the plan for today was a day spent at coney island- the amusement
park. the weather was perfect, and i donned my bathers, sunscreen and
sunglasses. however, nothing in life ever quite goes to plan. lucky we
are awfully good at improvising!
we took the hour
subway ride and arrived at the last stop for the line- coney island.
rapidly, the landscape changed from the urban jungle and tall concrete
slabs. people in their bathers pulled along small children holding
buckets and spades. a day at the beach for all it would seem. emerging
from the station, we saw the island in all it's glory. now, i use this
term loosely- so incredibly loosely.
walking through
the park, the place was dirty and most of the rides were closed. the
ones that were operating looked like they were struggling- people
letting out screams every now and then whilst being hurled upside down.
we saw a lego couple being congratulated after having been wed. bizarre
place... we walked further and emerged on the beach. the water murky
and the sun beating down- we both decided this wasn't quite what we had
in mind. after waiting nearly 45 minutes for a hotdog on the beach front
we were well and truly fed up. we hopped back on the subway and escaped
back to manhattan island.
an hour and a half later we
got off the subway at 125th- very happy to be off the train. we found
ourselves in harlem looking for the malcom shabbaz market. it was a
market inspired by african culture- with jewellery, clothing and other
wares. despite the rude men on the stalls who were very pushy, the
market had lovely things. buying a dress and beanie we left the market-
and returned to the subway to go back downtown.
the
heat rapidly getting the best of us, we decided we needed to settle
somewhere.we stopped into zabars to pick up supplies for a picnic in
central park. it is a rather incredible jewish family run deli- serving
gourmet and kosher food. we picked up bagels, chicken, salads and fresh
oj before heading to central park.
it was a beautiful
night to be in the park! everyone was out, as it was still about 32
degrees at this time. we sauntered through before sitting in a small
section of grass to eat. a long line of people stood along a fence.
'we are hoping to get standby tickets to shakespeare in the park'
there
were about 200 people waiting to get tickets of those who were no
shows. we watched with suspense as the man in the authoritative green
shirt walked down the line- carefully picking his cut off points. 'oh, they missed it by that much' 'i really thought he'd let them through'. much better than anything the tv here provides!
belvedere castle in central park.
as the line of hopefuls dispersed and the sounds of shakespeare began, we couldn't help but be dissapointed. it felt as though i had just watched my favourite contestant be eliminated from the competition. oh well, there's always next show. we moved on, and walked around to saunter in through the park in the warm nights air. we watched the fireflies light up the park in their magical way, and ended up on a bridge. there, we met a small girl of four and her father.
'we try to get out here to the park every night- she loves it'
the small girl excitedly rushed from one side of the bridge to the other, climbing the banister to peek over the edge. as mum and the man began to chat, i soon found myself running to either side of the bridge with the four year old girl. she was a walking encyclopedia for the parks wildlife. she showed me a huge turtle in the water, and then we spotted a raccoon. first time i had seen one, and she looked at me as if i was very peculiar when i jumped up and down and yelled to mum to come see. she explained that there were two families of racoons on opposite sides of the lake and that they washed their food before eating it and were very dangerous animals. for a four year old, she was bloody good value. against my will- mum pulled me from the park as the park became very dark.
we ended the night before walking home sitting at john lennon's 'imagine' plaque. covered in flowers yoko ono herself had laid there, two people played guitar and sang the songs of the musical legend himself. for a day that started to badly, it ended fairly magically.
