Tuesday, March 18, 2008

the swedish cottage in nyc

my friend and i were tromping around walking through central park after the last big snow in february after spending the early afternoon in MoMA. somewhere in there, we came upon this sign:

"imported from sweden in 1876?" my curiousity was piqued. it was a beautiful little place. immediately i thought of gunnar and wondered what he would think of this little bit of sweden in the middle of the city. is it authentic? it must be.

sometimes its really overwhelming, the way the unexpected can overtake you so suddenly in this town. sweden? who would've thought it? everytime i turn around, i trip up over something wonderful in the city to explore that i've never seen before, that's been there forever and that is decidedly and distinctively not american. i've criscrossed the park a jillion times but i'd never walked from central park south (midtown) to central park north (harlem). and i'd definitely never seen this cottage. but this is located beyond the popular zones like sheep's meadow and the bandshell and all that. further up isn't as congested and so it feels more like a sanctuary, like its my own private back yard.

if gunnar ever came to visit, we could actually have a day of swedish everything, right in the city. i suppose we'd have to end up at aquavit. i really love the food there.

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