Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Hello Brooklyn...How you doin'? Where ya goin'?

This past week I had the pleasure of spending an entire Saturday in Brooklyn mingling amongst the B&Ts.

Bonus points if you can figure out what that acronym stands for and if you can name the song where this blog post's title came from.

I don't normally venture across the bridges, as I've slowly become a Manhattan snob, but I promised a friend I'd finally come to her neighborhood...and I must admit that Brooklyn may be one of my favorite weekend adventure this summer. I've been hearing a lot of a great things about the Brooklyn Flea, so my travels this week were directed at finding out what it was all about.

Most of you know that I have an obsession with antiques. Furniture, jewelry, clothes, knick knacks...the older, the better because you know they each have a story that you'll never know, but will always wonder about. In addition to the antiques, there were tons of vintage clothes, handmade items (jewelry, t-shirts, soaps, foods). There's even a lot of local food vendors that serve lunch (like the Brooklyn Dog I ate on a potato bun with cooked onions), coffee and ice cream-- or coffee ice cream pops (which seemed to be a big hit).

The Brooklyn Flea operates in different neighborhoods across Brooklyn, and each has different vendors. I really loved the Flea, and could've spent hours there. It's a great way to see the products of local artists and to get a feel for the culture in that area (and yes, the saying that Brooklyn is 'hipster' is not a stereotype).

After we spent some time in the Flea, we took a stroll through Prospect Park (a.k.a. Brooklyn's Central Park). If you've been following my blog, then you know Central Park is my favorite place to go in the City. There's a strong possibility that Prospect Park may have trumped Central Park for me.

While Prospect Park doesn't have the awesome statues, lakes or movie set scenes that CP does, it has something better: unity. If you've been to CP, you know that all the grassy areas are separated from one another. You can literally walk through the park and discover 100 different grassy areas to hang out in. What's different about Prospect Park is that it's literally one giant field surrounded by trees. You can walk forever, but instead, you're looking at the same grassy area the whole time.

I love the fact that so many people can share the same space, but there were few enough people to where no one was on top of each other. Everyone still had their own space, but at they same time, everyone was still together. A very plausible oxymoron.

Overall, my trip to the home of Jay-Z (and not the 'real' home...that would be too scary) was like escaping to a land straight out of Dazed and Confused. If you ever have an extended stay in the City, I'd certainly recommend a day adventure to the BK. And if you're a local, send me your suggestions for other places I should go on my next adventure.