American flag limits this photo to an American soil. Should make it easy for you guys!
Saturday update: Thanks everyone for stopping by and letting us know where it is. Yes, it is Brooklyn Bridge, njoyeverymoment and Michele D’Acosta knew exactly where it was.
If video is not shown in the browser or applications then visit it at Evening in NYC from Dmitrii on Vimeo.
The views of the Manhattan from the Brooklyn side are very nice, you can walk from the Manhattan bridge along the East River, go under the Brooklyn Bridge and have many different angles on both bridges and the Manhattan across the water. Next time you visit NYC make an effort and see it from this side as well.
If video is not shown in the browser or applications then visit it at Evening in NYC from Dmitrii on Vimeo.
Chess is popular with many Russian intellectuals. In the last 20+ years a good number of them immigrated to US, many settled in the Brighton Beach area in Brooklyn, NYC. The guy in the right corner is probably one of them. What you cannot see on the photo is the little folding table with a chess board on top of it with a little sign “Free Chess Lessons”. He was there entire evening patiently waiting for someone to stop by and play a game with him. I spent thirty or so minutes shooting my little time lapse and no one expressed interest. Most people who visit Times Square probably don’t have time to seat down and spend time on something that is not what they associate with this place – shopping and restaurants. I bet that 80-90% of them do not even know the rules for playing chess, but that is why he was there, trying to educate them on one of the most sophisticated and oldest games the humans ever invented. Meanwhile, he was patiently waiting, drinking some soda from the plastic bottle and eating sandwiches that he or his wife packed for him back at their apartment.
He is probably there on most nights and I hope that there are some folks who is intrigued to learn something new on their visit to NYC or some who already know how to play it and want to show their skills to this old man and destroy his king in as a few steps as possible, or be destroyed, that is to hear or say the ultimate word in the game of chess – “Checkmate”.
There are probably blogs or websites dedicated to show photos from all the subways and metro systems from around the world. There should be at least a few dozens of them and each has its own unique look. Over the years I had a chance to use metro systems in the following cities – Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Beijing, Atlanta, Washington DC, New York City and Almaty. All of them are very different. Each has its unique features and style of operation and definitely different architectural details. Some are more industrial looking (like NYC Subway), some are almost can be considered like art galleries (most of the Moscow and Saint Petersburg station built during 40th and 50th are full of art, at least I hope they still are, I haven’t been back there in 20 years).
The newest out of all of them is one in Almaty Kazakhstan. It opened doors about 12 month ago and only has a few stations on one line at the moment. They started building it about 30 years ago while I was still in middle and high school, then with Soviet collapse they stopped that project for many years. I was glad to see it opening doors this year and I was able to get a ride in it this summer while visiting Almaty.
Out of all metro systems, to me, the NYC Subway was the most confusing. It took me a few rides to understand how it works. Different color lanes operate on the same trucks and not all stop at every station, so getting a grasp on what train to take was a bit confusing. Fortunately there were some nice folks who provided a quick advice and then it was all making sense, well, at least at that time. Next time I visit NYC, I’ll probably have to figure it out all over again.
What’s your favorite metro system?
From time to time I find photos that I like to call “Window Shopping”, views into someone’s shop with some interesting, extravagant, sometimes unique, sometime totally normal displays of merchandise.
This one was taken somewhere in NYC Chinatown. Can’t remember the street, not the shop, that is for sure. It looks very colorful, with so many little things, all different in their own way. One can probably study this photo and find something that they either like, maybe green kitty or see no evil, say no evil, hear no evil little monkeys, or something they are not very fond off. Regardless, if you ever been to a Chinatown shops, you know that you can spend there some time looking at different things, they are full of them.
