Happy Holi!

On Saturday, TT and I headed to Brooklyn to paint the town red.

and green

and yellow

and hot pink!

and blue!!

and basically every other pretty color you could imagine (Roy G. Biv is a very close friend).

The folks over at Festival of Colors: Holi NYC have been bringing the Holi party to Brooklyn every year since 2012. It popped up on my radar last year but tickets had already sold out by the time I was cool enough to know about it!

Tickets in hand, we made the trek.

Holi is a Hindu festival that celebrates the coming of Spring. It's often called the Festival of Colors as participants arm themselves with bags of colored powder and are encouraged to throw it at each other as they play and race through the streets!

We walked into what looked like a dust cloud of pink and entered the BK version of the festival.

Live music pumped from the stage, delicious food trucks lined a corner, rainbow people crowded the bar, and all over colors fell from the sky!

It didn't take long to get stuck in!

You would think that it could be a bit awkward to just run up to a random stranger and blow colored powder into their face but really, it wasn't!

People danced, a conga line formed, and layer after layer of color etched onto our clothes and skin.

Having exhausted ourselves in the first hour, we stopped on the sidelines for lunch. The row of food trucks was enticing, and they all looked very yummy, but we were at Holi! Would we ever NOT get Indian food?

Mysttik Masaala touts itself as "a delicious journey to the cuisines of India, Nepal, and Tibet." It's run by a nice man named Rishi and exists only as a food truck wandering the streets of NYC for now. Find them here! As soon as a brick&mortar goes up, you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be there because the food was phenom!

Veg samosa

Spicy chicken vindaloo served with rice

So yummy! TT has done wonders for my spice tastebuds. I used to order everything mild but have come to appreciate branching out into the spice world a bit. We got the vindaloo 'spicy' and it was the perfect level of heat.

Just enough lunch to spur us back into action!

We emerged from it beaming, covered in every color of the rainbow, and very ready for a shower.

Happy to find solidarity in some other Holi train companions!

We had a few interesting looks as we walked home, but for the most part people just yelled out, "Holi cow that looks like you had fun!!!"

TASTE THE RAINBOW #amirite??!

Cherry Blossoms

Spring in New York has been a bit peculiar as of late.

I doubt if one can truly call it spring with the weather we've been having. One day it's 75 and people are walking the streets engulfed in a blanket of sun while the next the clouds roll back in, the temperature drops to the low 40s, and raindrops rudely make their intrusion known.

It's entirely too confusing and has given me a cold for the past few weeks as my body can't seem to figure out what temperature to adjust to!

While Mother Nature might not be up for the commitment, the rest of the city is trucking on through with the usual springtime commencement activities.

It has to come true sometime soon!

One such activity - the return of the Cherry Blossom Trees!

The Japanese Cherry Blossom tree is spectacular. When in bloom, it is bursting with the most gorgeous pink cloud-like blossoms that look a lot like cotton candy and almost immerse you as you trail underneath the branches.

Doesn't it look pretty enough to eat?!

The blooming of the Cherry Blossom trees is celebrated all around the world. In the US, thousands flock to Washington, DC for the National Cherry Blossom Festival each year that celebrates the gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo to the city of Washington, DC in 1912. It was the start of a growing relationship of gift exchange between Japan and the US that still continues today!

While little 'ol Brooklyn might not have the grandest history of gift exchange with the leaders of Tokyo, they do have the Brooklyn Botanic Garden who puts on a pretty spectacular festival to celebrate the Cherry Blossom blooms each Spring!

The 2014 Sakura Matsuri Festival is a weekend dedicated to "celebrating traditional and contemporary Japanese culture." The lineup included Taiko Drumming, Manga, Tea Ceremonies, Japanese Pop Stars (J-Pop), traditional kimonos, samurai sword fighting, and more! Of course, don't forget the opening of the Cherry Esplanade and Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden which promised blooming cotton candy buds of Cherry Blossom trees to relish in.

 

Unfortunately, there was little relishing to be done as the silly weather has pretty much stopped most of the Cherry Blossoms from blooming just yet. We were able to find a few but, I mean, I wouldn't want to come out and play in the cold either!

Luckily for us, there were many other ways to keep occupied at the festival :)

Sushi, anyone?

It was a little too crowded but that was to be expected as the festival is quite a big event. I imagine if there had been more blossoms, the crowd would have dispersed a bit.

We ended up escaping the Cherry Esplanade to explore a bit more of the Gardens. Neither TT nor I had ever been to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden before so it was a great time to wander.

It's enormous! I can't imagine anything more perfect than packing a picnic lunch and setting off to explore the flowers when it's warm and sunny in the summer!

We eventually found our way back to the Japanese area to pick up a snack and go see the Bonsai Garden that was on display. Did you know that 'Bonsai' is not the name of a tree, specifically, only the name of a way of gardening trees? I know Bonsai trees. I had a "Grow Your Own Bonsai" kit as a child...but I've only ever known them to look like this...

My "Grow Your Own Bonsai" kit never got to this point...

Did you know they could look like all of these too?!

It was entirely mind-blowing! I just love learning new things about something you had already been acquainted with. There's so much information in the world. It's absolutely incredible.

Not to be missed - our very authentic, Japanese Bento Box. They had an assortment of chicken, beef, or vegetable. We opted for chicken and ate it on the grass while people in cosplay dressed as anime characters wandered around basking in all things Japanese!

While the weather was a bit too cool to fully enjoy it, I would absolutely recommend going back to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden some time this summer. The Cherry Blossoms will (hopefully) be in full bloom then, you might not have as many crowds as we encountered, and the gardens are absolutely massive and perfect for an afternoon adventure. Plus, it's a fantastic way to get out of the concrete and back into nature! Something that is sometimes a little too hard to do in NYC.