Start Spreading The News – I’m Leaving Today

Okay, I lie a little, I’m leaving tomorrow, and it’s not New York bound but a New York departure. Still, those lyrics have been in my head all evening. And I honestly can’t decide whether it’s a happy or sad departure. I think we’ll call it bittersweet. There’s certainly a side of me that’s looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and not feeling like I need to get up and out the door to explore each day. But there’s always a little sadness when a journey, however short, concludes.

I’ve got an incomplete project awaiting my return, and I’ve made myself promise not to begin the photos from this trip until I’ve finished that project, so hopefully that will be enough incentive for me to crack down and complete it.  I know there are both Quebec photos and New York City photos that I’m anxious to edit. So, it may be a bit before I get to re-trace my journey, but I’m looking forward to re-living it through my own photos.

Today was, of course, more walking. In the morning, I took the train down to Brooklyn Bridge to walk across to Brooklyn. Of my subway trips in New York, today was definitely the most memorable… Of course, there was the usual homeless people begging. Sigh… No different from my experiences in Atlanta on MARTA. And I have heard some scary MARTA stories, but for the most part, my scary Atlanta stories happened on the streets, not MARTA. Today, well, I guess this story isn’t so much scary as off-color, so if you’re sensitive, you might want to skip ahead. First I had the (I think) unintentional flasher. The guy was obviously down on his luck, tattered clothes, frazzled around the edges. I looked up from my phone when he sat down and suddenly realized the crotch portion of his ragged jeans were pretty much gone. It wasn’t evident standing with his coat, but sitting – yikes! Thank goodness for those intact tighty whities. He was off the train in a few stops, but the trip wasn’t over. There was still time for a guy to step between the cars to urinate on the tracks while the train was in motion… uhm… Unless I miss my guess, there’s an electric rail down there providing power to the train, maybe not so bright an idea. Oh well, he survived (for now)… I’m not sure if anyone else was flashed, but a lot of tourists in both cars got to “see” that bathroom  break…  I guess I got all my frightening subway stories in one trip. I’ll survive these at least, just psychologically wounded. Ha!

Anyway, I was hardly the only tourist on the train heading for the bridge – the weather at that point in the day was beautiful, sun was out and although it wasn’t as warm as the weekend, there were still plenty out enjoying the sun. The weather counters what seems to be typical for my record of visiting landmarks that are covered in scaffolding, they are re-painting the bridge. From the pedestrian walkway, it’s not evident until you get to the tower on the Brooklyn side, and suddenly you can see nothing but metal walls covering up both the bridge and any view you might hope to have of Brooklyn unless maybe you’re over 7 foot tall – maybe.

Once off the bridge, it was even more apparent, a good half of the bridge is covered in tarps and scaffolding. Calls for some interesting angles if you don’t want to emphasize that in your photos. It also caused me to go down and pay a visit to the Manhattan Bridge. it’s newer but I think also quite a pretty bridge. It just doesn’t get as much attention as its older sibling. I thought briefly of crossing back into Manhattan by its pedestrian walkway. I saw a few people up there walking and quite a few bikes. Then I stood under it, a good six stories separated the bridge from me, and the din from trains crossing the middle of it still made me want to run and hide. I can only imagine what it must be like to be up there with a train clattering by… No, I think imagining it will be quite enough. So I wandered just a bit until I stumbled over the nearest subway station and hit it back for Manhattan. Nice quiet ride this time!

I wandered through Rockefeller Center just to see the ice skating, and there’s no doubt what I saw in Quebec was more interesting to watch. However, if I ever had to try to ice skate, there were more than enough unskilled people doing it there for me to feel comfortable trying. Ha!

At that point in the day, I was amazed my feet still felt good. I must finally be getting my New York feet under me – just in time to leave! I had nothing really left planned and came back to the room awhile and couldn’t decide if I was going to just pack or go back out. I did end up wandering Times Square one more time and saying my farewell to Broadway before coming back to do the impossible, pack!  The tiny almost insignificant amount of souvenirs all fit into my backpack, but my duffle bag still feels like it’s grown. And it actually has. It suddenly hit  me that with the exception of my cold weather coat which I cant possibly fit, I was trying to jam in an extra layer of clothes that I don’t need to wear for the warm wet weather back home… Sigh… Somehow I am getting that bag zipped in the morning, so help me!

Anyway, Farewell from New York!