it's been almost a year since my last foray into the "unknown" - trying to explore the areas near (and sometimes slightly far) me. now having lived in the greater NYC area since 1991, i just thought it's time that i get my butt outta my comfy couch on weekends and really do some sightseeing. i mean, who knows? perhaps i won't always live in nyc and then...i would've missed it all!

this weekend was my trip to flushing. yes, i've been there many a time yet never explored other ways to get there (aside from the number 7 train and by car). so i decided to explore the Q66 bus (which happen to also stop right in front of my apt).

but since i was a bit lazy on sunday, i decided to go by the 7 train first, then come back into astoria on the bus.

this is the 7 train station at the Roosevelt-Jackson Heights stop (this is where i transfer from my R/V/G line) - what a glorious day it was yesterday!

and by the shea stadium stop...on the left is the old shea stadium and now the new CITI stadium is going up (gone up?)...and you can see the debris from the old stadium in between. a bit sad, even if i wasn't such a Mets fan

arrived in flushing in about 15 min - yes, a very short ride and first destination was the Flushing Library (it's singularly the largest branch library in NYC area - it's part of the Queens Library, not New York Public Library). Quite modern, isn't it? I believe it's about 4 years old.  It's right in the smack of Flushing.

then i sauntered into get a taste of what the "largest branch library" had to offer me. This is a sample of the Korean/Chinese shelves - pretty crazy!

i consider somewhat of a library connoisseur (if there's such thing) and i was bitterly disappointed by my first destination in flushing. there were hardly any new fictions or paperbacks. disappointed and now hungry, i headed back out to main street to sample some local cuisine.

there are no pictures of the street food, as there were about thousands of people milling about, pushing to-and-fro and i would've been out of my mind to take my camera out and take pictures. it was as if i was instantly transported to the streets of Beijing or Shanghai. (Flushing used to be quite a Korea town...now the Chinese have taken over, pushing out the Koreans to the western LI area, such as Bayside, Great Neck, etc.) so i decided to head to a somewhat familiar place for a quick bite: tai pan bakery on main street (i've been to tai pan on canal in the city, but never had the time to grace the flushing branch one until sunday). i chose to sample a "Spam and Eggs sandwich":

YUM! the saltiness of SPAM and gooeyness of eggs went perfectly together on a freshly baked (and now toasted) bread. Now it was either time to explore further or to go back home to see the Northern Blvd that connects Flushing to Long Island City (via lower-east Astoria, where I live). I pushed about (well, "when in rome"...you know?) and really, aside from the smattering of chinese groceries, everything was the same sight as manhattan: a billion Duane Reades, Starbuck's, McDonald's, etc. so i decided to fold and take the bus home.

Q 66 is the bus! and now i was on board with camera ready to document any fun/weird/strange/awesome things on Northern Blvd.

Of course, the first stop it made was in front of this school:

and then another stop in front of this yummy looking (but decidedly ethnic) bakery where all these hispanic women were gathered together for their weekly/daily/monthly get-togethers (i'm only guessing)

and another stop going west, stopped by this store...frisby? what the heck is this? looks like a chain but it's nothing i've ever heard of?

and you know you're in the 'burbs when you see an old american classic as IHOP!

and...that was my trip. Northern Blvd was really uninteresting (someone told me this prior to my trip but i didn't believe her....). the trip from flushing to my place was about 45 min by this bus and suffice to say, it was not a good 45 min spent, but now i know.

next trip? i don't know...i may try to walk on bridges, as i have yet to walk on the George Washington Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge. and i live so close to the 59th street bridge, I should walk it too (although I did walk that bridge twice, fleeing from 9/11 and the Blackout).

Any suggestions?