Several years ago,  I visited Manhattan with family and stayed at a hotel at Times Square. There's so much energy going on there! Since I was on my own for this trip, I decided to stay in Brooklyn through an Airbnb. Brooklyn ended up being slower pace, had more breathing room, and is only a short train ride away from Manhattan.

For flights, I found a very conveniently priced flight through JetBlue. It did have a connection, though for the red-eye flight into New York, I had the entire row to myself! Actually, almost everybody on the flight had their own row. Even though I had the row to myself, I tried laying down on JetBlue's comfortable leather seats for the flight to no avail. I have a terrible time sleeping for extended periods on planes and will usually catch up with a nap on landing.

I arrived at JFK around 6 AM and took a train to Brooklyn Bridge, my first stop. It was an incredible feeling to stand on the bridge, and all of the history lessons that I learned in school started pouring in. Plus that feeling of "I'm in New York!" Cue all the New York themed songs. From the bridge, I could see the Statue of Liberty (it looks so small in comparison to the buildings at Wall Street!), Freedom Tower (1776 feet!), and all the way up towards Williamsburg Bridge (that cool view of watching a train cross a bridge).

Near the bridge is Jane's Carousel. As I was heading to the destination, I came across this iconic site at Washington and Front Streets by accident. It was an unexpected, but exciting find. Right after I took this shot, it started pouring and the weather forecast said nothing about rain so I cancelled my plans to visit the carousel, taking refuge in a local market.




When the rain subsided, I made a quick stop at Prospect Park and noticed the thinnest building I've ever laid my eyes on (left). As I was walking towards one of the subway stations, I squealed with delight as I saw the train tracks above me (lower right) and started reminiscing one of my favorite artists: Big Bang. Their Bad Boy music video, one of the songs from their Alive album, was filmed in Brooklyn! I wasn't in the right neighborhood or right intersection, but it was close enough :)










Another must visit in Brooklyn is Prospect Park. This park was designed by the same architects who designed Central Park in Manhattan. This park is huge, filled with lots of biking and running paths, rolling hills to picnic, and benches to relax. Be sure to make a stop at the Grand Army Plaza arch, too!











Looking back on the trip, I surprisingly spent most of my team eating in Manhattan. Of the places that I did visit in Brooklyn, Sun in Bloom, with their amazing granola, was my favorite.



Sun in Bloom: 460 Bergen Street (between 5th and Flatbush Avenues), Brooklyn, New York

I can't wait to revisit Brooklyn again! Some spots I missed out on were Jane's Carousel, Brooklyn Heights Promenade, pizza at Roberta's, doughnuts at Dough, thrifting around Williamsburg, more brunching around Park Slope, and of course picnic-ing at Prospect Park.

Happy travels!
Catherine

(visited New  York in May 2016)