Apologies to Ms. Woolf (or anyone else for that matter) but it happened! I finally "broke the chains" and spent about three hours in Brooklyn. After my yearnings to go in the past few days were unfulfilled, I wondered if I was not doomed to be "trapped" on the upper west side, but this morning with much preparation, I made the move, had just about the right amount of food, made sure my stomach was behaving itself and got on the 3 train to Nevins Street. I chose downtown Brooklyn first, because since last summer, leading up to the pandemic, I had made the atrium across the street from the Harvey theater a kind of home base. Imagine my surprise when I saw that they had not re-opened, not even for take out---and that the Fiction Center, a bookstore that i visited often and was very happy in, was also not opened. Even the unbiquitous BRIC, caddy corner to the Harvey was closed. No place to even remotely "hang out" or stop and read. What to do? The second choice was Cobra Club in Brooklyn, which I knew had re-opened, or at least I assumed would be doing their morning coffee selling, if only on the outside. How to get there..bus or train? I opted for the 38 bus, the one that goes East on Lafayette and then travels north on Dekalb to Wycoff. From there it is just a short walk to Cobra. On the way, I saw a few coffee places and restaurants that were opened, but as I approached Cobra, I saw it was locked and bolted. That ended that---had I read wrong? There were tables outside, did this mean that they were opened later? Walked two blocks back to another coffee place and had their ice coffee, really needed it, it was hot, then headed to the other place where I had friends. Molasses bookshop, a used book shop on Hart Street between Knickerbocker an Wilson. Crash! Another closed shop, boarded up. Had I not read that they had reopened? Again had I come at the wrong time? Ah well, all avenues of friendship closed to me, still it was only about 12:30, surely I could not just make my return to the upper west side just yet. Hart is one block away from DeKalb, and since it was hot, it seemed to make sense to take the 38 back to downtown Brooklyn. This time the bus would travel west on DeKalb, rather than east on Lafayette. And that is what I did, bus rides down the streets of Brooklyn always offer some fascination. This ride was no exception. Arrived at my destination---still a wasteland---needed a bathroom, pre pandemic there were so many in the area to choose from--now only one---Whole Foods on Flatbush. Luckily it was not crowded so there was no problem. It was now about 1:30, and I had to make up my mind what was next.
1:30 seemed like an awfully early time to return to the upper west side, and I had hoped to stay in Brooklyn for another two hours, but where? The sun was beating down on me----I was beginning to feel tired---hardly anything was even open from the outside---after a brief discussion with myself, I decided that returning home was the best idea. The Bergen street station was right near me, and the two trains going back to the upper west side, the 2 and 3 were coming often. And so that is what I did, took the subway, read on with Prep---I must finish it---and returned home a "hero" in my own mind, about 2:30.
Any takeaways from this experience? Not really---maybe the next time I hit Bushwick it will be later when Cobra and Starr Bar are both opened. But the goal was to leave the world of the upper west side and hit Brooklyn---that I did.
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