On the edges of New York City

Exploring a new city, like New York City for example, can be done in a lot of different ways. You can visit the must-see historical sights like Freedom Tower or the Statue of Liberty or you can wander around the iconic neighborhoods like West Village or Soho. If the sun is out, Central Park is pretty damn nice even in winter and the Manhattan skyline seen from Brooklyn at night truly is spectacular. This past week, I did/saw all of those things while I was visiting my friend Danni in Brooklyn, New York and we had a lot of fun doing it. But you see, Danni and I have a thing for going to some unusual places and seeing some alternative sights when we travel together and New York was no exception.

One day, instead of taking the L-train westward to Manhattan, we took the A-train almost to its end in the southeast of Queens and ended up at the beach. 

The wind was tough but the sun was wonderful and the only people in sight were a few cyclists on the promenade and a dog walker on the shore. The beach was surrounded by empty pastel houses that lost their colour in the winter light. We spent our time here looking for seashells and enjoying the stunning scenery.

Later that same day, we went looking for more shoreline on the northwestern side of the city Far Rockaway. Not only did we find it, we also discovered a new spot to admire the Manhattan skyline from. The left photo is our actual view whereas the right one is zoomed in just enough to see the faint skyscrapers.

Sitting here, we enjoyed our cold leftover pizza from lunch. We shared my pair of gloves so that each of us had one glove to cover our pizza hand while the other one was shielded from the fierce wind in our pockets. I cannot remember the last time I laughed that much. This is the only somewhat presentable picture of us from that moment. 

A different day, we did go west into Manhattan but then continued our journey all the way up to 242 street leaving the island and entering Riverdale. This neighborhood is characterized by its gigantic houses each one more expensive but also more beautiful than the last. For lunch, we had a picnic in Riverdale Park on the edge of the Hudson River and this was really the greatest gem of the day. We spent hours here soaking up the sun playing cards as well as playing around. 

We loved this place so much that we came back to it later that day to watch the sunset. Unfortunately, the sky had grown clouded during the last hours of daylight. Still, this did not stop us from sitting down to enjoy a couple of beers and a basket of strawberries and a few clouds certainly did not ruin the view that looked reminiscent of an old Monet painting.