Under the Bridge

Yesterday, I sailed under Brooklyn Bridge, in a boat, and today I went under the third bridge from the bottom of the east side of Manhattan, in a subway. I've been meaning to go to Williamsburg, Brooklyn (or Billyburg/Billburg/Willyburg, as it seems variably to be monikered) for a good couple of years now but the trouble with going to New York so often is that I don't really feel a pressure to do new things because there's always next time. However, one of my goals of this trip is to check some things off my to-do list, while also ensure that I'm not doing them just for the sake of it.

Billyburg is fun, anyway, Bedford Avenue, its main drag, reminiscent of the main drag in Berkeley in many ways with its plethora of independent, studenty cafes and shops stocking urban hipster clothing. I browsed some of the cool boutiques and bookshops before choosing a lunch venue. 

Being a linguist, how could I go anywhere but Verb Cafe? The crowd was way too cool for me, especially as I left my hipster uniform at home (my jeans were, at least, skinny if not black and I did drink black coffee with my bagel). I also decided it was wise to hide my somewhat mainstream book (a satirical account of the life of the headmistress of a snooty Upper East Side private school and a couple of the students) behind my Moleskine.

Back to the West Village for a bit of shopping, before I walked up 9th Avenue, through Chelsea, to Rockefeller Plaza. I've been up to the Top of the Rock before but I wanted to do so at sunset and, having found out the sunset time on Google, I managed to time my visit perfectly so that I got plenty of photos of the Empire State Building and the sunset over Jersey. 

The Top of the Rock is really much better than the ESB, especially at night time as there is no protective glass interfering with one's photos, but my one complaint is that my favourite building — the beautiful Chrysler — is mostly hidden by the inconveniently placed Met Life building so the only photos I got were very blurry. Still, it was amazing to see such a gorgeous pinky-orange sunset, followed by the magical, twinkling fairy lights of Manhattan by night, even if I did end up staying so long that my fingers were freezing cold and mostly numb by the time I eventually yielded my spot on the wall at the top.