Coney Island, Baby!!!

after my weekend at berklees, i have gotten braver traveling alone.....i needed to spend the remaining of Monday and Tuesday just recovering from the Boston massacre (of my drum technique).

yesterday i decided to go visit Coney island. its at the southern tip of Brooklyn....which is like at the southern edge of new york. so i get up early (i mean at 11 am) and get ready to leave. i catch a train at 12:30 odd. its around 20-30 minutes to Coney island...nice journey. as the train is pulling into the station i see a huge giant wheel and roller coaster right there in the distance. this is gonna be fun.

i get off and immediately do whats most important - EAT. i find this place called Nathans famous for hot dogs. i found it on the walkway ajoining the beach (yes coney island is a beach not an island - these Americans i tell you). the walkway is all planks and all that just like in the movies. so i buy a cheese hot dog. i have just one thing to say - OVVVEERRRRRAAAATTTEEEEDDDD. man that hot dog cost me 4 dollars...while i was paying for it there was a kid standing next to me....when he saw the price on the register he goes "you paying 4$ for a hot dog, i get mine for 1$"....then he leans over and whispers conspiratorially "just walk down there you can get a 1$ hotdog"...i just give him my Indian smile and say "too late" as the hot dog person had already made mine :)

i walk up and down looking at the different stalls...i spot the amusement park with the roller coaster and giant wheel just off the wharf....they have two amusement parks - one for kids and one for adults....the amusement parks are full of kids from different summer programs.....i walk through both.....don't go on any rides as i don't want to waste a 4$ cheese hotdog and would rather digest it properly....plus rides look much bigger and scarier up close.

i left the amusement park after a while and walk towards a long pier i spy at the far end of the wharf.....on the way i see a baseball field where a little league match was underway...so i stop and watch the game for a while.....then i continue towards the pier..i walk down and see a lot of guys fishing...some of them catch fish...while others wrestle with sea gulls to keep the fish they caught.

i walk along the beach and feel really sad i didn't bring my swimming shorts......i think the American women would have appreciated that....especially since my swimming shorts are insie weensie teenie weenie yellow polka dot speedoes.

after a couple off hours i decide im bored....there's only so much you can do alone.....when i spy the NY Aquarium on the other end of the wharf...so i think lets go for it.

at the entrance itself there is an exodus of kids and some older people shouting names and orders...some more peeps from the summer programs all leaving ....i wait for a break in this river of kids and cross over to enter after buying a ticket.

well i see everything you hope to see ion an aquarium - penguins (whom kids refer to as happy feet - the impact of movies), i saw otters being fed, i saw sharks and seals and fish and squid (and other creatures with tentacles)...and more fish, and aquatic plant life, and then i got to go touch a huge crab and a starfish, and then i saw more fish.

feeling parched with all that water around me i decided to go buy a cold drink...the man in charge of selling them is funny and liked me for some reason as he kept talking about something or the other....maybe i reminded him of a penguin or a fish??....suddenly he looks at me and says you should see the sea show......so into a place called the aquatic theater i sprint and sit in the stands.....the show is just getting started. it has really large seals doing tricks and stuff...like jumping to hit a ball, walking on their flippers and even one dancing to "walk this way" by aerosmith.....it was really good fun and they animals were super smart.....i cant really say too much more as some things you just need to see.

after the show i walked around some more and then decided to head home as it was 5:30 odd.

i took a train back and deiced to watch a Charlie Chaplin DVD adele lent me called "city lights"....beautifully done.

it was 8 by the time the movie got over...so i headed down to adeles apartment where karl was cooking us dinner (once again - no one tells my mama that karl can cook)

starters were some nice Jamaican cheese and pears....followed by the main course of rice and rajma and fried chicken......yummy.....and to wash it all down cool coconut water.

after that i went back to karls apartment.....read a book for a bit and decided to hit the sack.

woke up today with really burnt feet as i was wearing slippers yesterday at the beach and aquarium and the sun was merciless.

have come to new school and will be meeting karl soon

will write more as and when it happens