Your Election Day weekend will probably be stuck in Halloween mode until tonight, but how to fill the next three days? Bwog Weekend Warrior Sarah Camiscoli has five ways you can make a day (or three) of your travels. 

Also, a subway service advisory: through Monday, the downtown 1 is skipping 137th – 103rd Street stops (i.e. go to 96th and come back up), while the uptown 1/2/3 is skipping 50th-86th Streets. More details and other subway adjustments can be found on the MTA’s website.

Reconnect with the Uptown Over-Soul – After a hefty two months spent in Butler Reading Room, don’t you feel like it’s time to get yourself reacquainted with your roots? Well, getting a fresh breath of bonsai is quite simple with a day trip to see “Kiku” in the Japanese Autumn Garden at the New York Botanical Garden, located next to Fordham’s Rose Hill Campus in the Bronx.  But if a two-dollar suggested donation (in addition to Metro) is just too much to spare, Fort Tryon Park is quite splendid, free, and your picnic foods can be purchased on Flex, before taking the one train straight uptown to the 191st stop.  And if well-manicured Mother Nature just doesn’t end up being enough, The Cloisters are conveniently located right inside the park and only suggest a $5.00 donation for their artistic display of the dark ages.

Embrace your home borough – Calling all students who make daily choices between Morton Williams vegan turkey salad and Pinnacle calzones: there’s plenty more right nearby. Hike down to Graffiti Hall of Fame, located on 106th and Park Avenue, to stand in awe in front of a remarkable display of graffiti in Spanish Harlem. Luckily, once you’ve made it that far from Low Steps, only two blocks further south is the New York City Museo del Barrio at 104th and 5th Avenue. The $4 donation is a steal as this museum is a bombshell of cultural history.

Scale Brooklyn’s boundaries: By hopping on the downtown one and making only one transfer over to the R to get to Union St, you can visit the newly unleashed Brooklyn Boulders, and rock climb in a state of the art facility with some crunchy Brooklynite professionals for a $16 day pass. And if your hands aren’t too raw to swipe that subway card just twice more, the Brooklyn Bridge Market between Water and New Dock Street is running every Sunday through November 22nd with totally underground vendors like “There’s No Place Like Homeschool” antique collectibles and “Incogneeto” vintage clothing.

Embark on a Multicultural Excursion on Jackson Ave: If there is one borough has its city treasures overlooked by Columbia students, it is most definitely Queens.  So, if you’re feely extra unorthodox and are willing to toss your skinny jeans and printed tee for a different itinerary, take the E, G or 7 train up to Jackson Ave to grab some authentic samosas and kaju barfi in Little India, and then trek to Long Island City, where you can check out the 1969 exhibit at the PS1 Moma (46th and Jackson) or the Five points abandoned factory that was transformed into a freelance graffiti exhibit (sorry Studio Art crew, permits required).

Settle for Semi-Cheap Self Improvement:  And for those of you who aren’t looking for a day excursion, but instead would rather better your youthful mind and body, check out free hour-long private trial boxing lessons at Boxing4Geeks (122 West 27th between 6th and 7tn Avenue), take your chances at aerial performance at Trapeze School New York (West 30th between 10th and 11th), or usher in a compound fracture at the Skateboarding School (West 29th at the West Side Highway).

Photo: Wallyg/Flickr