The US of A, a summary

After a week back, I slowly but surely am done sorting experiences and mentally work through them. Those three weeks in the US have been flooding my mind and senses with impressions, thoughts, and sensations. Going through them now, there are definitely some moments and lessons that stand apart from the rest.

Things I've learned:

- never underestimate distances, because "it looks like it's a short walk on this map". Know your map's legend. Use it. Remember: a mile is longer than a kilometer. Don't do my "I'm just heading out for a short jog around the Mall"-thing in DC. It's a 10k, alright, even if it looks like just a couple of km on the map (which is because DC is ginormous and gigantomanic and I love it)

Look down the Mall. Does this look like a short walk?

- jaywalking 101 in Boston

- jaywalking MA-degree in NYC
- f*** is a very versatile word
- don't eat clam chowder on the West Coast. Don't do it. Just don't.

The real thing in Boston

- baseball hats lead to conversations. Conversations can be good or bad, depending on what hat you are wearing.
- don't wear non-Bostonian sports team hats in Boston. They will make you buy a new one. A better one. A Boston one. Trust me, I've been there and was forced to do that ("You're wearing the wrong Sox' hat, m'am"). Do not, under any circumstances, wear a New York Yankees hat in Boston.
- Philadelphians suck at fixing things. The Liberty Bell cracked during an attempt to fix a minor crack. And it couldn't be rung anyhow, because the steeple of the church it hung in was slowly but surely rotting away, no longer supporting the weight of the bell. And I am not even making this up.

No reason to crack up, but they suck at fixing things.

- there are several original versions of the Declaration of Independence (I remember six?). Which one did Nicholas Cage steal? I'm confused.
- the subway in Boston doesn't always work the way you know subways to be working. Sometimes you have to cross the tracks to get to another platform. Sometimes your train is just one cart. Also, you can actually take the Boston subway to Wonderland.
- Talking about train destinations, you can board a train to Pleasantville or Valhalla at Grand Central Station.

Third destination from the top. One-way ticket to Valhalla, please?

-Patriotism is ubiquitous; first you are taken aback, then you get used to it, then you go: "Yay for USA! There are Red, White and Blue M&M's!!!"

Patriotic M&M's making a mess

- Vegas is nothing but a main street with some freakishly big hotels along it and a few side streets in the middle of the desert. There's nothing there. I was asking myself the whole time how someone got the stupid idea to build a city in the middle of the desert. I guess it's because no one can hear you scream.
- there is a cupcake ATM in Vegas.

No money, no problem?

- always check the engine room before driving off the rental car lot. Make sure all lids are where they are supposed to be.
- don't park your car in the sun if you like touching the wheel whilst driving.
- wear sunscreen when in the desert. No, a 20 SPF does not suffice.
- there are no free parking spaces in Downtown Santa Monica.
- 14 Dollars is a cheap parking space in LA. In fact, it's so cheap that you can't get any of those and have to pay at least 20 bucks.
- LA is not a city. LA is a community of neighbourhoods and there's nothing going down in Downtown
- there are no not-hot lifeguards. I tried to find an ugly lifeguard in Venice Beach (yes, that's the kind of person I am), but I couldn't find one.

- it's not broken until duct-tape can't fix it. And duct-tape can fix a whole lot of things. The sidewalk for example: 

Things I'm going to miss:

- toilet covers (how have I lived without them until now?!?) in public restrooms

- the ocean(s)

- diet root beer

- memorials and monuments

- people asking you "How are you?" first thing

- people saying "Have a naice day and may gahd blass yeh" when saying good bye

- that Bahston accent

- that Nevada accent

- the rhotic R of New York

- customer service workers generally being friendly. that was a concept I liked.

Things I'm definitely not going to miss:

- "plus tax"

- "gratituity not included"

- chloride 

- American bed linen, covers, the way they make the beds. 

- what is it with American shower faucets? How do you work those? Why are the faucets different in every city? Does showering have to be rocket science?

- sleeping bag camps in parks. people sleeping in doorways. people sleeping in subways, people sleeping in stations, people sleeping on the beach. people sleeping on the streets. The feeling of utter impotence and helplessness when you realise you can't help them. 

Art adressing the homeless-problem on the Highline in New York

Favourite places:

Coney Island (NYC)

Boston. In general. The harbour in particular.

Brooklyn. D.U.M.B.O.

                                      

Washington DC. as a whole. But especially the Smithsonian Institution. 

The Mall. 

The Potomac.

 Grand Canyon. It's a church of nature.

Venice Beach. 

Favourite moments:

1. When I was wearing my Cap sweatpants and Avengers tee to breakfast in Williams and the little boy in the Captain America t-shirt looked at me awestruck, pointed at me, whispered "look, Captain America" to his mom and hid his face in his mother's lap when he noticed I saw. He later came over to say I was cool for wearing the sweatpants, because he was a big fan of Captain America. It felt like a superhero myself, being whispered about at the neighbouring table. :D

2. trying to catch a wave at Venice Beach. 

3. watching the Memorial Day Parade in Washington DC and visiting Arlington National Cemetary afterwards. There were so many families honouring their fallen and we got to be a part of it. 

4. Getting out of the shuttle bus at Mather Point the South Rim. And having the first look on the Grand Canyon. You can never relive this one first look or the feeling it stirred in you. This moment, this...I don't find any non-religious vocabulary to describe it, this reverent, devout, humbled feeling in seeing what has to be one of the most impressive sights this world has to offer. 

5. Yoga with Tara Stiles at Strala Yoga. You have to meet this woman to feel her incredible energy. Also, she's a little goofy and has the greates laugh.Total girl crush, atm. 

6. Personal one: meeting my "long lost"cousin again and seeing her daughter and boyfriend for the first time. 

Favourite food (no order of preference, just a whole lotta love for all the good food out there):

1. Mexican at Las Cambritas in Cambria, CA. Visit Cambria. If only for the experience of eating Mexican at Las Cambritas. Also, Cambria has this cat lover's store and is alround beautiful. I'll return one day and bring more time and a surf board!

2. Clam choder (clam chowdah) at Quincy Market, Boston. Best by Boston & Maine Fish Company 

3. the peanut butter chocolate milk shake at Johnny Rockets. Thank goodness, it's a chain!

4. Breakfast at the Corner Bakery Café in Washington DC. 

5. Breakfast at Andrew's Coffee Shop in New York. 

6. Philly Cheese Steak at Philadelphia Bourse House.

7. Breakfast at Stephanie's at Newbury in Boston. Great waiters, too. Thank you, guys (I only remember John's name, because I was way too nervous on our fist morning there, but the waiter from our first morning actually came to chat with us on our second morning there, even though we'd been waited on by John. He actually remembered us and... guys, the staff there is just excellent)

8. The Coney Island Dog at Jody Maroni's, Venice Beach.

A few "Whoa, f*** me, I'm in America!" moments:

1. walking home from Crossfit Hell's Kitchen, looking down a random sidestreet and just seeing the Empire State Building chilling there in the morning light, only a few block away. The fricking Empire State Building!

2. Jogging along the Charles River Basin on my first morning, listening to country music, and suddenly being talked to by someone with the broadest Boston (Bahston) accent I'd heard so far (yeah, that was about to change). 

3. Standing on the Brookly Bridge, watching the sun rise. Standing in Dumbo, watching out through that iconic street (Washington Street) onto Manhattan Bridge and finally understanding that the bridge in the pictures ain't Brooklyn Bridge. Feeling Brooklyn. Falling in love with Brooklyn.

Grand Army Plaza (Brooklyn)

4. Getting abducted by a subway train (it was an express) and suddenly finding myself in The Bronx. Riding the New York subway in general. You've seen it in so many movies.

5. Standing on the Coney Island Boardwalk and seeing the iconic Parachute Jump Tower. Seeing the Cyclone.

6. Getting out of the front door of Union Station and looking smack dab right at the emeffing Capitol. Realising that all streets this side of the Mall lead toward the Capitol.
7. Standing in front of Abraham Lincoln in the morning light, just the two of us having a silent conversation, then looking out unto the Mall, Washington Monument and the Capitol in the distance. Just me and the president in white marble. I still get goosebumps thinking about it.

8. Driving past the famous Las Vegas sign. Driving down the freeway toward the Hoover Dam. Driving down a 6 lane freeway through LA. Driving up Mulholland Drive. Driving down Sunset Boulevard. Driving, driving, driving. Driving down the 101 and the 1. Driving the West Coast.
9. Boulevards lined with freakishly tall palm trees. Like, palm trees actually grow there.
10. Lifeguard towers. And the Santa Monica Pier. Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier.

11. Seeing Bethesda's Terrace. I almost had tears in my eyes, as it was more beautiful than I had expected. Seeing The Met with my own eyes. Basically, scenes from Gossip Girl playing in my head.

12. The Golden Gate Bridge.
13. Realising I'm more of an East Coast person.
14. Starting to use the f-word far too frigging much. and the emeff-expletive. and generally cursing as a sign of excitement, good and bad.

Holy F***, what a ride! ;)

Driving down the 101...

In the car, our beloved Rogue the Second, we started talking about how we wanted to go about the drive. We decided on sticking with the 1 as often as possible, a few times along our journey the 1 and the 101 would merge, but we wanted to take the scenic route along the shore, not the one cross country and plains.

Just somewhere on the road

The 1 took us along the Pacific on our left and Pacific Palisades, the Getty Villa, Malibu, and Point Sand Dune on our right, up until there was only us and the highway. Pretty early on we decided to stop as often as we wanted to and to take our beach day, should the occasion arise. The first occasion was me having to wee. We just stopped at a beach/campground parking space on the left of the road and got out of the car to stretch our legs. The beach was part of Point Mugu State Park, and it was pretty amazing to us, pretty much an average beach for Californians.

The Groundhog Beach aka Point Mugu State Park Beach and Campground

At some point I started to wonder about the strange bird noises there, and when I went closer to the shore, across some rocks, I realised why the high pitched whistling noises seemed so un-birdlike. It was because the sound were being made by groundhogs. Those groundhogs can actually whistle better than me. We dwelled there for a few moments, but as we wanted to drive a few miles before sunset, we decided to go on pretty soon.

Groundhog Beach and morning clouds

We stopped in a town called Summerland for gas and a driver's change, drove by Santa Barbara and the clouded sky gave way to the sun, just as we reached another state beach: El Capitan.

First look onto El Capitan

We decided to take our beach day NOW, drove down to the beach and had a fantastic view of the Pacific, a nice swim in the geeedamnitthisisfreezingcold water, and a lesson in history, as there are markers and plates for reading everywhere. Apparently a group of settlers came through here at some point when California was still the great unknown.

Panorama of the beach and the hangs covered in flowers and weed

foot...uh, handprints on the beach

After a two hour beach break and a small snack, we drove on through a smalltown called Lompoc, which looked so all-American, it was scary, drove by Vandenberg Airforce Base somewhere out in the great nowhere, drove across strawberry and blueberry farm field, and through a small town called Guadalupe. Which looked exactly as it sounds: mexican style houses along the one main road. Imagine how Hollywood would rebuilt a set for a former Western, now slightly more modern city with a Mexican touch. That set? It's Guadalupe. And I don't mean that in a bad way, it felt so familiar, this American small town I had never seen in real life, because I'd seen thousand different versions of it in movies and tv shows. It felt so ridiculous. For a moment we thought about turning the car around to take a look around, but we had literally seen all there was during our drive-through. There was even a historic, lovely old theatre/town meeting hall from the 1800's that had been lovingly restored by the villagers themselves in a volunteer work effort. Though I'm not sure anymore if that was in Guadalupe or in Lompoc or somewhere else entirely. All those small towns went by in a blur.

By the time we reached Pismo Beach, it was already evening and the sun began to set, which made the lovely town right by the ocean so much more beautiful. We had set our goal for the day to Cambria, but before we even reached Cambria, we came through the cutest little something called "Hamrony, CA", inhabitants: 18. Cows: 35. At least that's how many black angus cattle we counted from the car. Then we drove into Cambria and immediately pulled into the parking lot of Cambria Falls Motel.

Doesn't look like much from the outside, but you get a lot for your money

A ramshackle looking building complex that houses surprisingly comfortable and modern rooms. Also, there was a nice swing outside and a fireplace behind the building. The clerk was Indian, so I felt slightly like being back in London again, where hotel staff seemed to be Indian, however, he proved quite helpful and told us what to see and where to eat in Cambria. And yes, the Shell is the better of the two gas stations in town. No, he doesn't just say this, because his wife's cousin was the owner. This time we all got seperate rooms, so that meant: tv! We met a while later to go and grab dinner, and found out that Cambria was one of the prettiest American small towns (it said so in an article of the local paper).

On our way into town

But let me tell you a thing or two about the wonder that is Cambria:

Cambria has a cat lover's gift shop. They have kittens there for people to cuddle (okay, not so sure about that last part...).

Cambria smells of Jasmin at this time of the year.

And Cambria has the best frigging Mexican grub I've ever had! Las Cambritas. If you ever find yourself in Cambria or have the chance to go there (so, basically, if you ever go to California, drive out to frigging Cambria) and have Mexican there. Try the homemade salsa sauce (heavenly) and anything with avocado.

This should be mentioned in guide books

Cambria's breakfast place Mojo Village Java beats every Starbucks. It's one of those breakfast/diner places that is led with heart and capable hands. It reminded me a little of "Luke's" from the Gilmore Girls. Only Luke was missing. They had scones the size of my head (well, okay, exaggerating here, the size of my hand), and great bagels. And self-made pies and banana bread (I loved the banana nut bread!!), and... I wished we would have had a day or to to just stay in Cambria and relax (in my case read: surf) at Moonstone Beach.

panorama of the coffee shop, not seeing the front door and the books on the window sills and...yeah, the server is kind of creepy and dismembered looking because panorama

But we had to leave Cambria the next morning because: San Francisco. It was a horrible affair, because on our drive through the rest of the village we noticed that Cambria really was one of the most beautiful small towns we had ever seen. It had adorable wooden houses and flowers everywhere, the whole town smelled of jasmin and lavender... our short stop at the Shell Station became bad, bad touristy memorabilia shopping and I now actually am the proud owner of a "Cambria, CA" tank top.

my brother making friends with a squirrel

After the shopping incident we made our way further north, heading toward Hearst Castle, to watch the former publicity tycoons castle on a hill. However, tourist services had already taken hold of the place and thus you can only ever get to the castle by booking a 45min tour for 25 bucks each. The next tour was leaving a couple of hours of one and a half hour later so we let the castle be an architectural structure in the wide landscape and made off to see the elephant seals in their natural habitat. Which was a smelly affair. As soon as we opened the doors, a fishy odour struck our noses and heavy wind took hold of our clothing. But it was so worth it. My brother made friends with a squirrel, I petted a crow that was sitting there totally relaxed and then we saw them. Not only two or three elephant seals swimming by quickly, but something between 100-200 seals lounging around the beach, snoring, sparring, heaving sand unto their backs and doing whatever. And gee, these animal are big. And they were just lying around there in large heaps.

Seals lounging in the sand. And that's not all of them

As the wind and the odor got the better of us, we left and drove on, past Point Piedras Lighthouse, which was also stunningly beautiful, and towards Big Sur. And even though you can read about it, even though you have seen pictures, you are so not ready for this sight.

Cloud hitting the shore, the winding road along the cliff and a narrow bridge ahead

We approached the Big Sur from South, so Ragged Point was our first vantage point. When we got there, first of all, the top of the high cliffs we were on was in the clouds. There was a big cloud enveloping the coast. But the sky over the sea was clear and there was sunshine and the sea and the ragged cliffs falling off into the Pacific, a small road winding along the cliff. We watched from the literal Ragged Point and my brother just looked at me and said: "Will you take a picture of me? Nobody is going to believe that this is real though, This looks so much like a photostudio background."

Ragged Point, oh, the colours

And it did. It felt like you had woken up and somehow wandered into a postcard. Big Sur is probably the most impressive part of the Pacific Coastal Highway when it comes to scenery. Whenever you look out of your car window, whichever way you look, there is so much landscape. So much to see. There are these high-rising cliffs and the road going along them, sometimes steeply up towards the sky, always winding, sometimes across narrow bridges, and then falling off again slightly. It was the drive of a lifetime, this one. I will never forget some of the sights and feelings I had there.

Woods, Ocean, Flowers, Cliffs, and Clouds

After Big Sur, the rest of the drive was slightly anti-climatic, we drove on to Santa Cruz, and stopped in the afternoon for Starbucks, lunch, and my first ever Target experience. Target is a beautifully scary or scarily beautiful place. However, we didn't spent too much time there, as it was already afternoon and we had to make miles now. 

After we had cleared Santa Cruz and the according after work traffic, we made another stop at a beach along the way, to get our heads aired out and for a short toilet break. Which was my cue. Because I loved the beach so much, I accidentally hit a curb with my foot and fell down onto a gravel and sand covered cemented walk way, thus effectivly grinding as much gravel and Santa Cruz beach sand into my forearm, wrist, palm, and shin as possible. At least that souvenir didn't count as carry on. I still got the feeling, I got grains of sand in my shin, but that might be wishful thinking. After all, who wouldn't wanna carry a piece of California with them wherever they went?

The beach that went under my skin

When I unpacked the First Aid Kit my dad had packed for me, after I had washed out the wounds with purified water and wiped them down with alcohol (yikes!), I found iodine or rather Betaisodona in there. My father, knowing what a clutz I can be, had actually packed a disinfectant for me. I became a little homesick right there. It's nice to be away, but it started to feel like we were reaching the end of our trip at a good point in time. 

Enough with the sentimentality, moving on, The beach was gorgeous, though. So, if I still got sand lodged in my shin, I definitely want it to be from that beach. People were kitesurfing here and there were bonfires already set up. It was kind of romantic in its own right. The kind of surfer romance I always wanted my life to have. Bonfires at the beach, wearing cut-offs and thick, hooded sweatshirts. 

From here on out, the rest of the road went in a moment. We reached San Francisco, stayed on the 1, turned left at some point, right at another and suddenly we found ourselves in front of a DaysInn. Not as much luck as in Santa Monica, though. They had no vacancy. BUT. The woman at the front desk actually called around several motels in the area to ask if they had vacancies and thus we ended up in the Ocean Park Retro Motel, and boy, it was the best thing that could have happened to us. 

Rogue I on the Route 66. Or: We're going on an adventure

Where did I leave you? Right, on my flight to Vegas. We arrived 40 minutes ahead of sxhedule and got to our car rental early. Funny thing though; at Hertz, you don't get to talk to the nice real life people at the counter, no, you have to get to a service point and phone their customer service via a very skype-esk connection. Then you get a car you didn't want in the first place, but end up loving as soon as you get in. I love "my" Nissan Rogue. I loved it right away, I gave the dark grey car the name "Rogue I" and felt pretty clever. 

Getting into town without a navigational system (because honestly, 150 quid in the time of google maps?!?) was a little harder than I thought, but easier than it felt. We found our just off-strip hotel all right and checked in, to meet up later and go see Vegas at night. Which was...scary to be quite honest. I've rarely seen so many people in one place and I didn't care for it either. Also, homeless people everywhere, heat as hell, and total sensual overload. Music is being blared at you from all sides, people run into you, smell badly, and lights and screens and ada everywhere. We ended up seeing a short part of the strip and watching the Bellagio fountain show, then went back to the hotel. It had been a long day after all, starting at the other half of the continent and such. Vegas felt like a theme park gone wrong.

The next morning I actually got up at 5:15 am to get to Crossfit Max Effort, where I realised that my cold wasn't quite as over as I'd have liked it to be, we did a lot of volume and I had to shift down a gear to baby my cardiovascular system. But I got a few good pointers on the kettlebell swing and my push presses. As well as my jerk technique so it was totally worth it. Afterwards, I meant to leave right away so we could get breakfast quickly, but got held up by a nice conversation with one of the regulars, who told me how he came to Vegas from a small town in Missouri and what kind of cultural shock it had been. Then we got to talking about politics, especially the upcoming elections in America. It was quite interesting to get an Americans view on the matter, because there's a bunch of things you really just don't get from a European perspective. Then home, quick shower, breakfast, and off to see a little Vegas. We went through most of the popular hotels, gambled away in some of the casinos, rode the rollercoaster at the New York, New York, bought some MGM Grand merch, and stared in wonder at the replica of a mediterranean city in the Forum shops. It was a frigging 40 degrees celsius out and we were happy to spend time indoors.

Around four in the afternoon we made off to Williams, Arizona, where our motel would be and we arrived there after admiring the Hoover Dam and Lake Meat, the old Route 66 and life on the American highways. In Williams, all that was left to do was go to sleep and be happy we didn't have to see Vegas again. 

And then the Grand Canyon. We spent most of our day there, just staring at this wonder of nature from different vantage points.

This is The Abyss:

Things that only happen to you when visiting the Grand Canyon:

- sitting next to a child called 'Jedi'

- the bus driver announcing "Please be sure to take all of your belongings with you when you get off the bus. This is...The Abyss" in a horror movie voice. 

I'd love to say a lot about the Grand Canyon, because I gathered some experiences to last me for a lifetime, but the thing is: you can't put this feeling into words. You can't capture those vistas in a photograph. You can try, but you will always fail. There's just no words for it. Let's just say, looking at the Grand Canyon makes you understand why people here believed in Mother Earth, why they believed in higher spirits, in something that has created landscapes like this.

You feel incredibly small and meaningless and at the same time like part of something that's bigger than you. As I said, words are insufficient, but at least I tried.

The next morning, we were supposed to leave for LA via the old Route 66, but...we only got as far as Seligman, AZ until our motor started sputtering and complaining that there wasn't enough oil pressure. So, off to the Shell at Seligman, I-40, ramp 123, to buy some oil. Which is when we discovered that the guy who had done the basic maintenance for our car had obviously forgotten to screw the oil tank cap back on, as it was neatly stowed away next to the cooling system. But not where it belonged. The whole motor block had been drenched in oil for three days and basically we were lucky nothing more had happened. Except that our Route 66 trip became a real adventure. We called Hertz and they sent a tow truck to come and get us back into the next big city. Which happened to be... Vegas, never-come-back city. Now at 42 degrees and about a two hour detour. I had to name the car "Rogue I", implying that there'd be a "Rogue II". Rogue II is jet black and even bigger than Rogue I, same model, but more perks. Love it. Though the detour still sucked.

BUT: we met so many nice people in Seligman. If you ever go to the Grand Canyon, stop at the Shelll station there. People there restored my faith in humanity. They let us use their phones, hang around the gas station, tried to calm us down, tried to help us where they could, wanted to try and clean out our motor block themselves. We met a Mexican that had been parked there by his girlfriend and her mother, and who was waiting for them to come fetch him, shaving his head, talking about the weather. Our tow truck driver was the kindest guy, he even saw to it that we really got a new car, when there was some slight communication error. And then, suddenly, we were on our way to LA, driving through the Mojave desert, down the mountains and toward the City of Angels. Dusk in these mountains was beautiful. Longwinding roads and hilltops gleaming in all the colours of sundown, the view down into the bowl LA is located in. I loved every minute of the drive. And then there we were. At the end of the Route 66, Santa Monica Boulevard. We found a hotel right away and turned in pretty soon after that, because boy, were we tired. But we made it. The second part of our trip was done. Now we are at the West Coast. California.