(no subject)
This weekend turned out to be a "beach" weekend. First, on Saturday, we went to Rockaway beach with our friends. Needless to say that after Dominican, the ocean at Rockaway seemed too cold and dirty. So we swam for 5 minute intervals, trying not to dive in this much. I am sure the ocean is fine, I mean come on, we swam in Brighton waters before, but after you've seen what the ocean should be, it's really hard to go back. The evening was pleasantly concluded with shish-kebabs at the place near my house.
On Sunday, we decided to finally try out that Fire Island off the shores of southern part of Long Island. For those who are familiar with Long Island, Fire Island is across from Islip or Bay Shore on Montauk line on LIRR (past Babylon). Our friends who have planned to go with us backed out as they got scared of getting up at 6:30 am on Sunday. But, we decided what the heck, might as well sleep. For adventure sake, we decided to go by train and ferry, rather than the car (not sure which one is faster cause the train is only 1 hr). This island is apparently an wildlife preserve and is absolutely anal about air/water polution. Thus, you can only get there by Ferry from Long Island. There is a bridge, but the cars must be left at the westernmost tip of the island and are NOT allowed into the interior, which kinda sucks because the Island is 33 miles long, and essentially you will have to take a ferry or water taxi to get to a particular place. So, anyways, we took LIRR, and then Ferry to Fire Island.
Fire Island is absolutely awesome! It is one of the most beautiful beach resorts I've seen (comparable to Punta Cana, DR). Blue ocean, white sand, clean beaches, etc. It also has interesting flora. There are forests there, but they are not the same as in upstate NY or NJ (I think Fire Island calls them maritime forest), and intertwined with the forest are sand dunes. Aside from all the nature wonders, bla-bla-bla, Fire Island also has quite a night life apparently with bars, clubs, etc.
We spent half a day at the beautiful beach, playing freesbee and cruising the waves,and then, not without adventures we visited "Sunken Forest." It took us through the forest on top of the sand dune and wild beach. Unfortunately, we could not stay there longer because we had to hurry back home. And that is precisely where our adventures started. Apparently, Fire Island is very close to nature, and ATM machines are apparently dangerous because within the 15-mile radius that we've been there were only 2 of them. Nevertheless, the water taxi and ferry expect you to pay in cash. As our critical time approached, we ran couple miles through the desert in search of ATM. Finally, we did find it in some gay community, from where we then boarded onto the Ferry (being the only ones different). In the process of all that, we got absolutely fried by the sun so now my face looks a beet. But overall, I think Fire Island is terrific and it's totally worth to go there but, of course, for longer spans of time then we did. Perhaps, even rent a house for couple of days. Otherwise, the 2.5 hr trip (including ferry, bus, LIRR, subway) each way will totally kill you in the process.
Got back home to realize it's sunday night and there is work tomorrow. Took almost a day to get back into the working mood.
On Sunday, we decided to finally try out that Fire Island off the shores of southern part of Long Island. For those who are familiar with Long Island, Fire Island is across from Islip or Bay Shore on Montauk line on LIRR (past Babylon). Our friends who have planned to go with us backed out as they got scared of getting up at 6:30 am on Sunday. But, we decided what the heck, might as well sleep. For adventure sake, we decided to go by train and ferry, rather than the car (not sure which one is faster cause the train is only 1 hr). This island is apparently an wildlife preserve and is absolutely anal about air/water polution. Thus, you can only get there by Ferry from Long Island. There is a bridge, but the cars must be left at the westernmost tip of the island and are NOT allowed into the interior, which kinda sucks because the Island is 33 miles long, and essentially you will have to take a ferry or water taxi to get to a particular place. So, anyways, we took LIRR, and then Ferry to Fire Island.
Fire Island is absolutely awesome! It is one of the most beautiful beach resorts I've seen (comparable to Punta Cana, DR). Blue ocean, white sand, clean beaches, etc. It also has interesting flora. There are forests there, but they are not the same as in upstate NY or NJ (I think Fire Island calls them maritime forest), and intertwined with the forest are sand dunes. Aside from all the nature wonders, bla-bla-bla, Fire Island also has quite a night life apparently with bars, clubs, etc.
We spent half a day at the beautiful beach, playing freesbee and cruising the waves,and then, not without adventures we visited "Sunken Forest." It took us through the forest on top of the sand dune and wild beach. Unfortunately, we could not stay there longer because we had to hurry back home. And that is precisely where our adventures started. Apparently, Fire Island is very close to nature, and ATM machines are apparently dangerous because within the 15-mile radius that we've been there were only 2 of them. Nevertheless, the water taxi and ferry expect you to pay in cash. As our critical time approached, we ran couple miles through the desert in search of ATM. Finally, we did find it in some gay community, from where we then boarded onto the Ferry (being the only ones different). In the process of all that, we got absolutely fried by the sun so now my face looks a beet. But overall, I think Fire Island is terrific and it's totally worth to go there but, of course, for longer spans of time then we did. Perhaps, even rent a house for couple of days. Otherwise, the 2.5 hr trip (including ferry, bus, LIRR, subway) each way will totally kill you in the process.
Got back home to realize it's sunday night and there is work tomorrow. Took almost a day to get back into the working mood.