Day 5 - Sun 19 Oct 2008

After waking up reasonably late (the sleep was needed however!); food at Broadway Bagel included steak, egg, cheese and onion on a plain bagel with a cup of tea.

Today's agenda was a trip to Brooklyn, which we got to after a further subway ride. For those of you in England reading this, you will be pleased to know that rail works that slow down the train timetables are not exclusive to the English rail system. Indeed, in New York, the weekend means a considerable reduction in not the number of trains running oddly enough, but the number of stops available to get on and alight from trains!

Indeed, to go downtown, there are occasions when there is a need to get an uptown train for two stops to then take an express downtown train to the stop required. Considering stops are roughly every 7 blocks or so, the choice between using the uptown then the downtown metro or just walking a further 7 blocks in the downtown direction is often decided on by how weary the legs feel and what the weather conditions are at that moment in time.

As most lines from the north stop at 42 Street (Times Square), the crowds on such downtown-bound trains can be very heavy, with up to four or five attempts being made by the driver to shut the trains' doors at times.

The crowd tends to thin out after Times Square but given the tourist attractions such as the Statue of Liberty and Ground Zero are further downtown, there tends to be a demand for most metro stops to some extent or another.

The metro train to Brooklyn was newer than the ones seen in Manhattan; once arrived in the area though, I'd recommend the short walk from Clark Street to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, which gives some lovely panoramic views of Manhattan and also the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island across the water. Several photographs were taken there, again the weather nice and sunny although the drop in temperature from the previous few days was noticeable.

The residential area on the north-western part of Brooklyn appeared to be in comparative silence to the Manhattan side of the river; mainly due to the absence of the ever-impatient New York taxi drivers in these areas. In this city - indeed probably in the entire country as a whole - it is obvious that the car owns the road; at lights, the white "walk" sign for pedestrians indicates precisely what it directs, however if there are no pedestrians crossing then the cars are free to on their merry way, despite the lights being against them.

The downtown Brooklyn shopping area for some people would be a heavenly dream, though for most I'd suggest it would be a very bad dream; shop upon shop down both sides of the road selling only trainers, jewellery, perfume and mobile phones at all supposedly heavily-discounted prices; however after closer inspection the goods on sale didn't appear to be of any significant mark-down despite some of the shop sales staff's rather aggressive / keen pitching.

A lunch stop at a Junior's Restaurant for barbeque chicken wings was was sufficient enough, though the serving of complimentary pickles, white cabbage and red beetroot I wasn't entirely convinced about. In the foyer of the diner were photos of President Clinton greeting staff and diners, back in the day before the present Bush administration.

After lunch, we walked over Manhattan Bridge; length of 6,855 feet; length of the main span 1,470 feet; each cable 21.25 inches in diamter and the weight of each anchorage being 232,000 tons.

That bridge in particular, like so many other throughfares in the city,was anti-pedestrian with only a relatively narrow walkway compared to the four railway tracks and double highway.

At the Manhattan end of the bridge was a small baseball park with a perfect view of it from the bridge. There appeared to be a Juniors' practice game in progress though, after having seen ten minutes of my first baseball game (even at an amateur level!) my first thoughts about the sport are..."slow" and "dull" - and this coming from a very keen cricketer too.

Upon further inspection though, I would guess that that would be due to baseball being dominated by the ball and the fielding side, whereas - particularly at the higher levels of the game - in cricket the game is dominated by the batsmen who due to the different structure of the game have longer to "play an innings" and contribute, whether its through being patient at the start before playing the big-hit shots or whether its carnage from ball one. For the baseball hitters, there is no time to "play an innings"; the ball has to be hit hard from ball one otherwise its the walk back to the players' bench.

The Manhattan side of the bridge also houses Chinatown. As well as the mandatory McDonalds in this district is a memorial at Kimlou Square "In memory of the Americans of Chinese ancestry who lost their lives in defense of freedom and democracy".

Yet another impressive building (New York appears to have them in truckloads!) resides near the Square; the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Court House with the rather-relevant engraving in this day and age of..."The true administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government"...etched above the massive ten pillars holding up the front of the courthouse.

Another subway ride back to the hostel and here I am; legs and feet slightly weary but looking forward to the coming week in New York; with some new insoles to ease my feet and pain-relieving gel to sooth my damaged knee bought from one of the numerous Deane Reade chemists here in the city, a good sleep should see me prepared for a good day tomorrow.