2500 steps
After a Covid hiatus, Golden Fest, a two-day music and dance festival, returned. It used to be in Brooklyn, in a grand old event hall that was unfortunately sold and demolished. It took the organizers a while to find a place that could house such a large event, and such a venue was found in Astoria, Queens.
In some ways, this was a better location because it is in a neighborhood that is known for its Greek community. Turns out there are Albanians and others from close to the Balkans.
We were supposed to fly up to New York, but the weather did not cooperate, so we took the train. That first day I walked around 1500 steps, surpassing my daily 1,000 step goal.
Before the evening event, we planned to go to a popular Greek restaurant, though we did not realize how popular it was, so we went to a restaurant next door to it. It had kind of a pan-Balkan menu, with Kajmak, ajvar, cevaps and other assorted Balkan food.
I ate too much and spent the rest of the evening pretty much feeling like crap, so it was not the best night for me.
Saturday was much better. Jerry, Len, Lisa, Arna, Wajid and I went to Astoria Park, a huge green space with lots of activity. It was beautiful and had views of Manhattan.
From there we went to a crepe cafe that had been recommended to us. Elie, the owner, is an amazing woman. Albanian by birth, she grew up in Greece and then moved to the states. She is an accountant by trade, but she took a leave of absence to see how running a small cafe would go. The crepes and Turkish coffee were delicious, and the company absolutely wonderful. I think we could have stayed all day listening to stories from Elie, but we had other destinations.
We headed out to a coffee roastery that roasts all of its coffee with wood. While the coffee place was definitely worth going to, the walk there was challenging. Lots of sloping uneven sidewalks. Jerry and I held hands much of the way, and we got there with no incident. I left with a bag of coffee I am looking forward to trying.
Next we went to a grocery store that we thought also had ceramics and other gifts, but somehow we had heard wrong. Again, the walk to it was challenging. Interestingly enough, my leg held up fine but my left arm was very sore from overusing my cane. I tried to be mindful and stop putting so much weight on my arm, but being as tense as I was made it difficult.
Jerry and I then took an Uber back to the hotel because I really could not face another walk. We took a nap and readied ourselves for the evening.
For me, Saturday evening was a lot more fun than Friday. There were several music venues to choose from so we moved around, listening to great music. I also had some visits with friends I had not seen in years. The kindness people showed me was immeasurable.
At physical therapy on Thursday, I practiced a very simple dance, using the parallel bars, and my therapist and I decided that if I had two people on either side whom I trusted, I could do that one dance. Unfortunately, it was not to be. I was likely in the wrong place at the wrong time, so I did not get to dance.
There were a couple of other issues with this venue, that perhaps will be ironed out before the next festival. The sound was not great. Often, the sound in the ballroom was fuzzy, and, as in the past, often the music was too loud, leading to distortion.
Something shocking to me was that there was not one accessible toilet stall in the entire building. I guess I should be thankful there was a working elevator.
Another thing happened that struck me as a bit odd and maybe a little hurtful. There are people with whom I am friends on Facebook. Most, if not all, I had met but only knew vaguely from camp. I would smile and was about to say hello to many of them but they just kept walking. I guess I still do make some people uncomfortable, or they had better things to do or I don't know... but it was a little hurtful. But there were many others who parked themselves next to me where I was sitting, and we had great talks.
When we got back to the hotel I checked my prosthesis app-- yes, it has an app-- and the step count was more than 2600, my new personal best.
In the past, the festival has always been in January over MLK weekend, and they may very well do one in January 2025. It is an incredible amount of work for the cadre of volunteers, so I am sure there will be a lot of debate as to whether that will happen.
And I am sure Jerry and I will also weigh the pros and cons of going. But one big, and perhaps obvious, outcome of this trip is that is has shown me what I can do. We have more travel planned, and I am far more confident that with help and less accomodation than I thought I would need, I can do it. Perhaps that is the biggest takeaway of this weekend.
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