It was a Sunny Saturday Full of Prospects (and also an early-semester dearth of homework) that got me thinking that today would be a good day to go to Brooklyn-- and not just any part of Brooklyn, but a part of Brooklyn that I couldn't get to in a hurry. Initially, I thought to look for yellow areas on Google maps- places which have the distinction of being "areas of interest." But at the end of the day I decided to go for Red Hook, if only because the name sounded cool.
And what a good decision it was!
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| The distance from me to Red Hook. If you zoom in on the area- you'll see- no yellow. |
There is, of course, a central conflict in this story. And that conflict begins and ends with my phone battery's inexplicable inability to retain any sort of charge above 5%. The past two weeks or so, I've had to recharge my phone up to three times in a single day. Sometimes I can see the battery life leaking from the upper right hand corner before my very eyes. Dealing with my feeble phone and its vital photo/Google map capabilities was going to be the biggest obstacle of the trip.
So armed, with my phone charger and a full tank (which promptly fell to 90%), I set out.
To maximize my time on the ferry, I decided to take the ferry starting from 90th street on the east side. You might be familiar with the fact that going crosstown in Manhattan is an utter nightmare. That part of the journey alone was forty minutes. With my phone's battery quickly depleting (I was stubbornly listening to music- who was I if I couldn't commute in the city with my earphones sullenly in?) I tried to memorize the route just in case.
The ferry was more timely than expected, and I found that the gods had a sense of humor when the only plugs in the ferry were downstairs in the indoor area. With a phone battery already at 30%, I stubbornly went upstairs- what, after all, is the point of taking a ferry if you can't feel the raging wind and blistering sun on your face?
Disembarking at Red Hook, I was greeted with what seemed to be a run-down, industrial neighborhood. All the buildings looked like converted factories and warehouses, red brick crumbling onto cracked sidewalk.
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| Ohh so aesthetic |
I was just thinking to myself that this, perhaps, was the reason Red Hook wasn't marked in yellow on the map, when I started walking down Van Brunt Street. Underneath the run-down facade were cool-looking bars, restaurants, and cafes, unadorned and under the radar to all but those who knew where to go. By this time, it was 2 pm and I was starving.
Decided to stop for a quick lunch at Fort Defiance (a delicious BLT with heirloom tomatoes), and thankfully the bartender behind the counter (actually friendly) offered to charge my phone behind the counter- we were back up to 70%!
After lunch, I walked down the street towards the silvery shine that could only be the water. When I finally got to the edge (after stopping in the huge Fairway), I found a heartbreakingly lovely walkway by the water.
And the most impressive thing about this walkway was not necessarily the beautiful views of the water (I mean, it was a beautiful day after all) but the fact that there were no people there. Think of it: New York City on a beautiful sunny warm Saturday afternoon and there was nobody on a clear walkway by the water. It was almost eerie.
Almost eerier was the friendliness of the people I ran into the Waterfront Museum. As a friendly man inside informed me (and only me- there was only me and two other curious passers-by inside)-- the museum is an old 100-year-old wooden barge that is now a museum and a theater space.
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| Waterfront Museum |
Continuing on, I walked around a warehouse and saw a mysterious open door. Inside, I found a queer-looking coffee warehouse sort of thing, where a friendly man named Steve showed me around. It turns out the room is a giant communal coffee roaster, and I got to see Steve roast his beans for his one-man coffee company.
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| Pipe and Tabor Roasting is Steve's company! |
So charmed, I continued my way around the waterside park until I found myself heading back towards the same ferry terminus; it turned out my route had been a convenient little loop. I waited about five minutes for the next ferry, hopped on, and let my battery run dead while sitting on top as the sun went down over the buildings.
I said the central conflict of the story was going to be battery life, but I lied. It was all things considered a very conflict-free day, and it turns out that Google maps wasn't so important after all.
Another disclaimer: I realize that the things I did at Red Hook are ostensibly the more tourist-y things to do (even if there weren't any other tourists). Excited to go back and explore a little more thoroughly...
The moral of the story: if you live in this city, visit Red Hook!
