We Heart Brooklyn!

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October 25th 2008

Published: November 1st 2008

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JenGui

Leaving

Final moments in our wonderful apartment.

The adventure begins!!
It begun before we even left, as a matter of fact.
An emergency,high-stress sitaution arose, just to test us, of course.
I had to make an urgent trip to Ottawa the day before we were leaving in order to collect our passports and visas from the Indian embassy who had taken a little longer with them than expected.
But low and behold..the crisis was solved. Phew.

We took a train from Montreal to New York City (normally 11 hours, but ended up being 14 because of "rail delays", thanks Amtrak).
And of course as any adventure begins we met some interesting characters. For example, the loud and obnoxious young man from Montreal who wouldn't stop talking to us (and also wouldn't stop drinking beers either) who claimed that he was going to ride the NYC subway system in entirety! I wonder if he knows that its a wee bit more GIGANTIC than the system in Montreal.
At 11:30pm we stumbled off the train, managed our way through the subway and made it to Brooklyn where Guillaumes friend, Gianni, was patiently awaiting our arrival.
Our single full day in Brooklyn was incredible. I fell in love with the

Train Style

Its really just Guillaume, on the train.

place and just wanted more of it!
We first had to peel ourselves out of Gianni's cloudlike super bed in order to start it all off.
We began by wandering through the neighborhood, Greenpoint, looking at old churches and Polish bakeries that we passed by.
After that we headed to East River in hopes of catching some Italian mafia dropping dead bodies in the river. I guess we got there too late in the morning because we didn't see anything.
That morning we mostly just walked around Greenpoint some more, checked out the wicked shops, cafes and neighborhood street sale. Its SUCH a great area that it just bowled me over...
I WANT TO LIVE THERE!!
We met Gianni and his friends for brunch at a super cute french restaurant, then grabbed some coffees at the nearby vegan bakery and walked around some more. We checked out an artists flea market, played pingpong in a random computer shop we found, headed back to the East River to catch a glimpse of the Manhattan skyline at sunset and we just so happened to stumble upon PumpkinPalooza at the riverside park where they were giving out free pumpkins for families to carve

Train Station Treats!

Just in case you are in a real pickle... flower bouqet VENDING MACHINE!

and put into a contest.
Amazing.
For the evening, we headed into Manhattan on the Brooklyn bridge and checked out a superb art exhibition by the graffiti artist, Banksie.
It was so creative and realistic, I was really impressed.
It was held in a pseudo-pet shop and featured incredibly realistic pseudo-pets. Just to name a few; fish sticks swimming in a fish bowl, hot dogs drinking mustard in an aquarium and chicken nuggets dipping themselves into dipping sauce in a chicken coop.
And ALL the displays were active, in motion...MOVING somehow. It was truly brilliant.
We moved on to dinner at a gorgeous Thai restaurant where Guillaume somehow challenged Gianni's friend, Noom, to a game of pool (or vice versa).
Therefore, after drinking way too many Sigha beers and a "lunch box" thrown in , for good measure, we hit the road and headed for the pool tables.
The guys all played and I just watched and laughed as each loser had to wriggle himself under the pool table and out the other side.
By that time, enough was enough, we had to be responsible, cut the evening short (ish) and get back to Brooklyn so that we could be

Swell Church

In Greenpoint, Brooklyn

refreshed for the 15 hour flight to Delhi the next afternoon.
The next morning was tough and infact we had NOT been responsible enough to cut the night short (ish) enough.
But we managed to pack up, throw a nice heavy breakfast down and take the subway to the JFK airport to catch our flight to India.
Thanks again to Gianni, who is the most wonderful and generous host and who really knows how to show a most excellent time.
(Oh ya..thanks for the hat too)
NEXT STOP....DELHI!

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