5/27/22
As you may have noticed, I didn’t do a post yesterday. I think the hustle and bustle of New York has caught up with me after a week here, and I needed the past two days here in Queens to just decompress. Staying at my friend Natchra’s lovely apartment has been a good way to do that.
I’ve ventured out a bit, but unfortunately haven’t had the energy to really explore Queens. (I’ll need another trip to NYC to enjoy it more! Maybe this time next year; the weather has been nearly perfect.)
But I’ll show you a few scenes. This Sunnyside neighborhood feels beautiful. Parts of it remind me of the kindergarten year I spent in Princeton, New Jersey, which isn’t too far away from here.
Queens feels very urban—it’s New York, after all—so it’s filled with subway cars (one of which I saw someone joy-riding atop, in an example of a very dangerous but growing trend); lots of traffic and pavement; dense apartment buildings; and wall-to-wall businesses… but like other parts of the city, it is also dotted with many small parks and plazas, which provide ample benches and a bit of public green space for rest and contemplation. I enjoyed one right under the subway tracks today.
A small market just a couple blocks away from the building here offered a wide selection of reasonably priced vegan sandwiches, salads, wraps, and desserts; I enjoyed the incredible whoopie pies!
I visited a nearby cemetery, as well, but it felt very different from Brooklyn’s Green-Wood. This one had no benches and no hills, but it was still a peaceful place.
Tonight, my last night here, Natchra took me up to the roof of her 6-story building to look at the Manhattan night sky from across the river. The clouds gave the darkness a cool feel.
I’ve really enjoyed my time here in the Big Apple. I will definitely visit again. (Maybe even take up my friend Leslie on her offer to visit her intentional community on Staten Island, which would mean I had finally visited all five boroughs! Queens was the new one for me this time.)
Tomorrow I’ll board a train to Albany, New York—I’m already looking forward to those wonderful Hudson views that I remember from the same train three years ago—and then transfer to an eastbound one toward Boston. I’ll be staying with a Facebook friend (and her husband, and four dogs!) in Natick, Massachusetts the next couple of nights.
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