Brooklyn, New York

Aug 27 – 31
After hanging out in Baltimore with Melissa while she got settled into her apartment, celebrating my bday and getting my hair cut, it was time to head off to visit Phil & Dominique in Brooklyn. I met them in Antartica – 2 more lovely people that I was lucky to be on the same cruise with.

I have been to NY a couple of times before, but never to Brooklyn. First time I was in New York, was Feb 2001 for a week, and then I did all the touristy/shopping stuff. Last year I was back for my cousin’s wedding, spent 5 days in upstate NY, near Tarrytown, and a couple of nights back in Manhattan hanging out with the wedding party, going out for dinner & drinks & generally just experiencing the Manhattan scene.
First off, the first cab I got into started to complain, because of Friday night traffic that his night would be ruined by taking me all the way out to Brooklyn. I was already tired from an overlong & delayed bus journey because of Friday night traffic & I really wasn’t in the mood to listen to this guy. So I let him off the hook and said I would get another cab, he thanked me, didn’t charge me the $7 I had already racked up & told me I would never get anyone to take me to Brooklyn due to before mentioned Friday night traffic. I went into a McDonald’s to scam internet, fighting off hysteria at the thought of not getting to Brooklyn at a reasonable hour to celebrate Phil’s birthday :). I google-mapped the directions & found another cab. Thanks to Google Maps it took only half an hour and $25 to get to Bedford Ave in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood. And Phil was already waiting on the street for me, concerned when my phone had died again, and it was taking longer than expected for me to arrive. But I got a pic or two of Manhattan as we headed over the Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn.

Brooklyn wildly exceeded my expectations. I was expecting total ghetto – and while some of it was a bit ghetto – it was very safe – and a lot of it is very very pretty. There are brownstones out there – lots of them!

And plenty of bars & clubs all bustling with people having a good time. We took the metro a couple of stops from where Phil & Dominique live and had sushi for Phil’s birthday. Dominique & I had a little competition to see who could finish their sake without using her hands – I won :) but only by default :). After dinner, we wandered down the street to a Silverspoon & had frozen yogurt for desert – green tea flavour is awesome! And then we walked home – completely safe – it was a lovely night & a great introduction to Brooklyn.
Next day (Saturday), Dominique & I were up early to go to the CSA & Farmers’ Market.

I don’t remember what CSA stands for but basically it appears to be a club you can join, where you pay for farm produce from a local (as in pretty close to NY city) farmer. You pay for something like 6 months at a time & you get whatever produce the farmer has in season. So what you receive is always fresh, in season, local (so small carbon footprint) & (I think) it’s organic as well. A great idea in my opinion. Maybe such a thing exists in other countries, but I’m not aware of it – and let’s face it – this is something that is badly needed in the States to get people off of pre-packaged, high-fructose-corn-syrup-stuffed foods – if that’s what people want & their pockets can afford it. But in reality it seemed a lot less expensive than trying to buy fresh fruit & veg from the supermarket, where the food looks fakely perfect & can be so expensive it drives you to the pre-packaged shelves (I’ve noticed this a lot more since I started travelling, having no income makes me watch my supermarket bills). Dominique said it worked out at something like $25 a week, for fruit, veg, eggs, cheese & meat – and it’s more than enough food for 2 – probably enough for 3 at a stretch. After CSA we took off to the Farmers’ Market, which I am familiar with, and the food there was fantastic, we got amazingly tasty heirloom tomatoes, bread, more cheeses, corn on the cob (for our planned BBQ that night) and I was very tempted by, but resisted some gorgeous looking muffins.

By the time we arrived home with all that food, Caleb (Phil & Dom’s friend & colleague) had arrived, we packed up his car with our food & camping supplies (beer was already in the secret compartment – see picture) and took off for Roscoe in upstate NY.

It was about a 3 hour drive but well worth it for the secluded & peaceful camping ground right next to a river. After setting up camp, Dominique & I took a stroll along the river, while leaving the boys to prepare the beef stew for dinner that night. The flowers along the river were beautiful & we only wished it was earlier in the day so that we could have gone hiking for a few hours.

Beef stew dinner that night was AWESOME, along with a couple of bottles of red wine – and followed by smores for desert. It was only the 2nd time in my life I’ve had smores. After all that food it was time for “magic fire” – this weird powder stuff you through on the campfire to make it turn different colours (the package came with so many health warnings it made us all nervous).

By the time that died down, everyones’ eyelids were heavy & we all turned in for the night. Next morning after eggs & sausage for breakfast, we packed up & headed back to NYC. On arriving back on Bedford Ave, we were greeted with the smell of freshly baking bread from the new bakery opening up in Phil & Dom’s apartment building! And even though we were eating almost non-stop ALL weekend :) we had to stop in to try some of their breads & pick up some brownies, which were so decadent they tasted like chocolate truffles from Sprungli – I kid you not. The bakery is called Scratch – if you get a chance or see their stuff at a farmers’ market (which is where they mostly sell) – give them a try.
Monday I had a very different day...I went to see the sets of the TV shows that both Phil & Dominique work on! Phil is working on a pilot this week, and it was being filmed on the streets in Greenpoint in Queens. So I toddled along to see what happens. Filming was taking place in a little supermarket/deli shop on the street so when I got there, there was already a crowd of locals gathered across the street watching the proceedings. Then I headed out to Silvercup Studios – a bit further away – to where Dominique works on the TV show “White Collar”. I’d never been to a set before, it was surreal to walk around the rooms that I’d seen on tv only a couple of weeks before while roadtripping around & staying in motels with Melissa. After seeing the different sets, I was given a set of headphones so I could listen in & watch on a screen while the actors rehearsed & then filmed a scene (like Hugh Grant in Notting Hill - hahaha). While there is a lot of waiting around for everyone involved with any kind of tv/movie filming – it’s also (or it appears to be to me) quite an intense job. Phil & Dominique both normally work 12 hour days, 5 days a week, and if there is a delay (for whatever reason), filming will carry on until whatever time of the day or night it takes to finish the day’s schedule. Then (per union rules) there is a 10/12 hour break for everyone before filming begins again. So if there is a delay on the first day – you are more than likely going to be working late all week :(. Make no mistake, it’s a hard job, and not particularly glamorous at all.
Tuesday, I packed up, said goodbye to Phil, Dom and their gorgeous cats, Froggy (pic below) & Zelda (camera shy - so no pic), and headed to Penn Station to Amtrak it back across the country to Washington.