Governors Island: Fête Paradiso
I went to Governors Island for the first time earlier this summer, and this past Saturday two of my best friends and I went back to see Fête Paradiso, a festival of vintage carnival rides and carousels that made its American debut on the island in June.
We had planned on taking the ferry from Manhattan, but thanks to the MTA being kind of a free-for-all last weekend (90% of the lines were experiencing some sort of change/delay), we ended up in Brooklyn. Thankfully we remembered that there is also a Governors Island ferry that departs out of Brooklyn, so we decided to just catch that one. Not so thankfully, it only departs every hour and they cut off the line about 20 people in front of us so we had to wait for the full hour.
I recommend taking the ferry from Manhattan, if you can, now that I've done both. The Manhattan one leaves more frequently, and the waiting room and ferry terminal are definitely worth seeing. That being said, I had no idea that Brooklyn Bridge Park continued so far south, and what we saw of the park was very nice — while I won't be back to catch the ferry, the park deserves some exploration on its own.
When we finally got to the island, we found a shady spot and laid out our much-deserved picnic.
Pro-tip: the official posted island rules might state that there is no alcohol allowed, but our bags were searched twice before we boarded the ferry and two of our three bags very obviously contained wine. I think it's one of those scenarios where as long as you're not doing a keg stand in the middle of the lawn,* you should be fine.
Pro-tip no. 2: You might be able to see a bit of Alisha's hand in the top of the photo holding keys — we sadly discovered that one of our wines was not a screw top and tried poking it with everything we had to get it open. After our unsuccessful attempts, she asked a group of fellow wine-toting picnic-ers for help. They didn't have a corkscrew, but they did have a spoon, which we used to push the cork into the bottle and we all lived happily ever after.
After our leisurely (and very delicious) picnic, we headed over to see the carnival. The rides aren't free ($3 a ticket), unfortunately, but they sure were pretty to look at. It's crazy to think that they've survived all of these years, and are still in working, rideable order.
They were all completely charming and the operators in cheesy French costumes added to the ambiance. There were little wooden boats for kids, a few different carousels, skill games and even a bicycle carousel that you had to pedal yourself — one of only two ever created.
It's a much more interesting installation than the "art" performances that were there the last time I was on the island. Fête Paradiso is on the island until September 29th, so I still have plenty of time to go back and explore further.
Speaking of Governors Island, a friend of mine sent me this video of the plan for the under-construction parts of the island, and it looks so exciting. I love that the city is in a constant state of change, and there's always something new and in the works to look forward to. I'm already reserving a large portion of my 2015 to be spent picnicing in the hills, who's with me?
*As deduced by my very wise friend, Alisha.