Scouting expedition in Brooklyn

Brooklyn would be the 4th largest city in the United States if it were an independent city. So, there are many more neighborhoods besides the well-known and popular Dumbo and Williamsburg.

On Sunday morning we took the train to Williamsburg first, to see how Smorgasburg/Brooklyn Flea looks this year. In winter the two popular markets, a food market and a flea market, otherwise open-air, are mingling under roof, in a different building each year. This year, it was a modern high rise in Williamsburg, on the waterfront, offering great views towards Manhattan and Queens (top, left).

On to Bushwick, where we met our friend Dom - a born-and-raised Bensonhurstian and an excellent tour guide - and first inspected the murals around Jefferson Street. A couple of years ago nobody whould have visited Bushwick just for fun, but now there are tours and a visitors stop by. Bushwick Collective (www.thebushwickcollective.com) took over and now old storehouses and industrial buildings, garages and storefronts are colorfully decorated - and have become a new attraction.


After some coffee - fortunately, it had warmed up to about 15 deg. C. during the day - we walked some more, at the border to Bed Stuy, and besides a flea market, we discovered a beautiful church building: Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church, very elaborately decorated, from 1906.



On by bus to Crown Heights, first of all known as an Ultra Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, but, second, partly Carribbean and, in general, very mixed and gentrified, with beautiful architecture in its Historic District.

Interesting to us was the Hasidic Jewish neighborhood, a completely different world: black hats, black coats, women with wigs taking care of a bunch of children. We hoped to find a place to eat pastrami sandwiches and matzo ball soup, but weren't successful, despite of asking around. We felt a bit like aliens walking on Kingston Avenue, like being in another galaxy. Didn't even dare to take pictures.

The other side of the neighborhood, along Nostrand Ave., was much more gentrified and completely different. At the end we found a comfy bar and had local beer and called it a day after many kilometers of walking.