New York, New York. So good they named it twice.

I arrived in New York City after a long sunny day running between the Pentagon, Arlington National Cemetery, the Kennedy Arts Center and various places in between and was immediately immersed into the chaos and confusion that is New York Penn Station at rush hour. Once I finally found the right subway platform and took up about 4 seats with all my bags I was totally overwhelmed by the amount of people surrounding me. A feeling that continued when I checked into my fully booked hostel, dumped my bags and went exploring. Situated on the edge of Harlem, between Broadway and Central Park, it was maybe not the best place to explore at night in retrospect... It was Good Friday and one of the local churches was running a passion parade (I think, it was all in Spanish!) which was fun to watch. In the morning I took a lazy stroll towards downtown, through Central Part and along the waterfront to meet up with Mackenzie - a girl I met in Vancouver a few weeks earlier. We did a whistle stop tour of the touristy side of New York, went across the Staten Island Ferry for the views and then watched the sun set from Battery Park. Mackenzie even cooked me a wonderful dinner in her friend's apartment - acorn squash with veggies and salad - the best meal I'd had in weeks! It's so hard to eat enough fresh veg and make proper meals when you're traveling.
On Easter Sunday I thought I'd head into the heart of Harlem and go to LaGree Baptist Church for their Easter service. The place was packed, apparently other tourists had the same idea! There was an amazing atmosphere, every seat taken and each person singing and praising God in whatever language and way they felt comfortable. I don't think any of us were quite expecting a 3 hour service! That evening we watched 'The Brave One' in the hostel which scared us out of going out that night! It's freaky watching bad things happen in all these places you recognize...
On Monday I did some of the other touristy things by day - looked up at the Empire State Building, went to Ground Zero, the Guggenheim Museum (very interesting exhibition of gunpowder art work) and Time Square. In the evening, The Hotel Cafe Tour. The reason I came to New York. Somehow I managed to jump the que and got a great place at the front with 2 girls - Jessica and Molly - who were equally obsessed with Joshua Radin. (We all screamed simultaneously when we caught a glimpse of him backstage to many funny looks from other people around us.) It was an amazing gig, especially Josh. He has a very mesmerizing stage presence, the ability to reduce a packed hall to just you and a couple of mates. An intimate acoustic gig. Perfect :)