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! ;)

LA Times - California Here We Come

So, I'm already back in good olde Germany, but I still haven't told you about our last few days in the States. And yes, I actually had that song on my mobile when we were in the US. 

I stopped writing when we arrived at the West Coast, where we stayed in Santa Monica, because let's be honest; I did not want to drive through LA at night without a navigational system looking for a hotel or motel with a vacancy. So we just drove past Pasadena, around LA until we hit Santa Monica Boulevard, where we just stopped at the first Inn we saw, which happened to be the DaysInn. We managed to stumble into the lobby, where David, the night clerk, listened to us babble for a while, and then suggested we take a king deluxe room with a patio, because that way, we'd be paying the least for staying in relatively comfortable quarters.

 Santa Monica Blvd at 5am

The patio was the best thing ever. The next morning when I woke up to a hazy LA sky (well, Santa Monica sky, as SM for some reason isn't part of LA), I did some morning yoga on there before searching out the next Starbucks as the others got themselves sorted for our first day in LA. 

Now, let me tell you, LA is a strange city. Because...there is no such thing as the City of LA. There is Beverly Hills, there is Downtown LA, there is Hollywood, Universal City, but... it's all so weirdly spaced out and every neighbourhood is so different from the next, you just can't get a feel for the city. In Hollywood, you have to be overrun by tourists who saw something or someone they want to take a photo of, or gang-harrassed by five different "up and coming" hip hop artists wanting to sell you their records, asking you your name and then telling you they signed the CD for you so you had to pay for it. And when you want to leave telling them to fuck off, somebody tells you, you are disrespecting them. It's scary and scarily organised tourist rip-off over there. But the Dolby Theatre and the Chinese Theatre were actually nice to see, there was a great vibe inside and the Walk of Fame, in spite of getting old pretty soon, was kind of nice, because you've seen this thing so often, it's such a big part of our modern day (pop)cultural upbringing that something would have been missing had we not gone to see it.

Loved the Dolby Theatre

Before that, however, we did my favourite part of the tour: we drove up the winding path of Mulholland Drive and stopped at the vantage point where everybody stops. And we saw the Hollywood sign. Another thing you got to see when in LA. Also, Mulholland Drive was fun to drive along and the views from up there over the cities of LA was fantastic.

a little smoggy

After having enough of Hollywood and that part of town, we took the subway to Downtown LA, where...there was nobody. Everybody seemingly spent their days in Hollywood with exceptionally rare encounters of human beings in the streets of Downtown LA. We had a look at the third biggest cathedral in the world, Our Lady of the Angels, a...rather modern cathedral that was not really that exciting, then we saw the Disney Music Hall, which was architecturally impressive. From there we strolled a little bit through the "historic" part of town, as it was labeled, even though "historic" at the West Coast seems to mean something different from historic at the East Coast. But I really don't mean to crap on Downtown LA, as it has impressive official buildings like the Civic Center and the City Hall, the LA Times Building and so on. And then there's the historic cable car at Angel's Flight connecting two streets so people don't have to climb the steep stairs up from Hill Street to Olive (which looks cool even though it's not in service anymore).

Either City Hall or the Civic Center, either way: Downtown 

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Opposite Angel's Flight there is this great market hall, Grand Market Hall, where they sell all kinds of exotic food, for example Berlin specialty Currywurst. And bratwurst with sauerkraut. Just putting everything German into one bun! :D
We returned to dolby Theatre and had dinner at Johnny Rockets, a diner chain, we took a liking to in DC. They have the greatest milkshakes!
From there on we drove down Sunset Blvd and decided to not visit the Whiskey A-Go-Go, because there was a line around the block. Through Beverly Hills' nice and cozy streets we made our way back to our palm tree-lined home street and then on to Santa Monica Pier.
The Pier is the official End of the Route 66, so we left that adventure officially behind us now. It was amazing how much action there was even at night. Even the beach was packed with people hanging around the lifeguard towers. It was a noisy crowd and we were a little tired already, but when we stumbled across an arcade, our evening was made, in spite of parking drama before (inside tip: don't drive your own car down to Santa Monica Downtown at night, you need 15min for a distance that takes you about three by foot and parking space is none existent), and the howling masses. We played games and then went on toward the end of the pier, where people were actually quietly fishing. A whole forest of fishing poles was hanging into the water and we watched for a while, looking out on the ferris wheel lit ocean in front of us. Ferris wheel lit? Well, yes, because the ferris wheel at Pacific Park ON the Pier along with the roller coaster ON the actual Pier could be seen for miles. We dropped into bed tired and still a little estranged by the city.

Pacific Park from the quieter end of the pier

On Sunday, I was able to drop in at Crossfit LA, which was only a three minute walk from us. Pretty impressive for a city in which everything is at least a ten minute car ride away. The troup down there is the greates pack, and they were bantering and included me right away into their AM-crew. I didn't feel like an outsider, but like a part of that team.
After that we had breakfast and made off to Venice Beach. Where I fell totally in love with the ramshackle buildings and almost gypsy lifestyle while the other two were a little...meh. They didn't realy like it. They were fascinated by all the sports over there. And well, for me it was paradise, there was an area with rings, pull up bars etc, a Crossfitters training heaven. And then I got to rent a surfboard and try it out, even though the fun was cut short by a lifeguard telling me the weather conditions weren't good for beginer's and I shouldn't surf without someone watching me in such weather. The rental guy was cool, just telling me, it was okay and if the lifeguard says it, it's better to follow his advice. And I should hit him up the next time I was in LA. Even though I was wearing a Patriots hat and he could never lend me a bike because he doesn't need deflated tires.
That evening and afternoon was kind of lost, because we didn't do much, exhaustion finally geting to us. And we'd have to leave kind of early the next morning.

They love this kind of lettering 

Bikers, skaters, surfers, basketball players, bodybuilders, gypsies, and survival artists

I drove down to the beach at 5am to go for a run and some yoga and when I came back, we had breakfast, packed the car and started on our way to the Pacific Coastal Highway, also known as The One. Even though it's the 101 in a lot of places. We said goodbye to a city that didn't make any sense to us as a whole, but had some pretty nice places. I will defnitely come back to Venice Beach some day, and I still need to see Malibu and Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach and Anaheim...and I want to see LA in more than 20 degree Celsius. :P

beachy panorama with lifeguard tower 16 

Morning beach yoga at lifeguard tower 18