My New York: Union Square

Even though you can never really say goodbye to a city like New York, I've started a series called My New York in an effort to bid farewell to my favorite places and document my last adventures before moving back to Paris this winter. Join me as I rediscover why I fell in love with this city, and most importantly, the food deserves a proper goodbye!
*I'm in Paris now, but the series will continue (and make me homesick!).

To put it gently, Union Square isn't the cleanest park, nor the prettiest. In that case, I'll point you uptown to greener pastures in Central Park. But in spite of its gritty "charms," shall I say, Union Square represents the piece of New York that first stole my heart. Strolling through the Greenmarket and people watching never fails to remind me how much I love living in New York. This city is filled to the brim with characters -- loud, colorful, crazy, beautiful, ridiculous, hilarious, in-your-face, amazingly kind, unbelievably rude, and everything in between. When you walk out the door in the morning, you never know who or what you'll encounter on the street: Drunk Woody Harrelson riding his bike in Hell's Kitchen, a fabulous Gay Pride parade, a homeless guy drinking his urine, fortune tellers, a man grocery shopping in a gorilla suit, Jessica Stam walking her dog, who knows? (All true stories by the way)

Since I first landed here in the summer of '08, Union Square has always been my favorite place to immerse myself in all the diversity and mayhem that makes up this concrete jungle of mine. Here, people from all walks of life linger day and night, with friends or by themselves. You can easily sit on the steps for hours and watch the world pass you by or dive into a good book. On any given day at Union Square, you can listen to a man playing the piano with his cat, sip on homemade apple cider, watch an intense game of chess with a group of strangers, pick up a sweet box of sun-ripened berries for dessert, join a dancing flash mob, enjoy a peaceful moment to yourself under the leafy trees, or taste some honey from an East Village rooftop beehive. Take your pick, and send a picture my way because I'm starting to get just a little bit nostalgic over here...

What place captures the heart of your city?

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