03/04/16 (First Trip to Brighton Beach)
What does one smell by the seashore (after all, he/she smells seashells by the seashore)? Maybe, that was “sells” instead of “smells”. My memory of childhood rhymes is not very good. Anyways, I was expecting to smell some sea and seashells on my first trip to Brighton Beach, but to tell you the truth I smelled none of these things.
Why, you ask? Our first trip to Brighton Beach was on Friday, March 4th. That day happened to be a blisteringly cold day. It was also snowing a bit. All of these conditions played a significant role in inhibiting all my five senses to an extent. Although one thought did come up to mind: people with a sixth sense definitely fared better that day. Lucky psychics.
Anyways, we began our journey by taking the B train from Atlantic Avenue-Barclay’s Center all the way to the last stop: Brighton Beach. Immediately as we stepped off the train, I smelled something. To my surprise, I could still smell some things in such a weather. Take that, you sixth sense-rers.
What I smelled from the balcony of the outdoor train station was the smell of barbecue and meats. The smell was quite strong, not to mention quite delicious. The smell of barbecue meats put images in my head of me sitting down, fork and knife in hand, and devouring plates of meat. This also gave me the impression that this was what Russian cuisine could be comprised of. When we walked down the stairs to the streets, we decided to walk to the beach itself. As we walked, we passed by the restaurant that was the source of the smell. To my surprise, it was not Russian as I first thought, but it was Georgian. Already, Brighton was seemingly more ethnically diverse than I first envisioned.
During our walk on the beach, the temperature seemed to drop even further and the wind seemed to blow even harder. This made my nose freeze, not to mention heavily congested. I could not smell much from that point on. As hard as I tried to smell something, it was just way too cold.
Once we left the beach and headed to the main streets, my nose began to loosen up a bit and I could smell freshly baked bread as we walked by multiple Russian bakeries and pastry shops. I was also offered some relief due to the steam emanating from the food on the buffet-style bar at the grocery store, “A Taste of Russia”. My nose congestion cleared up enough for me to be content with life. Thank goodness for that because I wouldn’t have been able to fully enjoy one of my now favorite foods: homemade meat-filled pirashki. While eating the pirashki, I realized that maybe I didn’t need my nose to smell. Simply by using my taste buds, I could in a sense “smell” what I was eating. (I did read somewhere once that taste was connected to smell). Perhaps if I really wanted to smell the beach, I should use my sense of taste… actually, tasting sand and sea water sounds like a bad idea.
04/15/16 (Second Trip to Brighton Beach)
The weather was milder this time around. It was slightly cold and a bit windy especially for the spring. Overall, though, the weather was good. The sun was out this time and there was no snow.
We took the B train again to Brighton Beach and once again as I stepped out of the train car, I smelled that oh so familiar smell of barbecue meats. It was from the same Georgian restaurant as well and this time I could see large clouds of smoke coming through the exhaust on the roof.
We once again started off at the beach and this time my five senses were not as impaired aside from the seasonal allergies. This time around there were more people and the seaside restaurants were now open for business. The heat also aided in making the smells around me linger much longer. I smelled some strong perfumes and colognes when people would walk (or run) past me. I also smelled something indicative of the spring (and soon-to-be summer) weather: sunscreen lotion.
As we walked on the beach, I could definitely smell the sea salt in the air and the typical “fish smell” from the ocean. It was not very strong, but I could still smell it. These smells helped to enhance that beachside/ seaside aura of being on a beach. So, this was something different that I didn’t have on my first experience at Brighton Beach.
This time around, we decided to walk further down the beach and into Coney Island. Coney Island was filled with even more smells. There were smells of sugary cotton candy being made and Nathan’s Famous overpriced hot dogs being grilled. Also, the public bathrooms were now open so I smelled some bodily odors originating from there. We then walked down to the dock where fishermen were patiently waiting for fish to bite their bait. Another fisherman was busy gutting a fish he caught. There, I could definitely smell the smell of sea creatures (fish and crustaceans) even stronger.
Finally, we walked back into the main streets of Brighton Beach. I was met again with the familiar smell of barbecue meats in addition to the smells of freshly baked bread and Russian pastries that I smelled last time. Also, because of the nice weather, there were more cars on the streets. So, I smelled a lot of gas and exhaust that came from all the traffic.
It is quite interesting to see how smells (a sense that is often forgotten about) changes when one moves in different areas within a single neighborhood. It is also interesting to see how smells change with the change in weather and the season. I definitely took away something important: smells are influenced and shaped by both the people and by Mother Nature.
~Mitch
