Stumbling upon street fair in Manhattan was one of my favorite pastimes in college - this one was extremely predictable and at the same time achingly comfortable. I could have spent a year admiring the pocketwatch necklaces and the enamel plated earrings.
And while most people would be bored dining at the same restaurant on pretty much every trip they took into the city - I was invigorated by our trip to Spice's location on the Upper West Side. I think they've made the best Drunkman Noodle I've had at Spice, and I've eaten at four of their locations.
The walk from the subway to the restaurant to Central Park was absolutely stunning. I've never really explored the Upper West Side - I've only ever been around there to haunt the Museum of Natural History and to frolic in Strawberry Fields. The neighborhood was quaint and iconically-Manhattan - tony brownstones and glamourous apartment buildings and yet oddly personal, mothers walking with their children (sans nannies!) and leaves fluttering all around with the sun sitting low in the sky, a yellow glow cast on everything.
A trek along 86th cut us clear across Central Park, but we happily wandered into a part of the park that I've never actually been - the Conservatory (aka the place where everyone floats their remote control sailboats). We just sat on a bench and chatted and people watched and it was magical. We also watched a bulldog ride a skateboard and it was AWESOME.
Then we took a nice trip to Union Square and discovered a new cafe - Pie Face! My iced coffee was pretty good and it's obviously a popular place for the college crowd - plus all of their petite little pies have faces drawn on them! What a cute concept!
It was a perfect respite from suburbia - and a reassurance that I'll always have Manhattan to escape to, and that I still fit in there. I still have that "this girl knows what she's doing here" aura, as I was asked for help (and delivered successfully) by like 4 different tourists throughout the course of the day.
This is why - despite the absurd cost of living, the cancer risks, the painful suburban sensibilities - I'll never stray far from NYC. Purgatory may suck (not as badly as Hell), but it's still a short trip to Heaven.
