Visiting the Winter Brooklyn Flea

On Saturday 11th February we wandered from our hotel down to the Skylight One Hanson building which this year was the winter location of the Brooklyn flea market.

In some ways it really wasn't my thing, I was curious as to what was going to be on offer but it was kind of dull for someone who doesn't like shopping, but in other ways it was still worth going to.

Skylight One Hanson used to be a bank and wandering around an ornate old bank and it's vaults was something I don't get to do very often - in fact this the first time I'd done that ever.

In regards to the flea market part of it I think this whole thing would have been more fun outdoors and in summer. Perhaps on a bigger scale, like it is said to be in summer, and with more food on offer to choose from and with stalls maybe a little less focused on a profit margin - it was advertised as a flea market after all and not an antiques fair - or was it? I think that's maybe where I could be confused?
On the day we went there were only a few food stalls and lots of bric-a-brac and craft stalls. Granted there were plenty of awesome items and kooky objects but nothing I could see I think I'd have too much trouble finding online if I ever needed such a thing and for the most part, online could be a lot cheaper.

I guess the fun for people is to browse through the objects and being able to take it home there and then but to be honest at the prices I saw, thrift store shopping is much more fun - mainly because because I can afford to buy things there. Some of the craft objects were nice to look at, like the homemade jewellery which we bought for our friend for her birthday.

As I mentioned at the start, the most fun part of this experience for me was wandering around the building. The stalls were set out in the main hall but also in the side rooms, on the balcony and even down the stairs in the big vaults.

I've never had the opportunity to wander around the entirety of a bank before. Especially one that must have been quite the sight in it's heyday given all the fancy decorations.

It was a fun novelty but I don't think I'd be back to the winter flea, it's maybe one I'll leave to financially better-off enthusiasts, but I'd be more than willing to give the summer flea/smorgasbord a try!

Some Snapshots of Brooklyn

In the few days we visited Brooklyn, we stayed in a hotel on Atlantic Avenue. Along that street were a few interesting shops with some interesting items outside them - like this life sized replica of a cow.

And this metal chicken which I'm sure the Bloggess has landmarked several times over.

We ventured into several shops around the area over the few days. One of them was a laundrette to do some mid-vacation washing - we picked the smaller one with fewest people in as the big one we went into had lots of people staring at us expecting us to announce we were lost or something. Some of the others were Charity shops (thrift stores) as you just never know what awesome item you didn't know you needed might be awaiting it's arrival in your life. There was something of a more of a relaxed atmosphere in Brooklyn compared to the managed madness of Manhattan.

Here are a few pictures from the streets we wandered up and down the most:

Some might say it was a little too relaxed... like the lady who sat near us in a Dunkin' Donuts shop who was expressing her annoyance to a friend about the audacity of the NYPD for having recently arrested her for shoplifting lipsticks. The reason for her annoyance - that she had not been arrested in 13 years and thought they'd cut her a break for that sort of good behaviour (or more than likely, good fortune).

A lot of the time we were venturing back and fourth to other parts of New York but on the day we visited the Brooklyn Flea market held in Skylight One Hanson - the old bank building (more on that soon) we also saw the construction site of the new Barclays Centre.

It was a much different experience to staying in Manhattan but a nice change of pace and we were very happy that we chose to stay there for a few days of our trip even if we did end up back in Manhattan a lot of time.