stuck in (foot) traffic on the Queensboro bridge

Yes, the title is a reference to “The King of Queens”

Shots from our recent New York trip.
This was a weird trip for us. Not only were we stuck in NYC during the hurricane, but our flights were canceled, we stayed in Queens for a few days, the subways were flooded. It was just weird. I shot very few pictures and NYC is the best place to take pictures. I really like these shots. I like the blur and I like the interplay between the street signage and the pedestrian. I don’t remember which store we were standing in front of, but I couldn’t pass on this shot.

After eating dumplings at Joe’s Shanghai we were walking back to the East Village from Chinatown. I loved these 2 guys smoking and sitting under the pizza image …

Mass exodus from Manhattan. Hurricane Sandy made landfall on 10/29, Monday. Our flight was supposed to depart on 10/31, Wednesday. It was cancelled. Our hotel was sold out too, so we had to check out on our scheduled day (Wednesday). Luckily we have some good friends in Queens who were unaffected by the hurricane and offered us a place to stay. On Wednesday we jumped in a cab from our hotel at 36th street and 10th ave. With the subway flooded, cabs were hard to get, especially when they found out we wanted to go to Queens. Finally we got a cab, threw our luggage in the trunk and headed to Queens. About an hour later we had only gone about 2 miles. I’ve never seen GRIDLOCK like this before. It was seriously insane. Finally we had the cabbie pull over, gave him a $20, grabbed the luggage and started walking from 3rd Ave at about 48th street. As soon as we started walking, we left the cab in the dust. We were 2 blocks ahead of him before he could turn to get out of the gridlock. We didn’t have too far to go (about 2 avenue blocks and 10 street blocks) to get to the Queensboro bridge. Walking to the bridge was fine, a little crowded, kind of like walking in NYC at rush hour … But when we hit the bridge, that’s when the walk got interesting:
First, when we got to the bridge, we had to scale a fence to enter the walkway … WITH LUGGAGE! We hit the bridge and it was PACKED. We were walking shoulder to shoulder with other people trying to get the hell out of Manhattan. It was hectic. Once we finally made it over the bridge, I turned around a snapped a couple pictures. I hope this conveys the frantic, crowded feeling that we felt … It does to me, but I was there …