Polaroid of the week: Beach day in Coney Island

Last Updated on October 9, 2024

This month just keeps getting better and better.. Another amazing week here in New York is coming to an end, and I am even more excited about next week with my first Thanksgiving on U.S. soil and my birthday coming up, which both will undoubtedly be the highlights of the week.

But back to last week. Looking back, I am not sure how I fit it all in (AND got a decent amount of sleep!), but I finally made it to the Whitney Museum (highly recommended if you’re an art lover), caught up with old friends, and started working my way through the list of bars and restaurants I’ve been wanting to check out for ages (which, as new places are constantly being added to said list, is a lifelong task, I’ve come to realize), spent time in some of my favorite neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Manhattan, followed a strict exercise regimen (to offset all the yummy food I’ve been eating since I got back to New York), got lots of work done and have had a few good nights out (I am so happy to be back in a place with such a vast selection of excellent craft beers).

My favorite day of the week was a day spent exploring parts of Southern Brooklyn that I hadn’t been to yet with a fellow photographer: the little known Calvert Vaux Park right by Gravesend Bay and Coney Island Creek Park, which is on the other side of Coney Island, across from the famous boardwalk and amusement park. The main reason for us to visit Calvert Vaux Park was the ship graveyard on the south side of the park, where a few rusty shipwrecks make for amazing photo ops. Coney Island Creek Park, which we visited afterwards, had some equally as great photo motives, like fishermen who were walking out into the freezing water to throw out their nets, and the hungry seagulls that were surrounding them, the views over the Verazanno-Narrows Bridge (pictured) which connects Brooklyn with Staten Island, and the slowly sinking sun, which resulted in a warm, soft afternoon light – perfect for photos.

The ideal ending to a day spent outside in the fresh air? A hearty meal, of course. I finally got to continue my hunt for the best pizza in New York and tried a place that had been on my pizza list for a long time: L&B Spumoni Gardens in Brooklyn’s Bensonhurst neighborhood. Both of us agreed that we felt like we had walked right into a scene from the Sopranos: this place was so old-school Brooklyn and wonderfully tacky – a treat not only for our tummies but also for our eyes and ears. Highly recommended if you want to try a slice of Sicilian-style pizza and want to get to know a part of Brooklyn tourists don’t go to.