On the road again

July 20th

I’m sorry for the silent treatment guys, but here’s another blog. We are currently cruising through Tenessee on our way to Nashville for the night. It is day five of the trip and we’ve already crossed six states. After we left New York on Sunday morning we headed to Washington where we arrived just before nightfall. We set up our camp in between all the camper vans that are bigger than most apartments I've seen. Our quarters for the comming nights are shared tents. We take turns cooking and doing dishes and stuff and my group had the night off so we got to relax around the campfire for a bit. After pasta and smores my tentmate Rachel and I headed to bed because we had a long day in DC the next day. Our goal was to see as many of the city as we could and I think we did pretty well: we went to the Air and Space museum, the Natural History museum, the Smithsonian Zoo and took a walk along the monuments at dusk. It was raining while we were at the zoo but at least it cooled down a bit and there was barely anyone else there. We wanted to see the pandas but they wouldn't come out, we did see a baby porcupine that was only three hours old though. I really loved Washington, for one, all the museums are free (and there are loads of musuems) but the city also felt less busy and stressed than New York, it was easy to navigate and the people were really nice.

I have to admit that most of my knowledge on American culture comes from tv shows and films but thankfully I’m not the only one so Rachel and I bonded over the movies the sights that we visited featured in. We got back to camp around 10 pm but I was so tired I headed straight to bed (boring, I know). Most of you probably know that I am not the biggest fan of camping, an opinion I’ve voiced on many occassions but I must admit it is not actually that bad. It gets a bit warm in the tents sometimes, there are some musquitos, it is annoying that you can’t stand up straight and the bathrooms aren’t very clean but I guess a cool roadtrip makes everything bearable because I don’t really care about all these things (although now that I’m listing them I don’t really know why anyone would ever go camping).

The next morning we packed up our camp and headed to Arlington Cemetery. It is a military cemetery where soldiers have been buried since the civil war. We got to see the changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown solider. I have no idea how they survive in the heat with that military uniform but apparantly they even withstand storms to guard the monument. We also saw JFK’s gravesite. The cemetery was really impressive, really helps you put things in perspective. There are still so many wars being fought all around the world.. Nowadays it is not very common for soldiers to be buried there though, you have to do something really heroic.

After leaving Arlington we headed for the Appalachians. We visited Shenandoah national park where we went on a hike. Apparantly there were two paths you could take, a nice and easy one and a rocky path. My friends from South Africa probably remember that waterfall hike that I opted not to do because I was scared I would trip, slip or fall and break my neck? Well I figured I should probably not tempt faith so I should probably take the easy path. Unfortunately the people at the front of the group missed the sign and accidentally took the wrong path. And I was glad they did! The rock climbing was actually really cool (and I only got a minor scratch on my hand!) and the view was amazing. I love Virginia, it is so green, loads of trees, cute farms and the Appalachians are truly beautiful. I would love to come back in the fall and see the leaves change colour. We even saw a bear! Apparantly there are loads of black bears in the mountains. We only saw a glimpse as it was running away but I’m glad we saw some game ;) We saw some deer as well.

Another couple of hours on the bus later we arrived at our next campsite, it looked way prettier than the first one as it was surrounded by a forrest and there weren’t as many campers. We arrived pretty late though so after cooking (it was my group's turn) we spend the evening around the campfire eating smores and playing games. I went to bed around midnight but some people stayed up pretty late, I could still hear them yelling while playing never have I ever, I don’t think the families around us got much sleep that night.

We left early this morning and I think it’s another three hours before we reach Nashville. We just stopped at a liquour store where we got to do a moonshine tasting. It wasn’t as bad as I expected and some of it even tasted quite good. So that takes us to now, on the bus listening to the playlists we composed. The bus is quite comfortable with airco and wifi and good company of course. I’ll try to upload some pictures but I am not sure the wifi is good enough.

Tomorrow we’re heading to Memphis and on Friday we’ll arrive in New Orleans.

Manhattan from the sky

Maybe it’s my less than stellar map reading skills but I keep getting turned around here in New York. Not really in the streets but mostly in Central Park, that place is so confusing. Every time I try to cross it, I end up on the complete opposite side of where I intended to go. Saturday morning I was convinced I was going west and I had almost reached the other side of the park when somehow I took a wrong turn and ended up going south. It took me crossing almost one third of the park before I realised my mistake. The exact same thing happened on Thursday, I'm hopeless.

It was a bit cooler today (yeej!). I moved my stuff from the B&B to the hostel in Brooklyn where I’d be meeting the rest of the group. Some construction work on the subway made it into a way longer trip than it should have been but eventually I reached the hostel, which is really one of the nicest hostels I’ve stayed in. It’s got a bit of a hippie vibe but it’s really cool. I met my roommates for the night: a brother and sister from Germany. I quickly headed out again as we had to be back by 7pm for the meeting. I really wanted to see the Guggenheim and also went to Times Square, Rockefellar Center, Grand Central station, the Public Library and of course the Empire State Building (unfortunately it was too cloudy to see Mt. Olympus ;)). Even though it was cloudy by then, the view was amazing! All the skyscrapers looked like lego stones and all the people like little ants. It was really nice and cool up there as well. Obviously I took loads of pictures and I’ve now got that Kate Voegele song stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

Times square was okay but so busy that I really wanted to leave again as soon as I got there but the Public Library and Grand Central were really cool. I loved just sitting at the station for a bit watching everyone rush by. I especially love the zodiac signs they painted on the ceiling, there are even some ‘stars’ that are actually lit.

I went back to the hostel to meet the rest of the group. Apparantly there are two groups on this bus: one group is only coming to New Orleans, the rest is continuing to San Francisco. Everyone seemed really nice. There were a lot of people from Australia, some from England and New Zealand, a couple of Germans but no other Dutchies. Looking forward to getting to know them on the trip!

After a couple of days on my own I’m really glad to be sharing my experiences with others again. Tomorrow we’re off to Washington!

The city that never sleeps

I'm on the road again! This year's travels take me around the USA so I decided that warranted another blog. My first stop is New York City!

July 14th

Wednesday was the longest day of my life. And I am not just saying that, it actually was 30 hours long. It feels weird to be in a different time zone, the time difference between New York and The Netherlands is 6 hours and once I arrive in San Francisco in three weeks, the time difference will be 9 hours. This results in me having a lot of conversations with myself on whatsapp since the people I’m messaging are asleep when I am awake. Besides waking up at 4 AM and getting hungry at weird hours I can’t say that the jetlag is bothering me much. I guess it will be worse when I return to the Netherlands. Alas, on to the important stuff. My first thought upon arriving at JFK: I’m gonna melt this summer’. It’s so warm here, between 30-35 degrees Celsius, what a difference with Holland. Especially the metro stations are unbearable, after taking one step outside I wanted to shower again. So I’m taking it slow (as I should since I’m on vacation) and sticking to the shadows (or the A/C). I spent my first day exploring the Metropolitan Museum of Art where I spent the biggest part of my day. The museum is huge! After five hours I had seen only a fraction of the stuff on display (and read hardly any of the texts, you guys should be proud). It was an amazing museum though with wonderful art and sculptures. I even came face to face with a couple of the cypriot figureheads which featured in my bachelor thesis :) And of course I took a picture sitting on the steps of the Met! Eventually I dragged myself out of the museum and went on to stroll around central park. Unfortunately the heavens chose that moment to release a torrential downpour. I waited out the storm (there was lightning and thunder as well) underneath a passageway with another girl who was travelling solo. We got to talking and decided to explore the park together. So I spend the rest of my day lounging in central park with Tara.  

July 15th

Most of you probably know that I hate shorts, I never ever wear them in public in the Netherlands. You might see me in a dress but never in a pair of shorts (except at the stables, that one time was an exception Heleen!). However, New York has made me abandon my principles. It is so warm here that I wonder how people function properly in this city. I try to go from one airconditioned place to another or sit underneath trees in a park. This morming I spent a fair amount of time just sitting on a parkbench watching brooklyn bridge with a merciful breeze to cool me down. I walked around that park for a bit watching everyone around me. Apparantly it was a popular place for fotoshoots as I saw at least three groups of photographers, models and crew. One seemed like a fashion shoot for childrens clothes but the funniest and strangest one was a couple of ladies laying around dressed as mermaids, with actual tails! Fun fact: apparantly a tail is quite heavy as the models couldn’t even lift it themselves, one of the crew members had to hold it up for the pictures.

I was planning on meeting up with Tara again today but she sent me a message when I didn’t have wifi so we just missed each other. After relaxing in the Brooklyn Bridge park I decided to cross the bridge itself. It’s a very impressive structure and I was amazed by all the work it must have cost to build something like it. It is a really cool experience to witness all the things you see in movies and on tv in real life. In that spirit, I went on to take the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. The boat ride was really nice with beautiful views and I met a nice family on the way who immidiately invited me to their home in Las Vegas! As I love parks I couldn’t not visit the High Line, so that’s where I went next. The High Line is a park on an abandoned railroad track. A couple meters above street level is this green oasis (I’m feeling a little poetic) between the skyscrapers. It’s the coolest venue for a park I’ve ever seen.

Tomorrow I’m going to move my luggage to the hostel where I’ll meet the group and spend the first night of the bustour so it’s gonna be my last full day in New York, think I might check out some more museums. For those of you who don’t know, starting Sunday I will be travelling from New York to San Francisco by bus. It’s an organised tour, don’t worry I’m not hitch-hiking or anything, with a group and it’ll take us three weeks to get to San Francisco. I’ll try to update as often as I can!

Ow and Joke, in case you read this, this might actually be the first vacation on which I’ll lose weight instead of gaining it (remember Rome?). Maybe it’s the jetlag or it could be the heat but I barely have an appetite.