHAHAHA GET IT? Like that show but not.