It was the day of the lord and Harlem religious followers was on the list to be inspected. We started the day with some american breakfast with extra bacon, this would be a long week of healthy food if following the local food traditions and then headed north.

Harlem was more or less deserted though, and damn cold on top of that. After some time we found a church, or actually a church with a ridiculous queue. It turned out we were not the only tourists who had thought some Sunday gospel was good and free entertainment. Unless a miracle occurred (pun intended) we and the last 100 of the queue would not get in for this sermon. Instead we strolled over to the less fashionable but still holy church by the prestigious name African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.

To our demise the ratio between tourists and old religious ladies were not to the ladies advance. Even if one added the quire it wouldn’t be a fair fight. Mirsada with limited church experience thought there would be a song and we could leave, yours truly sniggered when she looked tormented and the clock slowly slowly made it’s second round as the priest preached something about the jesus marathon. Nice experience but perhaps not something we’d repeat.

Some strolling in Harlem, where each block has a church and each corner a pub gave us opportunity to get yelled at by a old colored lady. It’s not often you are entitled to hear phrases like “Get those niggas out of here” directed to you. We took it as a compliment and had lunch at Jimbo’s hamburger palace. A place with that name simply can’t be resisted. More strolling took us to a lovely park and after realizing we had ended up in upper east we head off to 21st Century in search for some bargains.

Numerous considerations and a green wesc parka later there was time for some window shopping at J&R. A lens and a flash looked abandoned and begged for a new family but instead of shopping on impulse I decided to sleep on it.