Just drifting by

NYC

natha — Sat, 10 May 2008 15:08:00 GMT

The most beautiful city in the World !!! At least some people say so. I am not quite sure about that. It’s a cool city yes, a huge city yes, an impressive city yes and you can do what ever you want to do there yes. And it’s such a noisy city !! YES!

We would stay at Paul’s. I met him a year ago in Berlin while he was travelling. He was so kind to let us stay for 5 nights (at first we though to stay 4 nights but after a night there we decided the three of us that it would be too short!).

We would stay in Brooklyn, directly on 4^th Avenue. It was pretty warm and at night we would keep the window open. Sometimes the cars were so noisy that you had the feeling the would just stop next to your bed.

The first evening Paul would make a little walk through Brooklyn with us. A quite nice area but as it seems Brooklyn has different kind of areas. I’ve read somewhere that if Brooklyn was an independent city it would be the 4^th biggest city in the States… Hard to believe.

However, the next days we made our way to downtown Manhattan but took the subway straight from the beginning in the wrong direction… I would say that I have a pretty good sense of orientation and that subway maps are not really complicated but NYC should me that it can be tricky. Anyways the weekend we were there half of the lines were under construction and would have some deviations…

So day one, Friday 25^th, a long walk through Greenwich Village, Soho, Chinatown (which is really huge!! As it seems they even have separate schools with only Asians), down to the Pier close to Brooklyn Bridge.

After that a relaxing night at home making diner and watching a movie with Paul

Day two we walked up pretty early as we wanted to be at 10am and some hostel and some “famous” guy called Jerry who is around 70 something or so makes a guided tour during… 16 hours. One guy from Boston told us about how cool it was. We were probably 15 minutes late because of this complicated subway system which wouldn’t run regularly.

But the tour was cancelled as Jerry was sick :o( A reason probably to come back someday to NYC. We decided to make our own tour and visit the “important” things of the city: Time Square (Why is everyone talking about it. It’s nothing amazing about it, just huge, bight and noisy!), Rockefeller Centre, Union square and then a ride to Staten Island to see the Statue of Liberty a bit closer. She doesn’t look that huge compared to all those huge buildings.

Last but not least a quick walk to the Ground Zero which was basically still a big whole.

Sunday was a rainy day and we went to the museum. We wanted to see the Guggenheim. At least the building but the line was so long that we skipped that. We walked through Central Park, left Manu at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Steffi continued to the International Centre of Photography. After that we met again at “Burger Joint”. This is a typical American diner but… it is a hidden one. Eli told us about. To get there… well I won’t tell you… well okay I will. It’s in the Meridien south from Central Park. So a pretty fancy hotel. No sign telling you beside a little neon sign at the end of a tiny corridor. And on lunch time a long line! Better come around 4pm or so there is more chance to grad a seat.

We walked dawn to Broadway to the book shop called “the Strand” which has 18 miles of Books. Great store but better come with a book or an author in mind otherwise it might be difficult to find something!

We made our way to the East Village. We popped into a Music shop in that area. It was like paradise for Steffi and I as there were thousands of Cds of “indie” bands, folk singers and whatever… We came after an hour or so out of the shop with around 8 cds I think…

To relax from that we went into a little cosy place and had a tasty Chardonnay and made our way back home.

Monday April 28^th, last day in NYC, last things to buy. It was a pretty rainy day, we would chill in a back street of Broadway in some nice café and finally make our way back to Brooklyn, stop at Junior’s to get a cheesecake at eat it at home!! Very yummi and fun last night with Paul and his flatmate John.

Providence

natha — Sat, 10 May 2008 15:06:00 GMT

As Eli and AJ have studied there they would tell us where to go. We had a little walk around there and walked again through a campus where there was some African dance competition. We felt a bit like in those typical American movies but it was fun though.

Finally we made our move to NYC.

Harvard

natha — Sat, 10 May 2008 15:05:00 GMT

April 24th we left Boston for New York. But as both city are pretty close to each other we made a quick stop at Cambridge were Harvard is. We decided that being there even for two hours made us much smarter.

An old hippy woman whose name is Gabrielle and who had a little shop would show us a round for a couple of minutes and would tell us about how folk singer back in the days would play in small places just like Bob Dylan.

Boston

natha — Sat, 10 May 2008 15:04:00 GMT

On the road to Boston we had to get through the American border. Always kind of a tricky thing even if you don’t have anything to hide. Well the only thing we took illegally over the border was… vegetables!! Naughty girls!! But the very strict officer just asked if we had tobacco or alcohol what we didn’t so we just didn’t mention the fruits!! And anyways probably half of the veggies were probably from the U.S. by the way.

When the officer asked us if we had ever been arrested, Manu and I just answered know and laughed out loud… He didn’t think it was funny I guess… however!!

Then the next one wanted to know from where we know each other and I guess is was pretty suspicious that Manu and I knew each other from… Morocco!!

But well in the end they let us go!!

Then we realized we took the wrong entrance to the states as we were in the NY State and not in Vermont… So we had to take a ferry but Steffi and I are pretty used to it since the trip on the west coast.

Well finally by the end of the day after having been stuck in a traffic jam close to Boston we made it to Eli’s place. Eli is a couchsurfer I met back in February in Québec City at another friend. Eli lives with other guys and only one of them is not a couchsurfer. They are all absolutely kind and a bit crazy at the same time and as we thought already in advance it would be great fun there. Eli had to work late, that’s why Brad opened the door and Mike came also soon around. They were both pretty drunk as it was a holiday in Boston: The Boston Marathon. On this day a bunch of people is basically running the rest is using this day to be badly drunk. In that flat, in the room we would stay there were dozens of hats. Mike had decided that we should keep on wearing one the whole evening. We looked… not really clever but well who cares. We had fun with the guys playing some games like foosball, beer-pong and some computer game.

The next day the three of us would just wander around Boston, relax in the public garden and just keep on going downtown. In the evening A.J. a good friend of the guys who is a cook made chilli con carne for the whole flat and we had a fun night.

The following day, April 23^rd Brad and Eli had to work late and we would just spend the morning in the park playing Frisbee. After that we went to see George (another guy from the flat) at the science museum as he is working there. He would let us in and show us a couple of really cool animals. AJ also spent the day with us.

In the evening there was a couchsurfing meeting in the city and we would spend the night with the guys from the flat. A good way to finish the really cool days spent in Boston.

American-Est-Coast Tour 2008 with the girls

natha — Sat, 10 May 2008 15:02:00 GMT

I was pretty bad the past weeks in updating my travelblog but I had the choice in “loosing” a couple of hours with uploading pics and writing or spending time with all those couchsurfers we stayed with on the road, with my two travel-friends Steffi and Manuela (who joined us in Montreal. Old school friend I met in Morocco when I was around 10 and who lives nowadays in Vienna (no she is not German she is Austrian!! Very important!!) and just enjoying the places we were.

To make it more enjoyable and less long to read I will make texts for every city as I did for the West-Coast. I am not the best writer in the World and I don’t intend to spend ages in writing but it’s not the goal anyways to write here a bestseller. It’s more to keep whoever-reads-this updated.

Have a nice trip and watch your speed :o)

Gallery: Mont Tremblant 05/04 - 08/04

natha — Thu, 8 May 2008 01:11:00 GMT

Gallery: Montreal 02/05 - 04/05

natha — Mon, 5 May 2008 01:07:00 GMT

Gallery: Niagara Falls 30/04

natha — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:04:00 GMT

Gallery: Philly 29/04

natha — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:44:00 GMT

Gallery: NYC 24/04-28/04

natha — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:58:00 GMT

Gallery: Providence 24/04

natha — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 23:56:00 GMT

Gallery: Boston 21-24/04

natha — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 05:16:00 GMT

One last stop in Vancouver

natha — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 15:33:00 GMT

Geoff is one of this person you can rely on. He left his flat keys where he told us he would leave them and it was a pleasure to see him again and have a nice music and picture eve, while eating some spinach lasagne.

Friday Steffi and I walked through Stanley park (with our fancy sun glasses!) and got pretty lost in it.

In the eve we were supposed to go with Geoff and his mate Cameron to a B'day party. But actually the party was a day later. We had a fun night though , first at Geoff's place and then getting crazy in some dancing bar in Gastown and finishing it in Cam's place listening to nightswimming (yes skinnydipping is absolutely fine!!) from REM.

After 5am we head home. I packed the stuff, Steff had a nap, Geoff defrost his car and took us to the airport. The rest of the day was basicly sleeping in the plane and at Ottawa Airport.

In Montreal, Martin (a friend from Berlin who is travelling (obviously) at the moment) and Stephan picked us up and had a quiet eve at home.

Gallery: Vancouver again 17-19/04

natha — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 05:14:00 GMT

Harisson Hot Spring

natha — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:24:00 GMT

Last stop before heading back to Vancouver after nearly 3000 kms!
We first wanted to stop in a city called Hope but it seemed that every hope was gone there: one street with only ugly motels.

We moved on to Vancouver, thinking about calling Geoff our Couchsurfer there if we could arrive a day earlier. But the battery of my cellphone was over and we thought that we didn't want to bother him early.

So we stoped 30kms after Hope in Harisson Hot Springs. A pretty desert city as it was off season. We were looking for a Motel (sth to make on a north american trip I guess). For some reason we have this weird image in mind that motels are dodgy. Probably because of movies. We entered one with Steffi and the guy at the reception was as strange as you can imagine one in a horror movie... He took 10 minutes to tell us the price of the room which was honestly obvious... Life is rock'n'roll but you don't have to get extrem :o)

We finally found a cheaper motel around the corner, spending a calm eve.

Nelson

natha — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:30:00 GMT

Monday 14^th, we went south instead of north. We had first planed to go to Jasper but our host back in Osoyoos told us about Hot Springs and nice cities to see. And as there was still so much snow left in the parks it was definitely the best choice. In the morning when we woke up it was snowing pretty hard! But further south it was just foggy and grey. They ride was not to bad but we were quite happy to arrive in Nelson, a small city which seems to be a little hippy and that time stopped here somehow. We decided to stay in a hostel which was a perfect decision to have a little privacy after so many days hopping from one person to another.

Tuesday we just walked through the city, went to Kaslo an even smaller city and finally finished the day in the Ainsworth Hot Springs watching the beautiful landscapes!

Banff

natha — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:27:00 GMT

Saturday we headed up to the Rockies. We were so lucky with the weather. In Banff we stayed at two different places as our host Jason couldn’t host us the first night. He gave us the address of a good friend of his who was absolutely kind to take us for a night. We weren’t arrived for an hour that we already hiked up the tunnel mountain to watch the sunset.

The next day we went with the gondola up the Sulphur Mountain . The view was breathtaking but the ride up (26$) quite expensive!).Anyways it was nice. We picked up P-H (the guy we were staying at) and went toe Lake Louise which is supposed to be pretty wonderful but as it was all frozen and covered with snow it hasn’t anything special really. Banff National Park was anyways pretty much closed because of all the snow left. At least we had a walk in the Johnston Canyon which was pretty nice. The eve we finally went to Jason and watched with him and P-H out pics on his amazing TV.

Gallery: Banff - 12.04/14.04

natha — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:19:00 GMT

Kelowna

natha — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 21:22:00 GMT

We arrived in Kelowna sometime in the late afternoon. Yoann was our host for the night. He is French and moved there for his job.

He took us on Knox Mountain to view a magnificent pink sunset over the mountains. Unfortunately we forgot the camera to make a pic of it. Anyways there was a jazz festival in the city, so we went to an hotel where a band was playing. It wasn’t really jazzy more blues/country style which wasn’t bad either. At the front table on the left you could see the retired part of the audience, on the left the pretty drunk part and next to us a table full of women around 35-40 years. They seemed to have their ladies night out. Some young sports man came in the lobby which seemed to excite pretty much this ladies and it became a pretty amusing night being simply the observers .

Osoyoos

natha — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:21:00 GMT

Thursday, we drove from Seattle back to Canada!! We Stayed in Osoyoos at a 60 something couple. Absolutely cute and nice. They even prepared salad and pasta for diner and last but not least played a dart game outside!!

Friday Claude and Sylvie (our hosts in Osoyoos) took us to the spotted lake (which looks like this because of the salt in it) and to different viewpoints of the city.

We walked through a desert landscape and finally left for Kelowna.

Claude and Sylvie are originally from Quebec but moved to Osoyoos 25 years ago while travelling and they felt in love with that place. Both have travelled pretty much everywhere and this all in a backpacker style. And they still continue to do it this way!