The Sunshine State

Hi all,

the last couple of days havent been that interested compared to the rest. Although I found myself into some unforseen expenses.

The last night in D.C. I went on a pub crawl, hosted from our Hostel. I just did so, while I hadnt done things in particulary with HI, which I enjoyed so much in Chicago. It was a nice tour. We went to Adams Morgan, a part of D.C. which is full of diversity and has over 100 place to go out too. Our guide brought us to a few, but most interested is just to be in a group with a lot of other people to talk with. However its very cheap with the dollar-euro rate, drinking a beer is still expensive. Heineken and Amstel are 2 popular dutch drinks, which both often cost 5 or 6 dollar per bottle.... ouch! They also like to drink belgian beer, probably the best exported products from Belgium :).

Sunday I checked out and went driving arround. I drove to Baltimore, take some pictures, to continue to Philadelpia. I took some extra time to walk arround, it was 6 pm so I had a nice walk with enough sunlight. I went to 'The Liberty Bell', the icon of liberty/independance and took some pictures of the once second-largest city of the British empire. A lot of 'firsts american buildings' were built in Phila, like the first bank, first station etc. After a hour I came back to my car which had a Violation envelop on my window. I parked my car next to a sign with says it was allowed to park 3 hours,.... but with a receipt... I didnt know that last thing, while I might have could guess it while there were some park meters. I just wrote on a paper my parking time (5.38), which didnt helped me with getting a fine (6.09). I guess I could cry, or just laugh about it. After all the parking, this is my first american fine, so that's allright i guess. It's only 36 dollar, while parking in Arnhem costed my 50 euros, which is the double ammount of it.. So I can see the bright side of it ;).

I continued my drive to Atlantic City, which is known to be the gambling city with a lot of casino's. And yeah, they sure have. Arround 11 AM, the city was still alive, with a lot of people on the boardwalk, which is next to the ocean and also next to all the restaurants and casino. Especially Trump's his Taj Mahal is very nice.

Monday I didnt felt so well, so I made a little detour to Cape May (which has a lot of victorian architecture, but to be honest, I wasnt that impressed with it) I went towards NewArk where I had to deliver my car tuesday. Because I had a lot of time, Once again I took an 'scenic view' exit. This spontaneous exit might have safed me another violation, while I like to driver 10/15 miles faster then allowed (come on 55mph / 100kph is slow), but two cops were speed lasering along the high way. :). I also stopped by a wall mart, also one of the american things I need to experience myself. Its quite impressive, its like grocery, electronics, home improvement, cloth, shoe shops are in 1 building called wallmart. It's not as big as I thought it would be. They dont have a lot of different choices, however they sell a lot of everything. and its really cheap too :)

Tuesday, Today: I delivered my car, went to the airport and bought a Ticket to Miami. This ticket was more expensive then I thought it would be. To anyone going to USA: www.expedia.nl >>> it's saves a lot. When I was on cheaptickets and on expedia.nl I found out that Newark' s (my car delivery point) cheapest flight to miami was with Continentional. The price I was seeing online was 150 euro's. However I payed on the ticket stand 320 dollars.. 320 dollars is quite a lot for just a 3 hour flight. the cost/per hour from my flight from Miami to Dusseldorf is the same.. And that one wasnt last-minute.... Pity...

Once in Miami, it was a long time before i got in the hostel, like 3 hours.. I took the bus, but the sunshine state -with a lot of elder people-, did like forever. And however it looks small on maps, its quite a distance from A-B.

That is it for now. I got my final destination, and now I have to see how I get the most of it. One of my wishlist is Cape Carnaveral/Kennedy Space Center.. which is yet again 175 dollar on the expense... Travelling (with or without car) is rather expensive in the USA... I never thought I could like the public transport in the Netherlands. Going by bus, and especially by train is both expensive and it takes a long time... bleh ;-).
At least I am here... Miami Beach... Yet to make a dive in the ocean... time to log off!!!

---

Part of trip: USA East Coast - 2009

---