Central Park, Its' Zoo, And Maybe I Was a Bit Harsh
Today my personal expert New York City tour guide has us starting with exploring Central Park further on the way to the Central Park Zoo.
Central Park (like pretty well the rest of the city) is iconic and once you visit it you will realize how many scenes in movies are shot here and begin annoying those around you while watching such films by incessantly pointing out that you've been there.
It's actually really gorgeous. It has cliffs, waterfalls, lakes, beautiful huge trees, and lots of green space.
It never quite makes me forget that i'm surrounded by a steal jungle (with the omnipresent, yet dazzling, New York City skyline always in the distance), but it really is quite charming.
The cities energy is certainly flowing through it's park as well. We actually took a moment to just sit on a bench and people watch for a short while and it was really great.
You'll have your joggers, your dog walkers, your office people out for a stroll, lots of nannies pushing rich peoples kids around, tourists like us and horse drawn carriages going by.
Meanwhile throughout the rest of the park you'll have people kayaking, picnicking, enjoying a small carnival, or performing for a crowd.
It was really pleasing just walking from one musician to another.
One performer was actually doing a psychic act that Penn had both performed and educated us on the night before.
A little bit more exploring and then off to the Central Park Zoo.
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| She always has a drink in her hand. At least this one isn't alcoholic...wait is it? |
So here's the thing. All I knew about the central park zoo was derived from the Dreamworks Madagascar kids film.
Which means that everything I knew about the park was wrong.
Contrary to what the film depicts, there are no lions, zebras, giraffes or hippos. There were penguins but not a single one of em talked!
I was disappointed, dismayed, and deceived and declared, from that day forward, to never to stray from the safety of Disney films ever again.
Silliness aside. The zoo actually did a remarkable job with such a small space. The zoo is very small but they did manage to have an acceptable ammount of animals and experiences. They also did a great job with themeing and created seemingly lush flora environment, fittingly nestled within central park.
That being said, I really couldn't help thinking about the quality of life, or lack thereof, of the animals. They really were very small enclosures.
While we did have a nice time in the zoo we actually had to rush through it since my personal tour guide (Amy) had to hurry us to another Broadway show.
Before I get to that I do have to point out a realization I had this day. I'm not sure if any of you have noticed but I was decidedly critical and downright cranky of alot of my views of the city.
I found it dirty, stinky, noisy, crowded and often refer it to a steel jungle.
Heres the thing though. I didn't realize I had been experiencing all the symptoms of a migriane the previous day until today.
I get headaches and migraines regularly. As such I know that certain circumstances are likely to trigger an episode and I knew travelling and experiencing New York would be a definite trigger. So prior, and during, our visit I made sure to take pain medication pre emptively as it is much easier to stop a migraine from coming on then it is to stop it.
Therefore the day before I wasn't experiencing any pain (due to the pain pills) but I was experiencing all of my other symptoms of migraines. Such as extreme sensitivity to light, sound, smells or pretty well all sensory input of which a city like New York is on overdrive.
Furthermore I also had tunnel vision which forces my vision to narrow (probable as a means to limit my sensory input) eliminating all perepheral vision and kind of forcing me to look down at the ground instead of experiencing the city as a whole.
So I was absolutely viewing tons of filth in New York. But thats because I was looking down at the ground for the most part. I was missing out, for the most part, of the beauty that New York had to offer.
I realized this on the way out of Central Park when, due to no more migraine, I was able to appreciate all of the beauty of architecture around me. So while Amy handled all the directions and navigating through the city (Truly an excellent personal tour guide) I just started looking up and taking pictures of the buildings.
I also felt immensely comfortable in the big city. Felt like being back home in Montreal. Sure Montreal isn't as large but it does have a similar feeling to it. For example I had jay walking perfected. Honestly Montrealers have New Yorkers beat on this front.
But overall this day was where my love of New York began to grow and I was really started to appreciate what this city had to offer.
Speaking of which, it's time to get back to Broadway and watch that play.
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