7th September 2009
We had decided to slow the pace down for this morning, so a leisurely breakfast was followed by some time sorting and uploading photos from last night’s trip to the Rockefella Centre.
Late morning we headed out to Brooklyn for the 42nd Annual West Indian Festival Carnival. Wow! What an experience, the sights, sounds and smells of the Carribean come to Brooklyn where people from these places celebrate their heritage. Lots of flags, amazing costumes, typical carribean food, colour, noise and laughter with everyone just enjoying the carnival atmosphere and the sun (hot again today!). The carnival procession kicked off with the people running for various positions in government, some with their own drum crew and rapper (our politicians could learn a thing or two - talk about the opposite of stuffy!!).
With these political efforts out of the way, the main event featuring girls in colourful, ornate costumes dancing along besides huge trucks carrying DJs and rappers and blasting out bass-heavy rap music. Most of the time you felt the bass more than heard it! Each truck with its set of gyrating dancers seemed to be trying to outdo the last. One pair of dancers even gyrated with some of the hundreds of police on duty which got a major laugh from the watching crowd.
Having had our fill of the carnival and with the bass still firmly ringing in our ears, we caught the subway uptown to the bus station to check out where we would be leaving from tomorrow and find somewhere to leave our luggage for the day (10.45pm bus so all day in New York with an overnight journey to Toronto which should be interesting). Then we headed off to the ESPN bar (which even has TVs in the toilets so you don’t miss a second of the action!!) in Times Square for a particularly fine burgers and fries - well what else could you have in New York.
We took our full stomachs up 7th Avenue back to Central Park to find Strawberry Fields and the John Lennon memorial. Success this time! We found the memorial and sat for a while listening to a busker playing John Lennon songs (what else!), he was actually quite good and it was lovely to take some time out and just sit and watch people come and go.
It was back onto the subway again for a trip back to Brooklyn. This time to walk back to City Hall on Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge. Some brilliant views of the city, although the bridge was really busy with crowds all trying to take photos and avoid the (very fast) bikes speeding back and forth.
When we reached City Hall, we sat for a while in City Hall Park with its wonderful fountain and enjoyed a cup of peppermint tea watching the other tourists having their photos taken in front of the fountain.
Finally back to the hotel to grab a pastry and cup of coffee, which are free all day.