Advice from a local New Yorker - My buddies and I go to Williamsburg all the time, kids our age hang out there.
Directions: Take the Subway to Union Square then change to the L line and get off at Benford Ave Brooklyn. That's where the party starts.
Oh yeah....
So now, I have two choices.
1. I could lie and tell you how cool we are (copying and pasting text from the What to do in Williamsburg site) and how we hung out online (in a queue) with all the cool kids. How we waited outside the corner of Something and Something until someone left The apartment block and we snuck up onto the roof to join the constant party.
2. I could tell you the truth.
I'm going to go with 2 (as you have probably guessed...) but only because the real story of our night cannot be lost in time. And to be honest, I couldn't have had more fun.
So everything started as planned. We caught the subway to Union Square, chilled out with the band on the platform for about fifteen minutes. Then jumped on the L to Benford Ave. No drama...
Until we emerged out of the subway station. It wasn't what we were expecting. We had translated the description of kids our age everywhere to
You get out of the subway and are immediately hit with a funkier version of Newtown Sydney. It is a struggle to make your way through the crowds of people. There are street vendors on every spare space of footpath. Every second shop sells food or is a pub with a live band. You can't go wrong.
Our bad. When we got off it appeared that our New York friend had actually just meant There are kids our age everywhere. Same as English (huh! who would have thought.) The only problem was, the kids (note running use of the term kids was a theme of the night) appeared to be going in all different directions. They looked like they were going home.
We chose one to follow. Oh yeah. He looked cool, in less of a rush than the others (so we could actually keep up). He must have known where the party scene Williamsburg was at. After about two blocks he stopped (we stopped and pretended to chat). He turned to us and said "Do you know where Benford Ave is?"
Damn. We followed the other tourist.
OK no drama. Back to following the kids with the quick legs. We tried to pick a pair and follow... but they kept disappearing (probably into apartments with secret rooftop parties.)
We made an executive decision to use the one address I had brought with me (scribbled on a post-it) as a guide to where the party was at. But Toto, we weren't in Manhattan anymore. Brooklyn doesn't baby you. The street numbers made no sense - North then South, but weren't we walking East? And how come it goes 12th Street, 10th Street, 12th Street?? Are we walking in Circles? The blocks aren't in straight rows! There are streets on angles!
So we walked through Williamsburg in the middle of the night (past the local automotive school and park) looking for the action we had imagined. In hysterical laughter of course.
Of course the walk (around 1.5 hours) was well worth it. What I have seen of Brooklyn is beautiful. Williamsburg was particularly gorgeous. Stunning blocks of apartments, some modern with huge windows, others older with design that mad us stop in our tracks. Quiet streets, trees and parks with people playing with their dogs. We stuck to the streets that some of the funkiest kids were wondering (or should I saw powering) down and we felt safe.
When we had walked to the next subway station it was time to pull out the map (it didn't show Brooklyn!) After having the map out only a second we were approach (who says New Yorkers aren't nice.) "OK where do you need to be"
Hmm.. we didn't know - I went with the random address on a post it note I had. "13th Street."
Our answer attracted a puzzled look. "Why do you want to go there??" our friendly New Yorker kept asking... I was evasive... I mean, it was to check out all of the bars and live music - but who knew anymore. E interrupted with "To meet someone." Phew saved. The guy just gave us a strange look and pointed back in the way we had came.
OK... so we gave it ago. Four blocks down we found 13th Street. It was dead. Worse then dead, it was the dodgiest alley way we'd seen so far - Only garages and piles of rubbish. We were not going down there. As E pointed out later no wonder our excuse of "we're meeting someone there" didn't go down so well. What sort of person could we possible be meeting in such a place?
The problem? We were at 13th North, we should have been at 13th East. So how to get to 13th East!? This is where we pretty much gave up. We were laughing so hard that my hungry stomach was going to explode. Needed food.
We walked all the way back to our original subway and found some pretty nice looking places. Maybe this was it after all. We settled on Thai and were not disappointed. Food was delicious and cheap. The place was quaint and had a funky atmosphere. Just the sort of things kids our age are into. I was especially chuffed when I got home, checked the Things to do in Williamsburg site and found the restaurant featured.
That totally counts as a win!
Fooded up and happy we were up for one last attempt at finding the Williamsburg we had imagined. Come on, it had to exist!
We walked in the other direction - still no luck. We did get to see more of Williamsburg which (other than the corner outside the Trashbar) was a very trendy, beautiful suburb.
We gave up close to 12pm and started to head back to the station - we walked passed a lone bouncer sitting outside a garage door with music and squealing coming from within. This is when we realised, we probably should have come to Williamsburg with more of a plan. Only took as 3 hours of walking to figure it out.
On the subway back to Manhattan... hang on, we're even deeper into Brooklyn! Brooklyn, you know I'll always come back to you like a Boomerang.
After a few more hiccups...we were on the correct train. We sat next to a group of New Yorkers and joined them in their pitying noises when vulnerable tourists got on and off the wrong subway (they really did seem concerned!)
Stopping at Union Square for desert was a great end to the funniest night. And we found 13 East Street! Ok, so it was 13 East Manhattan, but it still felt good. Strange to think I should feel a huge sense of relief being back in the city. I'm all messed up!
Best adventure - fantastic Saturday night - lots of laughs. Wouldn't change it. But that doesn't mean there won't be a Williamsburg 2nd Attempt post coming soon - Brooklyn, E and I go hard. Bring it!
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