The High Line is a park constructed on an old elevated rail line. Once we arrived, we first walked north to the end, and then walked the length of the path south. One of the first sights was a man standing on the outside fire escape of his building, just off the side of the High Line. He started smoking and it seemed like the perfect artistic shot. I felt a bit weird taking his photo, however, as I am not used to taking pictures of people. I decided to pass on the picture and now regret it.
A little later, on our right, I saw an interesting building. I later found out that Jeremy's father likes the building and has a picture on his wall. It was being painted.
Shortly after we saw a truly bizarrely decorated building to our left. I'll let the picture speak for itself.
It was a cloudy day, but looking northeast, you could see the Empire State Building. I missed an excellent night shot of the building later on, so this picture with ugly clouds will have to do.
We ended up walking past a poster on the wall, noting how many musicians had performed on the High Line. In the next tunnel, there was an excellent singer performing for tips. He was very emotionally animated.
Once we reached the end, we walked down the stairs back to street level. Moments later, across the street we witnessed an odd event. A middle aged man with a shopping bag took out a marker, turned towards nearby construction plastic that was hanging on a building, and wrote "Deport Trump" in large letter, put the marker away, and continued walking as if it was nothing of consequence. We were too slow to capture the moment.
We made our way southeast to Washington Square Park. The sky had begun to clear a bit and the park was filled with people and performers. There was, of course, the standard attention seeking unwashed bird man, a few bands, a lone man performing music solo, a man in a wizard hat, and a section of the park dedicated to chess players with jars filled with questionable contents.
On the way out we passed a young women with a balloon hat and outfit, obviously to sell balloon animals to passersby. It struck me how sad she looked.
We continued due south toward One World Trade Center, which is a new addition to the city since I had last been there. One building on the left caught my eye and I took many pictures as we approached.
The trade hub across from the main Trade Center building, unremarkably named World Trade Center Transportation Hub was an interesting building from both the inside and out. Inside it led in many directions. We continued south.
We stopped at a Cuban restaurant for lunch and then approached the Brooklyn Bridge. I don't know much about the bridge, other than the fact that my friend used to live under it and I visited him for his housewarming party. Apparently it is well known from tv shows and movies.
There was a ridiculous amount of people on the bridge, made more difficult by the biking lane that took up half of the walkway, with people furiously ringing their bike bells to navigate through the horde of tourists. A most inane sight that caught my eye was someone using a long selfie stick to take pictures, while people were barely even able to move forward.
Once across, we went toward the water and enjoyed the views near the Pier 2 Field at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Instead of walking back across the Brooklyn Bridge nightmare, we walked a little farther to take the Manhattan Bridge back. We stumbled across a beautifully decorated pillar, labelled as Etsy.
We checked online a day later, and it is indeed the headquarters of Etsy, the handicraft online storefront.
The Manhattan Bridge had extraordinary views of the sun going down and the city. Unfortunately, the walk was on an overhang on the side of the bridge and shook incredibly as a nonstop barrage of trains crossed it. I started to walk quickly and Jeremy asked me what I was doing. I told him that when my height fears kick in, I walk faster, so I won't die. I only stopped for a handful of pictures when I gathered the nerve and then continued speeding along. I sat down and waited for Jeremy to catch up once I had reached the end.
As I found out after crossing, Jeremy had felt fatigue set in, which made it difficult for him to keep up. We stopped at a nearby Dunkin Donuts for liquid replenishment. This area, part of Chinatown, was beautifully lit up as the sun set in the distance. I also took note of the chinese translations under every sign, which was pretty cool.
None of my pictures came out particularly well, as we walked briefly to the nearest station. In the subway, it was hot and incredibly poorly organized, with only one machine selling tickets. Our line was closed down and there was poor signage toward an alternative line. There was one fellow with mental health issues ranting and cursing on the subway. I greatly dislike the New York City subway.
I had to go to the bathroom, so I didn't take out my camera while trying to locate the nearest bathroom, which was in Penn Station. I passed a beautiful view of the Empire State Building. Once I was out of the bathroom, Jeremy informed me that he was too tired to continue on, so we took the train home. Nighttime in the City will have to wait for another time.
