one thing led to another and then there I was, in downtown brooklyn. It was pride weekend, by chance, but I decided to avoid the crowds and mostly just chilled for the four days I was there. I got in late on Thursday, took the train in from JFK, walked from javits to my airbnb (rip, airbnb in nyc, it was great while it lasted). Then got up and went to EMPEX NYC, the nominal reason for my visit. Well, that and it made the hop to AMS shorter and easier (and those photos are also coming, I just got to these first because… reasons).
New York in the springtime. This was the trip that I finally took friend Emmie’s advice and acquainted myself with the bodega sandwich. I don’t think I had a single slice of pizza the whole trip? The sandwiches, they are good. My sleep schedule was mostly fucked the whole time, falling asleep at like 3am and waking up in the early afternoon, so that affected it somewhat, and then also there was the problem that there just weren’t any slice places nearby where I was staying.
Made the trip into Manhattan to see the Popcorn and some Tabs discord folks, had a nice little picnic in Washington Square Park. There was some sort of Hare Krishna thing going on, felt weird and a little cult-y, especially the drum circle. Sitting on the grass on the other side of the park from the gathering was nice, though.
Then we wandered to a local watering hole, had some drinks, went and had dinner at some Thai place that was probably fine but I honestly don’t remember that much of (it’s been three months, a lot has happened). Then we stood in line for ice cream somewhere else in SoHo, which was really good but I have almost no idea where we were; everyone I was hanging out was a neighborhood veteran and it was my first time anywhere near NYU.
Then back to brooklyn, and it’s wild how a couple blocks from the tall skinny billionaire’s nests it’s just brownstones and apartments. I was in a fourth floor walk up, tiny one bedroom that belonged to someone in musical theater who was, sort of ironically, in wine country in california for the same dates I was in NYC. A lot of stairs, but otherwise a fine place to sleep and stow my gear. I worked on monday and then I was off again, to Amsterdam and another layer of jet lag….
