Flaneur of the world

I was on my own in Manhattan, quite sad because my nephew was born in Argentina and I was far away from my family. Also it was the most depressing day of the week in every part of the World: it was Sunday.
I decided to walk around the alphabet city, I've heard crazy stories about that neighborhood in the eighties, but now it´s a nice place. I walked all over Saint Mark Place and checked all the used book stores because I wanted a Ryszard Kapuscinski book but I
couldn´t find any so I went to Avenue B and took a photo there just because Iggy Pop has an album with the name of that street.
I turned around one corner and there was Rivington Street. In the middle of the block there were some punk kids playing around and yelling.
I went there beacause they looked interesting and I noticed that there was the ABC NO RIO, a legendary squat house and art center.
I stood at the door looking at the place with curiosity and a guy invited me to come in and stay at the punk show of that evening.The man was named Esneider and was from Colombia. He has lived in New York since the late eighties. He told me stories about violence from those years, when the city was in decay and a lot of buildings were abandoned and people started to live there and make art and music.
“None of those artists live in the city anymore, it turned expensive and the art performers live far away from Manhattan. Right now I am living in Queens.”, he said to me with sorrow in his words.
The first punk band started. There was a kid in the crowd dancing and he was wearing a t-shirt of an Argentinian band.
After the show we started to talk and took a photo together. He is name was Harrison.
“It is crazy that I'm wearing this t-shirt today and you are from the country of the band, we definitively have to get to know each other”, he said. He was born in New Jersey and lived in Shangai until two years ago when he moved to New York and started a
punk band.
The last artist of the night was a girl from Iceland, just her with a guitar. At that time there were just eight people in the place. It was really personal and intimate.
After that I went with Harrison to the street and skateboarded down the block. He went back to the Bronx and I went to the hostel but we kept in touch and went to eat at Chelsea Market the next day.
I finished my day happy and with new friends. That´s what I was expecting from that city; real life experiences. The best part of travel is meeting people. I wasn´t on my own any longer.