Fire island had more amazing sights than the blog could take...

Take off

We wanted to see the ocean already during the small "election day" break, but as a good worker/student I of course got ill during the break. The flew didn't last long, so we got to have that take off last weekend. We were supposed to wake up early on Saturday morning, but as we got two German guys to visit us, we didn't go until Sunday. Saturday night we spent in a bar in East Village, listening to the music from NuBlu jazz festival. There was even a drum player who had recorded with Miles Davis in the 70's... Oh well, that's another story.

But on Sunday morning we woke up, took the subway to LIRR (Long Island Rail Road) at Penn Station. By the train we ended up at the Bayshore station from where we walked a mile or so to the ferry that would take us to Fire Island. Yeii, we would see the waves! We also got a really sun shiny day. Because I was a bit afraid I would not stay healthy, I was dressed in a winter jacket (the so called Michelin jacket).

Oh boy, we forgot the noisy Manhattan streets as soon as the ferry took off. It was so refreshing to breath the ocean air! Of course I was also excited about all the furry passengers on the boat, as much eager to get on the beach as I was. There was e.g. Cleo the wheaten terrier. The rest of the passengers were quite white, upper middle or even higher class people that had/rented/visited the houses on the beach.


When the boat arrived, we walked on the Atlantic side of the beach. By crossing the island we passed many funny looking houses someone had constructed there. In the summer time the island is apparently crowded: families and young people that come in groups to party. On the shore the houses were really fancy - the architects have done their best to constuct those beach houses.


We just walked on the beach, enjoyed the sun and made a collection of shells. We also had a picnic there. Unfortunately the animals that I normally so much like caused us a little headache: as we were eating, suddenly a big golden retriever showed up. I saw it was looking at our sandwiches and told him: "NO!". So s/he decided to grab one really quickly and as doing so threw some sand on our lunch. As I ran after it, I heard the owner screaming "Oh I'm so sorry!"... Well, the dog looked like s/he has done it some times. I wonder who had let it do so.


As I'm writing this text now I can still remember the salty ocean air. Changing the scene once in a while does you good. It's also good to know that there is something more here than just the big city.

We try to find a new apartment here. Please cross your fingers so that you'll have a place to sleep in when you come visit us! ;)

All Souls’ Day experience

It was fabulous to experience the Halloween but the day after there was All Saints’ Day and I was about to visit the cemetery. And NYC surprised me with that once more. Finding a graveyard is not such an easy deal as you would think (you know, comparing with the European metropolises). At Manhattan there is almost none of them besides some small churchyards, and I was looking for something big, with famous habitants, nice sculptures and atmosphere (Pere Lachaise, Powązki, Hietaniemi..). There is of course something like that – the Greenwoods cemetery in Brooklyn which in nineteenth century was the most popular tourist attraction of the US. Even more visited than Niagara Falls, can you imagine!? Well, at the epoch. Because today the most fascinating thing about Greenwoods is how it came to be so forgotten and abandoned place.

First it was not easy to find that it exists, then how to get there. I must say that waking up after Halloween night was not painless. But when we finally did it and after one hour in the metro when we ended up in front of the cemetery gate it was already closed and before we found another one which should be open longer it got dimmer and of course it was also closed. Well we had about a one hour walk along the graveyard’s fence. Quite scenic walk after all: from one side the English garden style graveyard with its idealized views, from another the postindustrial area of railroads, magazines and tracks' parking going down to the Brooklyn harbor. And in addition the view to the Manhattan sky towers and harbor and Liberty Statue on the skyline. The next day was the All Souls’ Day and I was decided to come back. And it was worth of it.

The day was cool but sunny and in the sharp grip of littoral air all redness yellowness gold rosiness and dying greenness seemed just about to explode. The yard is huge, I spent there more than five hours and didn’t succeed to visit all parts of it. Situated on the hills of Brooklyn with surprising views to downtown made even stronger impression than Central Park. It’s not a grave city with strict lines of stones and narrow paths between. It is a park with artificial lakes and waterfalls, with grottos, monumental stairs, squares with fountains. And at the same time a pretty rich botanic garden with collection of old and rare trees bushes and so on. And the graves, well they are just scattered all around blending with the landscape, sometimes dominating it, marking, emphasizing its idealistic and symbolic meanings, another times simply lost and abandoned in the domain of woods. Therefore the depth impression of this amazing place was done by the coexistence of this beautiful idealized and artificial landscape, so strongly and with such a big effort done to comfort still alive visitors, with their absolute absence. During the time which I spent there I met only five or six persons walking around. In the middle of Brooklyn! After really looking for it I found maybe ten graves with marks of someone’s care and visits. And without any tourists, photographers, impressions’ seekers… I was really shocked and so exited. To find yourself as a discoverer in NYC and then keep it alive during several minutes, hours (!) it was something. Irony of all this situation, like a silent laughter of a death. Like in Poussin’s Arcadia that humorously lost or get rid of ignorant shepherds. And in this finally empty paradise of memory only the regular work of gardeners, of quite big group of gardeners that makes the emptiness of the garden just more visible.

As it probably was easy to foresee after the walks on the Styx side, at some point I arrived to the other shore. In the middle of charming English style garden with its Antic temples, obelisks, columns and marble cradles I found a strange looking, business center like building. Set in the mountainside, almost invisible with its glass and steely walls shows up only its roof pyramid. Inside several flours connected by comfortable stairs and elevators. Hardwood floor and soft carpets. In every corner stylish sofa. Gentile music comes from hidden speakers. The landscape comes in through glass walls. On the other ones there are marble and granitic plaques with names, dates and so on. The new cemetery looks like a reception in a good quality hotel. And when I sat down there, on one of the sofas and looked around I somehow felt as I really wait for a room.

What an All Souls’.

Halloween special

People started decorating their doorways already weeks before the last Saturday of October. It crossed our minds that in this neighborhood of ours it even might be that they pay someone to do the decorations for them – they looked so professionally done. And when the Halloween day came, we could see that not only the decorations of houses were well done but people had really put energy and time in decorating themselves. There were witches, cartoon characters, politicians, musicians, clowns, cats, vampires, small police- or firemen walking on the streets.

The exciting atmosphere of the day was visible all day but when we entered the metro to go to the Greenwich Village Halloween parade it really started to grow. Sitting in the metro, my Venice mask on (L was kind of a phantom of the opera), on the other side Captain Hook and an angel, on the left a vivid bee I couldn’t help sighing that this is something big, a happening that unites lots of the people in New York City and it made myself think that I live (and also take part) in their community.

When the fully blocked subway arrived at Spring Street station we scrambled out and started looking for the beginning of the parade. When we found it we had to wait for about an hour for the parade to start off. At first it was depressing that we couldn’t move: I was supposed to take pictures for my photography course and now there was just a big bunch of excited people standing close to each other. It also started raining cats and dogs and we were soaking wet by the time we left the parade. But before the parade started, I was obliged to take pictures of people from very close range. And we noticed that in fact those were the best pictures of the night. And how people liked to pose! It seemed they were all dressed up just for being seen, and of course the parade was for that.

When the parade finally started we felt comfortable of being free to move and see all the different costumes and pass by the different bands that were making the music for the parade. We saw dancing and incredibly well done costumes. But as the rain didn’t stop we walked quite quickly to the end of the parade. All in all, we still had a party to attend.

The party took place in Brooklyn and on those blocks there were several industrial buildings. Luckily someone had had an idea of turning those buildings into concert and party places. We had heard about this “Last Masquerade” party from a friend. Apparently someone else had also heard about it: when we arrived after having changed and dried clothes at home, the line for the entrance of the party was about 300 meters. But as we were really curious about it, we decided to stay.

Of course when we would have been the next ones to go in, we were told that there would be an hour’s door shut. “Too crowded inside” the doorman shouted. Well the building, although looking like a big building, had taken quite many people inside…

As we had heard that the party uses several buildings in the neighborhood, we walked some blocks to find the other locations. We found one of them and surprisingly we got in without even paying the 20 dollars entrance fee! It looked pretty artistic inside with the video projections and gold-painted branches of trees. On the roof there were live bands playing and one of them really got our legs shaking. I don’t know the name but here’s a picture of the singer.

We spent an hour at the party and then found our way to the metro. Metro travel was still interesting with all the tired Halloween characters, like Cruella deVille leaning on one of the Dalmatians…

Funnily, the next day when we started our trip to the cemetery, I was pleased to see that people were once more looking normal.

E