2015-07-28: Night time strolling

I would like to claim that we have been in Japan too long and blame all of my weird aesthetics on the Japanese. Everyone knows that the Japanese have weird over the top aesthetics in certain topics. Therefore the idea of having a favourite bridge is just a weird japanese thing I have picked up and not an indication that I might be a boring architect type of fellow.

Ferry or Subway. Even if you are afraid of drowning on the ferry remember that the subway goes under all this water so is even more dangerous. You might get the bends or something.

I do have a favourite bridge and I like to think I have valid engineering (not architecture) reasons for it being my favourite. However even I know that any tedious architect type will think he has valid reasons for his weird obsession. And none of us want to hear those reasons.

An architect did this. I believe it was his way of getting revenge on all the workers because they probably have partners, sex lives and happiness. Maybe a kitten.

Ewa is tolerant enough to accept my "too long in Japan" theory / excuse and has agreed we can wander across the Brooklyn Bridge in the evening. I believe if I mention caissons again she might change her mind.

Skateboarders! I used to always feel sorry for the guys that took pictures of us skating. We're having fun and doing tricks. They are just taking photos.

I will speak not of the doughty fellows that manned the caissons and taught us so much. Ewa likes scuba diving and so should appreciate the connection but I feel I may have crapped on endlessly enough about this (in truth she enjoys my ranting at times and sometimes has actually asked me to rant about something, anything).

Plus of course none of us ever landed the damn tricks either.

There is apparently New York's best pizza on the other side of the bridge too. It appears that New York's most famous / oldest / most tourist frequented pizza place was opened by some guy and then he sold it. Then he opened a new place next door. The new place is the new best pizza in NY. It is no longer the oldest or the most tourist frequented.

Wall Street! Yea though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death I will fear no Evil for thou art with me, thy rod and staff comfort me. Plus puppy!

Mostly I figure good pizza is good pizza, the best pizza in the world would just be good pizza to me - I am not skilled enough to tell the best from plain old good. This could be me setting the bar ridiculously high but I doubt it, I have eaten some pizza many people have made much ado about and thought it was good pizza. I think I secretly want to go because the owner seems like such a jerk based on that one webpage talking about that one business deal of his.

I am sure there is more to his life than the one story.

From Jersey City to Brooklyn is kind of a trek. You can probably do it more efficiently but I wanted to go on the ferry so I ignored google maps until we were in Battery park. Then we both wanted beer so we just headed vaguely in the direct google said. You can probably do it quickerer. But I have tourist check lists to check and the easiest way is to find something then claim it is on a list somewhere. We passed through Wall Street and got a picture with the Bull.

There were lots of people taking photos with the bull. I got bored and eventually took a few shots and photoshopped the other people out in the most half arsed way possible.

I was going to yell abuse at the Wall St parasites that tried to wreck the world through their drug fuelled greed but there weren't many people around and they didn't look that parasitic. We passed a place selling ramen burgers. Now there are some parasites.

I made bookends resembling this bridge once. That was creative of me, not obsessive.

In Sydney the Harbour Bridge is a bit of a tourist thing. You can go strolling over the top of it (one of the worst tourist experiences I have done - anytime people hit you up for more money at the end of the thing I get a bad taste in my mouth) or you can cross it on the deck with great views and once you get off you are at the Australian pub which has pretty good pizza.

I should probably do a photography course at some point This was accomplished by randomly twirling the special effects dial until something looked like twilight.

I figured the Brooklyn bridge is probably in the same league as the Sydney Harbour Bridge in terms of tourist activity. I was very, very wrong.
Using my navigation skills of "that looks like it, let's go that way"meant we got down to the bottom of the bridge and then had to wander a few blocks back into the city to get onto the actual bridge. We were under the bridge as the sun set which was cool.

Or get a job with the NY tourism board and fix the bridge up so idiots like me can take photos easily.

There were a few guys set up there taking photos. My camera is not set up for sunset type photos; it is set up to be idiot proof; no zoom, no flash and a way low f stop. Pictures either look like broad daylight or the camera won't even take a shot.

Hooray, Tourist Photo! I figured out how to turn flash on!

The Sydney Harbour Bridge has lights shining up into the superstructure. At night it looks brilliant. The iconic Brooklyn Bridge dual archway bit has a convenient light situated exactly in the middle of frame if you want to take a nice photo as you approach and the sun sets behind the arch.

I am sure real photographers can compensate for that light. I am not a real photographer. I checked at the other end and they had a nice bright light there too. I figure the light at that end is to prevent you getting a pretty photo of dawn through that arch. Comprehensive planning on their behalf.

If I was in the photo I could call it Dumbo in Dumbo.

The Brooklyn Bridge also seems to have a long exit which doesn't really drop you into the Dumbo area which has a bunch of cool stuff. It just kind of leaves you in an area with not a lot of stuff. I realise that the bridge has practical purposes and that I probably missed the signposts saying "tourists should go this way" but the Australian idea of putting a pub at either end of the bridge wins. Even if the pub at the Milsons Point end is kind of nasty and I don't remember having good pizza there. Last time I went I think it still had those nasty browny orange tiles which look like they were leftovers from the men's urinals.

This is the first time I have seen one of these plates as sensible. The footpath has a decent slope to it and the angled bowl made the food flat.

And it isn't that the Brooklyn Bridge is not used by tourists. It was positively packed full of people. I have never seen the Harbour Bridge like it except once when all the trains were broken and all of Sydney had to walk across the bridge together to get home.

Girlfriend for scale. Oh and the pizza was really good too. Would repeat the trip, probably just take the ferry from Wall St rather than walk across.

The Harbour bridge has the cyclists separated from the walkers. This means the Brooklyn Bridge has more interaction between cyclists (mostly locals just getting home) and walkers (mostly tourists ignoring the painted line separating cyclists and tourists). This is educational as Brooklyn has a different accent.
 I think there is more R in the Brooklyn version of "Fuck Youuuuuuuu". Could be jsut the doppler effect I guess.