Travel & Hotspots

OUR GIRL IN NEW YORK

Good morning without worries! The sky is bluer than blue. The temperature reaches around 16 degrees almost every day and we drink coffee outside. With an extra thick coat on and a Mickey hat. But after three years living on the island of the huge towers and take away coffees, I have come to the conclusion that autumn in New York is the best season. No rain, but plenty of sunshine. And then that smell. The falling of the leaves and the fresh wind makes autumn literally hang in the air. It smells wonderfully fresh and although we are at the end of the year, autumn always feels like the beginning of something new. Here’s to 2017. But first, a trip to Central Park.

I think I've never wandered around 60th street so often in a week. But Central Park is now at its most beautiful. Especially when we went early in the morning. Dogs are allowed to run free before 9 AM. Although I’m not quite ready for that with Blue and his obsession with squirrels, all those frolicking dogs without leashes give a sense of freedom. For a brief moment, you are truly in nature, there are no sirens. No hordes of people, just a few owners running around with their dogs in the park. It was an autumn fairy tale there, in Central Park. And that before 9 AM.

And that’s why we went back a few days later, but now it was busier. And I was with my friend N., her baby, and a friend of my friend. Crowds everywhere. Of course, the park was still a picture, but to really admire its beauty, I recommend going early in the morning.

We had lunch in SoHo this weekend at Epistrophy, the hipster Italian place I visited three years ago. Humans are actually creatures of habit. Every weekend there’s a new spot to discover here, but my fiancé and I like to return to places we’ve been before. And even though there’s sometimes something new, like Il Buco, where I finally sat at the table, you still want to return to where you’ve had a great time, even in New York. Epistrophy is a good example of that.

XL coffee at Bryant Park. Yesterday I ate at Il Buco with my friend J. She’s pregnant, I’m on the wine. And then the next morning is tough. Tougher than five years ago and very, very much tougher than ten years ago. I’m getting old and can’t handle wine anymore, and this was just two glasses of red! And still, I woke up with a heavy head and a craving for fries. Before you know it, I’m the mother who embarrasses her child on an 18th birthday, I get laughed at for the clothes I wore, and I dance like an old woman who can’t dab...

But oh well, what do I care. I can’t actually wait to drink rosé as an old lady with all my dear fellow old ladies. Friend N. also turned 31 this week and that prospect makes us look forward to those moments. And after this realization, fries are ordered. Because oh well, what do I care.

Yet rain! Okay, so it’s not always bluer than blue here. Sometimes, very rarely, there’s also rain in autumn. And if there’s one person who has a terrible dislike for this natural phenomenon, it’s our Blue. He refuses to go outside. Out of fear that he’ll start doing his business against the table leg again, I race to the store around the corner to prevent this issue. And I believe it works. A bit doubtful, Mr. B. did it, but once outside he walked like a lark. Problem solved, and look how cute this is!