Central Park

Two things I have noticed about Central Park:

It is the perfect place for making out. NOT that that's what I'm doing there (reading art criticism is far from macking), but it just so happens that every time I go the park is infiltrated with people making face time. In their defense, it's probably the most "private" place to go in the city. Still, in broad daylight? Come on, people! At least the Italian piazze only got sketchy after dark. It would have made it a whole lot more awkward to enjoy my gelato if the Piazza de la Repubblica was as inundated with Italian pairs as Central Park is with Americans.

The outskirts of the park are beautiful, but beware--seeing those cute little horse drawn carriages from far away might be a pretty sight, but they are actually just warnings of problems to come. Especially when there are tons of them, as there were today since it was sunny. What am I speaking of? The inescapable smell of horse poop. It's really quite disgusting. I was perusing a great book sale from The Strand (a fabulous FABULOUS bookstore claiming 18 miles of discounted books) and in the middle of thumbing through a Capote memoir I had to turn around and head for the hills (literally...there were some small hills at that particular park entrance) before the stench threatened to swallow me up completely. I realized that it is best to walk THROUGH the park...over the grass and over the rocks...because otherwise it could be physically dangerous.

In spite of these...minor...setbacks, the park is really my favorite place in the city. It is the one place where you can rest, sit, and SMELL the air around you. There are other places to go and enjoy grass/trees/squirrels, but Central Park is really the only place I've found in Manhattan where the you can find a spot without a skyscraper view. Right now the leaves are just barely beginning to change colors, so the park is no longer just green, but green littered with gold and orange.