There wasn't much to Buffalo, the second largest city in New York state apart from it being 23 degrees C both days. When I arrived it was Sunday afternoon and as I walked up Main Street it was like being in a zombie movie. It was completely deserted apart from just a few random people. In my first evening I went to The Anchor Bar, the place where buffalo wings were invented, and had some gorgeous buffalo wings.

It didn't take long to explore downtown and see the historic buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I did spend a couple of hours at the naval yard walking around two old ships and an old submarine from World War II. Outside the downtown area centred on Main Street were some nicer areas - the Allentown historic district is packed with colourfully painted, old wooden buildings with front porches - the kind of house I now want to live in.

Given that there's so little to say about the city of Buffalo I can concentrate on some other aspects of my stay. The first was the fact that on my first morning I was awoken by a voice saying "Morning, sir, Buffalo police, can I see your id please?". I looked up to see the butt and holstered sidearm of a policeman, which meant he was addressing the guy in the bunk opposite me. I was expecting him to be carted away on a charge of felony snoring but instead the girl from reception asked everyone to check to see if anything had been stolen.

It came out that the previous night the two Irish guys in my dorm had some money go missing and the only other person staying in the room was this middle-aged mustachioed Latino man. The policeman had a good long chat with him and told him to leave that day or be thrown in jail. No charges were pressed because it would have meant the Irish guys staying around to testify and they had travel plans.

Luckily I had locked my laptop and expensive belongings away but had left my cell phone and wallet in my trousers folded under the bed. I'll certainly be more careful to lock everything away every night.

On my second day in town, while waiting for a night bus, I spent a couple of hours sitting in Lafayette Square doing some people watching. Then, and on the rest of my times walking through Main Street, I had noticed a lot of homeless people. Not only that but a significant proportion of them seemed mentally ill - walking along talking to themselves or imaginary people, somtimes oblivious of the traffic. There was one guy who wore shorts outside his trousers, a shirt and a child-size plastic construction helmet with a Disney On Ice sticker on the back, and he carried a cassette player on which he played a mix tape with some regular songs and some tracks which appeared to be himself singing some popular songs. This made me wonder what happens in the US to these people. There is no public healthcare service and I doubt these crazy people have good health insurance.

The other thing I noticed about Buffalo is the racial divide. Nearly every person walking the street during the day was black, except around 5pm when all the white people finished work and came out to go home to the suburbs. Most of the kids in the centre of town after school hours were black - the white kids must be somewhere else. It was a strange thing to see that I wasn't expecting to be so vividly evident.

When I picked up my backpack in the evening from the hostel I talked to the guy on reception for a while and mentioned these two issues to him. He told me that mental health services have been shut down over recent years, that Buffalo was one of the most segregated cities in the country, and that he lives in that beautiful Allentown district (which made me jealous) and that there was a drive-by shooting the previous night. He did say that was very rare for Buffalo but that gang-based violence was on the increase.

These issues aside Buffalo is a surprisingly pleasant place for its size - Main Street in a nice looking street with no cars and a tram running up and down its length, which is free up to the point it goes underground. The only problem equaling the homeless problem is the group of Scientologists offering people free stress tests in Lafayette Square as a way of recruiting weak-minded people and trying to entice them to buy L. Ron Hubbard's book. A surprisingly large number of people were taking the test but I didn't see one person taking away a copy of the book. There were also two differently dressed women filming the testers who were with the main group - probably reporting back to Tom Cruise on their effectiveness and how well they're following the prescribed recruitment process.

My next update will be on Atlantic City where I'm currently enjoying my own room for a nice change.