Shady Characters and My Pain Meditation Ritual

My goal that day was to find out how to get to Niagara Falls from Buffalo. A sign at a bus stop read #5-Niagara and I got on the #5 bus thinking it would take me to Niagara Falls. But that fucking bus didn't actually go to Niagara Falls!  >(
I found out that bus #40 was the one that went there so I went to a bus stop that the #40 bus stops at and waited. There were several other people waiting at that bus stop too. 

 Shortly after I sat down, 2 guys walked over who were dressed looking thug and gangster-ish. The guy who did the talking was a white man with many tattoos and a buzzed haircut, the other guy with him didn't say anything. Standing to the side of where I was sitting was a fat black man with some sorta oxygen tube thing in his nose. The other guy started talking to him because he knew him. He asked the fat black man if he had seen somebody because he was on a man-hunt and had been looking everywhere for him. He said that the guy he was looking for ripped him off $100 and that if he didn't have his money when he finds him he's going to cut his face open!
  He was mad and started saying all this stuff like "I trusted him! We never had a problem before!"  some other random guy who was walking by at that time overheard the story and yelled "Listen to the devil's side, CUT HIS JUGGLER!" "nah, I just need to teach him a lesson and cut open his face" he said,  then those 2 guys walked away.
    Shortly after they left another guy sat down next to me and murmured "hey, you wanna buy some weed?"  I had never been high in my life and I admit I was curious to know what it was like but I was only focused on getting to Niagara Falls before dark and finding a place to camp.
"no man, I'm good" I said. "I know you want some" he said with a smile.

Now I have to explain something before I tell the next part...
Before I left home, my friend Blake and I were hanging out. One of Blake's friends that he's in college with was having a party and Blake invited me to go with him. 
A guy I met at the party had a bandage around his arm. He said he got it from a pain meditation ritual. At first I thought he was kidding or making an accidental injury sound like he got it from being a bad-ass. He showed me and group of people the mark on his arm and explained that it was a ritual Buddhist monks do where you let a cone of incense burn all the way down on your skin. Obviously the lower it burns, the more it hurts. It's a mental challenge to let it burn all the way out. ..
I then said something like "wow, that's something I'd probably like to do someday" and he said that he had incense cones with him and we could do it now! 
I felt obligated to prove to myself that I'm just as tough. It was an experience. Yes, it was painful. But I loved that pain and smiled while feeling awesome and tough. I ran to Blake and said "dude, come burn your arm with me!" He see's that as his manliness being tested. A few others also decided to do it too.

                                                    Blake got his here instead of his arm

Blake decided to get his done where it wouldn't be noticeable since it could affect how professional he might look at work.  
Afterwords, I was telling people how spiritual it was to do it. Blake said "It's not spiritual, It's us being stupid." Now that I think about, it was a stupid thing to do. But maybe it could also be spiritual and stupid at the same time depending how you look at it.  It's stupid because it causes self harm and a risk of infection but on the other hand it's getting stronger by getting past a mental obstacle. Also It's funny to think of us doing stupid things together...

OK, so the point to that story was, I had band-aids on my arm covering my burn. It was on my right forearm. The guy trying to sell me weed looked over at my arm and was like "Ah, I see what you did there." I believe he thought I was covering needle marks from shooting up drugs. "No, I don't do that, this is just where I burnt myself." He was like "oh, ok sure." We had a conversation. I told him that I was a wanderer and then he asked "are you on the streets?" -__-     I was getting tired of people asking if I'm homeless. I explained I had some money but I'm trying to live off it for awhile. " you could pitch a tent" he said. "yes, I got a tent." I said.  Then he said if I needed a place he had an apartment I could crash at for a couple nights and he had bitches I could fuck and we could get high!

He was lowering his voice so no one would hear. A woman sitting on a bench nearby looked over and said "I know you're up to no good!" He looked at her and said "what? no" and she was like "yeah right" Then he started laughing and said to me "you see, this is why you gotta be careful, I was lowering my voice." He looked back at her and said "I know you couldn't have heard me! how'd you know?" "I just can tell" she said.
The guys' bus came. He wanted me to hang with him at his place and he was fun to talk to but I couldn't trust him and he could get me into real trouble. I told him I wanted to go to Niagara Falls that day but I might be in the same area in a couple days. He went on his way and then I started talking to the woman. She basically said that he was no good and after my money and probably would've sold me crappy pot. 
I told her that I was going to the falls that night. She said "well, there ain't nothin' there but the falls. you'd be better off staying in Buffalo. There's a lot of poverty and weirdo's in that area, you'll see." Even if the area was bad, which would be disappointing, I wanted to see the falls and the park. It was going to start getting dark soon. I probably didn't want to get there right as it was getting dark if what she said was true. 
If I went the next day, I would have all day to figure out where I was going to camp. So, I decided to take her advice and stay in Buffalo. I got up and walked toward the hostel I saw earlier.

How I got free food in Buffalo, New York (I wasn't too happy about it)

I took a subway in the morning to a more established area of Buffalo from where I stayed my first night and began to explore.

I have mixed feelings about what happened next...

I was walking and came across some people behind a stand. As I was walking by someone asked me "Hey, do you have the time?" My camera also told time so I pulled that out and looked.  It was 1 something. I told him and then we started having a conversation. Very early in the conversation he asked "are you homeless?" 

"well, I'm a drifter" I said. Then he said something like "oh, o.k, that also means you are homeless then." He went on telling me he was homeless for 4 years and was an alcoholic but then he turned his life around and now he's a minister. Then he offered me some food. The people behind the stand were Christians giving out food on the street. Soup and fruit. 

A lot of people getting the free food were obviously homeless. I definitely would not feel comfortable taking food from a charity designed to help homeless people. But I saw a lady getting some food that didn't look like a bum so it was possible that it was free food for anybody walking by and of course the homeless people in the city would take it. There was no sign or anything that said it was for homeless people only. It was just people behind a stand giving out food to people. 

  The man insisted I take some, so I did. It looked like they had a lot of food. I wasn't hungry because of the Chinese food I ate earlier but I got the soup and fruit put into containers for later. I continued walking and sat on a bench further down and contemplated what happened.

 I was glad that I got free food but it kinda bothered me that that man asked me if I was homeless. I probably look homeless walking around the city with a big backpack on. Well, maybe technically I am. Unless there is a lot of woods or nature in whatever future towns/cities I go to I know I probably won't be able to camp and might appear homeless walking around with my backpack everywhere.

Hotel rooms in America are expensive. I was planning to not spend too much time in America.

My plan for that day was to figure out how to get to Niagara Falls from Buffalo and camp there. However, that day I learned about a third option besides hotel and camping. I was very ignorant in the beginning of my trip. While walking in Buffalo I came across a hostel. I've never actually seen one before in my life and I was surprised to see one there. 

My 1 day being homeless in NYC

After spending 3 days in New York City (and only 2 of those days with me since I arrived 1 day late), My friend Cody had to go back home because he has a job and school and all of those responsibilities that I am happy that I don't have.
   And also he had to be at the airport super early. We didn't get back to the hotel until late during his last night in NYC so he only had 2 hours until he had to leave the room and go to the airport. So he decided to stay up all night. I said goodbye to Cody. I had to checked out of the room by 11:00 a.m.
   And I needed to decide what I was going to do next.  I searched online for cheap flights and bus tickets and I decided that day to go to Niagara Falls next. I only managed to get about 3 hours of sleep before I had to check out of the room.
  Before I left the hotel, I bought a bus ticket online to Buffalo for $50. But I bought it for the next day because I wasn't sure where the bus station is and I could experience NYC a little more. The bus left at 5:00 p.m. the next day...
  So, I had to spend all day and all night in NYC and I sure the hell wasn't going to spend $$ on a hotel room!!!  It was time for me to be a little more cheap-assish. 
 By the way, I had only just started my trip a couple days before and I was a lot more ignorant back then. This was before I knew that I could have gotten a hostel in NYC instead of a hotel. So in my mind, I thought that If I didn't want to pay for a hotel room, that being on the streets was the only other option. I am definitely smarter now after travelling for so long.
   I took the metro to times square. I was a little bit nervous all on my own and not knowing exactly what I was going to do. I was also really tired so I walked to Grand Central Park and took a nap.

I was very comfortable

Grand Central Park is beautiful and also it is HUGE.  After my nap, I got up and walked through the whole park.  I learned that day how terribly sweaty I get carrying my big backpack around since I no longer had a room to leave it in. 

Afterwards, I walked all the way back through the park and then to a nearby Subway
(the restaurant, not a subway station) where they had a sale of personal small pizzas for $3! Now that's some fucktastic vagabondage! (that's the word I like to use to describe cheap food)

I was able to drift off a little but I didn't sleep very much that day. Later it started getting darker. Before I left home I had several people warn me not to go into the parks at night and that it is dangerous. However, I was surprised that when it got dark there was still many people in the park. It didn't seem very dangerous. Whenever 10:00 p.m. came, there were still families with children running around and also there was a carnival thingy.

Grand Central Park at night

Then a little later,  I heard something scary... On top of a hill, there was this crazy man screaming and yelling. He kinda reminded me of Smeagol from Lord of the Rings because he was telling whatever it was in his head to go away. Then frantically started yelling "Disappear! Disappear!!" over and over and he kept saying in the name of something, but I couldn't hear exactly.  In the name of Jesus, I think, and also in the name of something else too. But there were still plenty of people walking around or riding their bikes through the park even while that man was yelling on top of that hill. 

It got later and I didn't go deep into the late at night.  Almost everyone was out of the park by the middle of the night. It might have been really dangerous late at night.  However, I was still technically in the park. I was on a hill that was right next to the road. NYC doesn't sleep at night and I felt safer being next to the road. I slept for awhile but had trouble sometimes. If I ever heard a noise, I was paranoid that it might be a crazy homeless dude coming to rob me. I'm not trying to sound mean towards homeless people. I'm just saying that there are crazy ones. Well, I am technically homeless. But I'm a wanderer, not a stationary bum. 

I also slept sometimes on a bench next to the road. Throughout the night I would switch between the bench and the hill. But I didn't get much sleep that night.

 Finally the sun rose and I went and got another $3 pizza. I was so glad It was daytime and the park became safe again. I fell asleep on a comfortable hill for several hours... I woke up at noon.

I had 5 hours to figure out where Allen street was. Last time I took a bus to NYC a couple years ago, it dropped me off in Chinatown and Allen street sounded familiar so I figured my bus was most likely in Chinatown. I was right. Whenever I found Chinatown I was able to find Allen street and the bus station.

Wow, this post seems a little long. I haven't been bogging very long, but it's my longest post so far. I hope you enjoyed it.

                                                          This looks creepy

Going to a NYC Comedy Show

If you go to Times Square then you will most likely have someone try to sell you tickets to a comedy show. I had been to New York City a few times in the last few years and each time that I went to Times Square I found people selling those comedy show tickets. 
 So, of course while Cody and I were in times square, somebody was selling tickets to a comedy show even though it had been over a year since I had been there before that day...  It's like nothing had changed.  So I'm guessing this a thing in New York and they probably have comedy shows all the time.. 

 Perhaps reading my experience will help you know what to expect if you ever visit Times Square and are thinking about buying those tickets. 

The ticket salesmen said there was well known comedians there. It sounded like fun and I had never been to a comedy show before, so I decided to buy a ticket.  It was $30 for both of us, so $15 for one person. It doesn't sound like a bad price for New York,  however there was one catch...
 You are required to buy 2 drinks minimum. It was printed in small print at the bottom of the ticket. Turns out that's pretty much how all the big comedy club in New York are. OK, so, I could handle a little bit deceit I guess. I mean it was where famous comedians were and was a well known comedy club of New York...

We finally figured out how to get there, after getting a bit lost first. 

The comedy club we went to

Okay, 2 drinks. How bad can that be? I figured that since we had to buy drinks, they might more expensive, like 3 or 4 dollars for a water or coke. Nope!  It was $6 for juice or coke and $9.99 FOR 1 FUCKING BEER!!!

But Of course there are rich old dudes wearing suites inside there and perfectly willing to pay those prices... which only encourages it. I mean really?  I've never heard of prices like that. I didn't think they could be That high. That is some cheesy ass shit!  And they can get away with it of course since comedian big-shots go there, people are wiling to be deceitfully fucked!

Oh, and then they also make you pay a certain % gratuity tip for bringing us drinks.

  But other than my bitching, It was indeed a nice place. It looked kinda like what you see on T.V. with stand-up comedians and yes the show was hilarious. I can't tell the jokes here because of copyright rights. No one was allowed to take videos either. The show lasted until after midnight.

Oh, and also a girl flashed her boob to prove that it was pierced.

Well, that's all I have to say about that. Wow, looking back, I guess most of this post is just me complaining!  Anyway, I'm going to upload some pictures from the same night.