Walking in LA

One thing I loved about my job as a travel writer was just the daily random walking around cities. You walk inordinate amounts as a travel writer, and that's the way it should be: I think there's very little that gives you more of a sense of a city than facing it head on. I loved just chancing upon things as I walked around New York and London... strolling around the City of London with the street names that harked back hundreds of years, or walking from the Bronx Zoo to Arthur Avenue. (In Singapore, unfortunately, there's a kind of sameness once you get out of the city centre that makes these long walks not as exciting.) Still, it takes a kind of bravado to choose to walk around L.A., the city where cars are a religion. Which is why I thought Neil Hopper's Walking in LA site is pretty cool.

Among my personal favourite walks, both long and short, on my travels:
  1. Broadway, New York: from Canal St to 57th St, then across to Madison Ave and up Madison to 96th. Exhausting. But it was my first time in the city, and I really wanted to see as much of it as I could.
  2. Down Market Street, from the 8th St intersection all the way to Haight St, then down Haight to Golden Gate Park. Ah, finally, to see Haight-Ashbury - and learn that a Gap stands there. More thrillingly, I chanced upon Amoeba Music here.
  3. Bronx Zoo past Fordham down to Arthur Avenue, the Bronx. Mmm, true Italian food at Dominick's. Made so many wrong turns. Plus it was a sweltering sunny day in New York, and the fire hydrants were open, and kids were jumping in and getting splashed. Ah...
  4. From Grand Army Plaza, down Eastern Parkway and then down Bedford Avenue in Crown Heights, to see Ebbets Field Apartments, standing where the Brooklyn Dodgers' ballpark once stood. A summerdrizzle came down, and me with no umbrella. Beautiful townhouses in Crown Heights, though.
Wow, so many memories. Will post more once - especially my London memories - when I have time.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I definitely look forward to reading your London memories.

Ah, Amoeba Music...I must get myself there some day. Was it the way you expected it to be? I remember the first time I walked into Reckless Records fondly. Or rather, I remember staggering out, hours later.

Michelle
http://syntaxfree.org/blog

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