When we arrived to New Orleans we checked in to this quite lousy hostel. But it was the only hostel as we were in New Orleans during the Jazz Festival!! At this hostel we met up with some of Abby's friends she had met prior on her trip, Raphael from Germany and Birralee from Australia. We also met Simon from Australia here, and we had a great time in New Orleans.
The first night we went out to here some music - this time jazz (the festival hadn't started yet) - and we found a place that sold tickets for 10 dollars. So we went in here and listened to the band, and suddenly Elvis Costello jumped on the stage and performed! After the concert we went out and partied in the streets of New Orleans. This city is crazy and if they say New York never sleeps, then New Orleans have serious insomnia problems. A great city with everything to offer - great food, great people, beautiful locations in the city and warm weather (some times maybe to humid though).
We entered the Jazz festival the day Pearl Jam had a concert (no, not a Jazz band, but who cares). Before they performed we went to various concerts such as Big Brass Bands, African music, country, Band of Horses and we also joined some parades. When it finally was Pearl Jam's turn for a concert New Orleans was blown away. A very cool concert from a band I didn't expect that much from. A great day.
The last day in New Orleans I spent with Abby and Raphael checking out the French Quarter in New Orleans which is very untypical for the US. An old neighborhood that hasn't been changed into a big American society. Beautiful.
After New Orleans I traveled alone to Charleston, South Carolina, where I stayed with some of Renee's friends, Myra and Robert. Here I got the chance to paddle surf, which was friggin' cool. There was dolphins the first half hour we were out surfing to say hi. I also got to see the city, which was an important city during the Revolutionary and Civil War. This whole trip across the USA has brought me back in time, as I started in the mid 1800's with California and now start-mid 1700's with the south east. A great trip back to the Atlantic Ocean, which I hadn't seen since Uruguay!!
After Charleston I traveled to Washington DC, to stay at my Dad's place - where I am now. Here I met up with my good friend Abby for another couple of days, before she traveled to New York and on to Central - and Southern America. In DC I have so far had a mix of relaxation (much needed!) and work as my Dad and Renee has recently moved, so this place sometimes more looks like a construction place then an apartment. I've also had the time to do some sight seeing which is a must do in this great city. It is great to be here again and tomorrow we are leaving for Buffalo to celebrate my Dad's birthday. After that I will travel by my self to Toronto for some days before I come back to DC again via Buffalo.
Forza la grande Lazio
lørdag den 15. maj 2010
The Bible belt!
After the great time in Colorado I now went to St. Louis, Missouri. Here I had mixed experiences.
1.) Great history, an important factor in the expansion of the USA in the start 1800's. The fact that I had no idea about how important this city was surprised me a lot and gave me a load of more information about this country.
2.) Bad environment between people in the city.
3.) I was the only person at my hostel, except a homeless man, and the drunk, farting owner, who only could talk about his vegetables he was growing. Great experience as this was my first trip alone on my whole journey after Mads went home.
So apart from the museums in this city, and the zoo, St. Louis doesn't have that much to offer. I therefore traveled through some of the most religious states in the US to reach Nashville, Tennessee. On the bus ride I noticed signs along the road as "Jesus saves". "Say no to abortion" and all kind of trap. I had a way better time in Nashville, which is just a very cool city by it self with non stop music, happy people and a lot of sights. The city is called "Music City" and right so, as this is the home town for country music. The hostel here was amazing as well, where I got the lucky opportunity to meet Abby, who I went sightseeing with and ended up traveling with to New Orleans. In Nashville we were under this curse, where everything we talked about happened later the same day... Very weird.
In Nashville the hostel arranged a trip on Sunday to go a church down on Broadway - it was a bar, that had a priest playing the guitar and praying, and playing religious songs. all very entertaining. We saw one of the performers later on the same stage very drunk. Religious alright...
In Nashville I finally got the chance to talk football again, as I might an Italian guy named Edoardo, who knew everything about Italian football as well. After 1,5 months in a country, where the call the sport "soccer" (sorry,wtf?!) this was a relief.
After Nashville I got a ride with an Australian guy called Neil to Memphis, where we on the way stopped by Jack Daniel's distillery. On the trip to Memphis I saw more religious signs such as "Vote JESUS at next election", "We and God support our troops!" and "God doesn't want your prayers, he wants your obedience". Sometimes quite scary...
We met up with Abby again in Memphis and we went straight to hear some music here as well. After a load of country music in Nashville we now ended up in the blues city of Memphis.
The next day Abby and I went to the Civil Rights Museum, which was located at the motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed. A very weird place to be, as you get the chance to stand right next to the same spot as he got shot. After seeing thousands of pictures and video clips of this during the tour in the Museum, this was a very weird moment. We also saw the bus Rosa Parks sat in the day she didn't stand up for the whites in the bus. By far the best museum I've been to so far.
After this we met up with Neil again and went to Graceland! Elvis' house. We didn't only get to see his impressive (though not as big and glamorous as I'd expected) but also his huge car collection and his two airplanes. I'm not a huge Elvis fan, but this was great!
We traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana after Memphis, where we had to drive through Mississippi. Some days before there had been a tornado here, and we crossed paths with its route where it had destroyed woods. Massive stuff.
FORZA LAZIO!
1.) Great history, an important factor in the expansion of the USA in the start 1800's. The fact that I had no idea about how important this city was surprised me a lot and gave me a load of more information about this country.
2.) Bad environment between people in the city.
3.) I was the only person at my hostel, except a homeless man, and the drunk, farting owner, who only could talk about his vegetables he was growing. Great experience as this was my first trip alone on my whole journey after Mads went home.
So apart from the museums in this city, and the zoo, St. Louis doesn't have that much to offer. I therefore traveled through some of the most religious states in the US to reach Nashville, Tennessee. On the bus ride I noticed signs along the road as "Jesus saves". "Say no to abortion" and all kind of trap. I had a way better time in Nashville, which is just a very cool city by it self with non stop music, happy people and a lot of sights. The city is called "Music City" and right so, as this is the home town for country music. The hostel here was amazing as well, where I got the lucky opportunity to meet Abby, who I went sightseeing with and ended up traveling with to New Orleans. In Nashville we were under this curse, where everything we talked about happened later the same day... Very weird.
In Nashville the hostel arranged a trip on Sunday to go a church down on Broadway - it was a bar, that had a priest playing the guitar and praying, and playing religious songs. all very entertaining. We saw one of the performers later on the same stage very drunk. Religious alright...
In Nashville I finally got the chance to talk football again, as I might an Italian guy named Edoardo, who knew everything about Italian football as well. After 1,5 months in a country, where the call the sport "soccer" (sorry,wtf?!) this was a relief.
After Nashville I got a ride with an Australian guy called Neil to Memphis, where we on the way stopped by Jack Daniel's distillery. On the trip to Memphis I saw more religious signs such as "Vote JESUS at next election", "We and God support our troops!" and "God doesn't want your prayers, he wants your obedience". Sometimes quite scary...
We met up with Abby again in Memphis and we went straight to hear some music here as well. After a load of country music in Nashville we now ended up in the blues city of Memphis.
The next day Abby and I went to the Civil Rights Museum, which was located at the motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed. A very weird place to be, as you get the chance to stand right next to the same spot as he got shot. After seeing thousands of pictures and video clips of this during the tour in the Museum, this was a very weird moment. We also saw the bus Rosa Parks sat in the day she didn't stand up for the whites in the bus. By far the best museum I've been to so far.
After this we met up with Neil again and went to Graceland! Elvis' house. We didn't only get to see his impressive (though not as big and glamorous as I'd expected) but also his huge car collection and his two airplanes. I'm not a huge Elvis fan, but this was great!
We traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana after Memphis, where we had to drive through Mississippi. Some days before there had been a tornado here, and we crossed paths with its route where it had destroyed woods. Massive stuff.
FORZA LAZIO!
Campin' Colorado
Well we camped as much in Utah as in Colorado, the title just sounds better like that.
Dave, Mads and Me were planning our trip to see Colorado, but we ended up seeing not only Colorado but also Utah. When Dave was explaining us what he wanted to show us it went something like this: "we can see this... oh, this we have to see as well. OH WE CAN'T MISS THIS PLACE. LET'S GRAB OUR BAGS AND JUST SEE EVERYTHING," with his eyes lighting as a child seeing the Easter Bunny.
So what started off early with our bags and Abby Road (one of the dogs) and drove south to see the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado. We sadly left Lori behind who had to work.. On the way south we drove past beautiful snow capped mountains on long roads seemingly never to end. Dave drove for ages and ages, and when we finally came to the location he had driven for up to 10 hours! Just before we reached the Sand Dunes we stopped to look at a waterfall. There was no waterfall - it was frozen instead what might have made it even more beautiful We could walk straight under it, and see how the water iced right where the water usually was streaming down during the summer.
When we arrived to the Sand Dunes we made our camp and me and Mads started to walk towards the Sand Dunes. The Sand Dunes is a big strange place, where the sand in the middle of nowhere gathers by the wind and creates these massive hills (mountains if you're living in Denmark) which seems more like the Sahara dessert than anything else. It took Mads and me 1,5 hours to reach to the top, which was very, very tough as we didn't only have the sand to climb up but also some massive winds.
We brought some frisbees with us which we used downhill when we had the tail wind and the pleasure of running down the hills... That night we camped and it was freezing, below 0 Celsius.
We traveled to Utah the next day, once again with Dave doing his marathon driving. We were amazed once we reached Utah, as it wasn't the Utah we knew of from Salt Lake City. It was filled with these big rock formations in the southern part. We camped close to these rock formations and the next day we were waiting for the Arches National Park. this night it wasn't as cold as the previous night!
Arches was a beautiful National Park, which was filled with - not only Arches - but huge rocks which you could climb and view beautiful scenarios from. We spent 2-3 hours here and saw various locations. We then had to head back home, with another big car journey in front of us. The long rides didn't matter as we had good company and great music the whole trip.
When we came back to the house we spent some days with Lori and Dave and watched movies, played mini-golf, made a little trip to Boulder and just had a great time. The dogs and cats helped to the entertainment as well, especially little Eleanor who just was one big Duracell battery!!!! Mads left while I was here, as he went to New York and after wards back to Denmark. Lori and Dave held a big BBQ the day after he left (not because of he left of course) and I got to learn how to play horse shoe. Great Success!! Happy, happy times.
Forza Lazio!
Dave, Mads and Me were planning our trip to see Colorado, but we ended up seeing not only Colorado but also Utah. When Dave was explaining us what he wanted to show us it went something like this: "we can see this... oh, this we have to see as well. OH WE CAN'T MISS THIS PLACE. LET'S GRAB OUR BAGS AND JUST SEE EVERYTHING," with his eyes lighting as a child seeing the Easter Bunny.
So what started off early with our bags and Abby Road (one of the dogs) and drove south to see the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado. We sadly left Lori behind who had to work.. On the way south we drove past beautiful snow capped mountains on long roads seemingly never to end. Dave drove for ages and ages, and when we finally came to the location he had driven for up to 10 hours! Just before we reached the Sand Dunes we stopped to look at a waterfall. There was no waterfall - it was frozen instead what might have made it even more beautiful We could walk straight under it, and see how the water iced right where the water usually was streaming down during the summer.
When we arrived to the Sand Dunes we made our camp and me and Mads started to walk towards the Sand Dunes. The Sand Dunes is a big strange place, where the sand in the middle of nowhere gathers by the wind and creates these massive hills (mountains if you're living in Denmark) which seems more like the Sahara dessert than anything else. It took Mads and me 1,5 hours to reach to the top, which was very, very tough as we didn't only have the sand to climb up but also some massive winds.
We brought some frisbees with us which we used downhill when we had the tail wind and the pleasure of running down the hills... That night we camped and it was freezing, below 0 Celsius.
We traveled to Utah the next day, once again with Dave doing his marathon driving. We were amazed once we reached Utah, as it wasn't the Utah we knew of from Salt Lake City. It was filled with these big rock formations in the southern part. We camped close to these rock formations and the next day we were waiting for the Arches National Park. this night it wasn't as cold as the previous night!
Arches was a beautiful National Park, which was filled with - not only Arches - but huge rocks which you could climb and view beautiful scenarios from. We spent 2-3 hours here and saw various locations. We then had to head back home, with another big car journey in front of us. The long rides didn't matter as we had good company and great music the whole trip.
When we came back to the house we spent some days with Lori and Dave and watched movies, played mini-golf, made a little trip to Boulder and just had a great time. The dogs and cats helped to the entertainment as well, especially little Eleanor who just was one big Duracell battery!!!! Mads left while I was here, as he went to New York and after wards back to Denmark. Lori and Dave held a big BBQ the day after he left (not because of he left of course) and I got to learn how to play horse shoe. Great Success!! Happy, happy times.
Forza Lazio!
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