The ramblers are on the road again!
Leaving the bright lights of New York and its cocktail of sewer aromas is always
emotional, especially when we had to bid farewell to hosts Luke and Katie amidst the croons of Frank Sinatra.
The final chapter of New York was spent
well. With the obligatory bagel lining our stomachs (PB&J, pictured above),
we set off to Brooklyn, once again meeting up with old friend and knowledge
seeker Ben Jay, who acted as our proxy tour guide. Though the trip to Brooklyn
was largely motivated by my desire to see and experience the native grounds of iconic
rappers such as Biggie Smalls and Jay-Z, I had relatively mixed expectations of
the place; Luke and Ben had both discussed the gentrification of the area and
how certain areas had transformed greatly over the past decade, shaking off its
undesirable reputation in favour of an upmarket renewal.
This was certainly visible as soon as we
got off the subway. As we strolled down the avenues, we were greeted by the
impressive Brooklyn Museum, the Public Library (pictured below with some guy
standing outside it), and an arch-cum-monument dedicated to the Union’s victory
in the Civil War. We walked through Prospect Park, which was busy with young
families, health-nuts, and crazy-eyed lunatics out enjoying the Sunday morning
sun.
We cut into the residential areas and
admired the red-brown house fronts, complete with short staircase leading to
the front door – a typical image of American city-suburbia. Ben promptly
informed us that these neighbourhoods are home to many celebrities including
Patrick Stewart and Jonathon Safran-Foer. Luke, who reads a lot of books, also
mentioned that Martin Amis is based in Brooklyn as well.
We refreshed at a hipster pit-stop, a café that
kept natural and artificial lighting to a minimum and apparently only admitted
wif-fi users who were connecting on their Macs, in an ironic way, presumably.
As Ben polished off his Nutella Latte and Luke his orange cat biscuit, we
headed out into the Brooklyn heat again, cruising past the Barclays Center.
This stadium is home to first and foremost the Brooklyn Nets, Brooklyn’s first major
league home sports team in 55 years, though they also put on shows and other
sports fixtures.
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| Hipster overload |
Then it was time to make the last stop of
the pilgrimage: Bedford-Stuyvesant. This Brooklyn neighbourhood, colloquially
known as Bed-Stuy, formed in 1930 and since then represented a cultural centre for
the borough’s black population. As well as being providing residence for several
hip-hop legends (Biggie, Mos Def, Talib Kwali, Jay-Z, Foxy Brown, etc.), Mike
Tyson, Tracy Morgan, Chris Rock, and Norah Jones also lived there.
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| "Where Brooklyn at?" (Note: we did not take this photo) |
Our first steps into the neighbourhood were
startling to say the least. As we rounded on Bedford Avenue, already beginning
to notice the fading influence of investment and redevelopment that has seen
parts of Brooklyn prosper, the high walls to our right spat out an object that
hurtled threw the air across the pavement in front of us and into the road. It
was a small shopping trolley, the patron of which stepped out seconds later, fixing
his blazing glare through us on the squad car that appeared almost on cue to
retrieve the debris. Tensions were clearly at a flash point. Anxious not to get
caught up in a police-civilian conflict, we kept our heads down and tried to
draw attention away from our pastel-coloured threads.
We walked down Bedford Avenue, trying to
reconcile the new gentrified flavour and mixed demographic with the historic
poverty of this long neglected community. It was certainly more of the Brooklyn
that I had pictured in my head, but with a more diverse profile. The hotbed of
hip-hop culture was not as palpable as I had expected, perhaps attenuated by
this development. Nevertheless, it was exciting to be in a place that is so
intrinsically associated with a genre of music; the neighbourhood with its own
soundtrack and personality.
Boarding the subway again, we headed back to towards Manhattan. We got off at the edge of Brooklyn so we could take the bridge back to the city. It was a great route back in, if a little tiring, and came out at the downtown area, where we were planning to catch some dinner - Chinatown.
Dinner was delicious, needless to say. We met one of Jannick's friends for dinner so the five of us enjoyed a typical feast of Chinese favourites, like garlic sauteed in garlic and soup dumplings.
Stuffed to the gunnels, we rode the subway home, ready to crash land on inflated mattresses. Representing BK to the fullest can be tiring work. Before we did finally hit the hay though, we trekked up to the roof for midnight drink. The plain water on the rocks went down real smooth as we looked out across the city and drank it in for one last time.
Stop number three is coming up now, as we soon arrive in the nation's capital! It'll be hard not to miss Luke, who has been so good to us these past three days, providing constant comic relief with his determined ineptitude and clownish looks.
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| The epitome of charisma |
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