The weather has warmed up over the past week, and it finally feels like Summer here in New York City. I walked out into the heat of Midtown Manhattan after work around 5pm a couple days ago, and made the spontaneous decision that it was time to finally go out to the ocean for the Summer’s first swim. Being that I’m in full-scale frugal mode, renting a car was out, so I called up M, and said “let’s take the subway out to the beach for a swim.”
Many people who don’t live in New York City don’t realize that the ocean is reachable by subway. Far Rockaway in Queens actually has surf and sand dunes — there are places out toward Fort Tilden at the western end of Far Rockaway where you would think you were on Cape Cod. The wind blows in from the ocean over the dune grass and there are no buildings in sight.
Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Image from Lornagrl via Flickr
But it’s an hour and a half on the A train from Manhattan to Far Rockaway, and then a long subway ride home to Brooklyn, so M. suggested that we head out to Brighton Beach, in Brooklyn. Great idea! Brighton Beach is a mostly Russian neighborhood on the southern edge of Brooklyn, just one neighborhood over from Coney Island. I don’t much care for the raucousness of Coney Island, but Brighton Beach is the perfect place to unwind after a long day of work.
We took the N train, out over Manhattan Bridge. I watched the evening sun glisten on New York Harbor and started craving a good long swim. The train went back underground where it stayed for the next half hour or so, until the subway turned into an elevated train and we came up above the ground somewhere in Bensonhurst.
It’s funny how I can always tell when I’m near the ocean, even when I am in Brooklyn. The sky became brighter and the light became clearer. The sun was still strong at 6pm, and the white stucco backs of the tenaments of Brooklyn took on a tone almost like those brilliant white buildings I have seen pictures of on Greek Islands in the Aegean. After another 20 minutes, we came around a corner, and the train finally pulled into the Stillwell Avenue station in Coney Island.
Arriving in Coney Island. Image from Lornagrl via Flickr
It’s been a while since I went to Coney Island. The train station has been redone and is impressive — about 4 different subway lines terminate there and the station is built to accommodate masses of people.
Stillwell Avenue Station, Coney Island, Brooklyn. Image from kodama_atpl via Flickr
As I said earlier, Coney Island isn’t my favorite place. It’s noisy, it’s tacky, the food is expensive and not very good. We did get some fried clams at Nathan’s Hot Dogs, then walked past all the freak shows and noisy rides, out to the Boardwalk, and onward to Brighton Beach.
Brighton Beach is a mostly Russian neighborhood. They call it Odessa by the Sea. It is definitely not bucolic like Far Rockaway. Crowded tenaments back right up onto the Boardwalk, and elevated trains thunder by, just a block or two away from the sand. The Boardwalk is crowded with Russians promenading and taking in the sea air. They really do promenade, just like people do in Europe. The place has a very old world feeling. You hear Russian all around, with the occasional thick, nasally Brooklyn accent thrown in for good measure, just to remind you of where you are.
Brighton Beach Boardwalk. Image from WallyG via Flickr
M. and I stopped at a Russian deli and bought some borscht, some sausages, cabbage salad, dark peasant bread and a couple Russian beers. As the sun was getting low, we went for our swim before we ate (luckily we both had swimsuits with us to use at the gym), and I paddled around until it was almost dark. The water was a bit chilly but refreshing, and full of Russians. Those Russians do love to swim. Afterward we wrapped towels around ourselves and slid back into our regular clothes right there on the beach, found ourselves a bench and ate our dinner.
Tatias on the Brighton Beach Boardwalk. Image from WallyG via Flickr
It was getting late by the time we finished, but it was enchanting on the boardwalk looking out at the water, and I felt like having one more beer, so we stopped at Tatias, a Russian restaurant on the boardwalk, staffed by friendly waiters, and sipped our way through several more mugs of an excellent Russian beer. Tatias has an extensive menu of Russian and Continental food. Prices are steep though; you could easily spend $100 each for dinner. The setting is special — not fancy, but very genuine somehow, very Brooklyn — but as we did not eat there I can’t say whether the food is worth the price. It is a good place to sip a beer and watch the world go by. Our beers were about $5 each.
All in all, it was an excellent way to spend a New York evening. Total price for us, $16 for dinner and beers at a Russian deli, and then another $20 plus a $5 tip for beers at Tatias.
Not bad at all – I wish I could hop.. well, anything to go to the beach. I’m green with envy here in Colorado.
In response to your Template search that you posted on my site – I get my templates from eblogtemplates.com. They have free blogger(for me) and Wordpress templates(for you) that are very snazzy. I’ve had no troubles with them.
The train station looks beautiful…. unlike most I’ve seen. Living in the North West, the beach is accessible, but most of the time the water is too cold to swim. Recently I’ve been reviewing what I want to do with the spare time I have. I get into ruts where I do what I do because it’s on my schedule or because one of my groups has something scheduled (even though I’m not wild about the activity), but recently I’ve been taking a little more time. Getting a little more sleep (I constantly am running on too little), doing stuff I enjoy.
Thanks Dawn, I had a look at the template site you recommended and found the perfect template. I have a vacation coming up in a couple weeks, and will work on it then.
I know what you mean Paul about getting into automatic pilot with the schedule. That happens for me when I get crazy busy at work — bouncing from meeting to meeting, then doing my real work until 7 or 8pm, coming home, having a couple glasses of wine, watching Judge Judy or some other inane, non-challenging show, and then falling to sleep before 11pm.
Luckily work hasn’t been quite so demanding lately — or rather, I have been setting firmer bounderies. I’m generally the first one to leave in the evening and the last one to arrive in the morning. Probably not the best career move, but it has been good for my sanity.