Coney Island Baby

Each time I’ve been to New York I’ve planned to take a trip to Coney Island to see the funfair but never got around to it. As much of it is due to be ripped down next year for redevelopment work, I thought I’d better make sure I got there this time before I missed out forever.

Another advantage of going during this trip is that it was cold and wintery and I wanted to see it when it was all closed down and faded. I’m delighted to say that it really was like walking into a real-life ghost town.

I decided to get off the subway a stop early to visit the Aquarium before walking to Surf Avenue to see the sights. But I got HORRIBLY excited when I left the station and was walking over the bridge outside to find that suddenly the famous Cyclone was RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF ME. I got quite giggly and awe struck as I stopped to savour the views of the rest of the street below.

I realise now that I should have done the trip the other way around because, much as I loved the aquarium, I kind of rushed it as I was itching to get back to see the main purpose of the trip – and it really is a great aquarium, it deserved my full attention! You start off indoors with lots of tanks of exotic looking fish, then you go outside to meet penguins, sea lions and huge walruses. Around the outside area are a number of themed buildings with a variety of exhibits, and my favourite turned out to be the Alien Stingers.

I’ve never really been much of a fan of jelly fish before, as the Alien Stingers turned out to be, but perhaps that’s because I haven’t seen them displayed so magnificently. Each tank was backlit to give the creatures a sci-fi kind of feel and I could have watched them bloop up and down for hours.





I also adored the sea horses and fell in love with a very beautiful, brown eyed seal.

After a quick look around the disappointing gift shop (why do they always insist of stocking loads of very poor soft toys?) I headed back outside to the boardwalk to take a look at the sea and view that funfair properly for the very first time.

There were a few people about but all the faded paintwork and closed down shutters gave the place the feel of an un-used film set. I was delighted that it was a grey and overcast day which added perfectly to the bleakness of it all and I felt like I had actually found my nirvana.

I particularly liked the Shoot the Freak booth where, according to a very knowledgeable man I bumped into, some guy rented an empty lot and made a fortune by dressing in a silly costume and charging people to shoot paint balls at him – genius!

A picture paints a thousand words so I will now hand you over to my fabulous Coney Island picture gallery. Usually I brighten the colours of photos on this site to give them a David Lynchian “perfect word” kind of feel, but these I have left suitably grey ... enjoy!

Take me to the Coney Island image gallery.