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Published: January 12th 2008
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My third summer spent in the US is now officially over and working life in Amsterdam has started, but the last weeks travelling the States were well-spent, lots of states covered 😊
From New Hampshire I headed for Boston to meet my camp buddy from 2005, Jenny. I spent the first days relaxing and enjoying lazy days which had not been possible in camp, where there is a LOT of structure (so there should be, imagine no structure in a camp with 300-something girls....) Anyhow, it was nice doing what I wanted, i.e. stroll through a city, have a Mexican lunch and some Margaritas 😊 Then we headed on our mini roadtrip to Rhode Island with another two of Jenny's friends, one of which had studied in Rhode Island so he knew all the good spots. We spent one day strolling along the Newport coast, famous for the ridiculously large mansions...see pictures! Then we drove on to Providence, where we spent the night. We walked to Little Italy where we had pasta in a restaurant with the most appaling service. At one point one of Jenny's friends told one of the staff that there was no toilet paper left, thinking
this was just a help to them. Instead, she said: "Why - did you need it?!".
(I can't remember the name of the restaurant, otherwise I might have given them a mention here 😊
Next day it was back to Boston, as Jenny had to work again. I spent the day trying to organise my trip to New York and sort out my hostel stay, which was a little problematic, but was all fine in the end. A pretty smooth Greyhound ride later I found myself in Port Authority with two extremely large bags, ready to drag them to my hostel. Fortunately only a few blocks away...
As a total musical freak I made sure the first place I went was the TKTS booth where I bought myself a ticket to The Drowsy Chaperone, which had a lot of Tony nominations in 2006, so I figured it would have to be good. It was not at all what I expected but quite entertaining anyway. Next day more travelling planned, so I had an early night. After a 5 hour drive to JFK (we spent 2 hours driving around Manhattan picking up more passengers for the shuttle bus..followed by
lots of traffic..) I only barely made it to my flight on time, with too much luggage! Oops...I paid the extra money and made a note to myself I should probably get rid of all those clothes I ruined at camp...😊 Lyndsie was waiting for me in Phoenix, AZ and we drove to her house and she informed me we would be flying to San Diego the next day. In hindsight not the most logical travel plans!!!
We had a great labor day weekend in San Diego, staying at her friend's condo in the harbor, gorgeous. The weather was nice and warm and we went to Del Mar to relax on the beach, went to some clubs at night, to Point Loma which gave a great view over San Diego bay....and best of all: my first surf lesson! Ever since my time in Costa Rica I've been saying I would try surfing, but kept backing out and putting it off. This time Lyndsie's friend had booked the lesson without asking us so I felt I had to! Which was great!
Our surf teacher was a 50-something long-haired guy with leather tan skin and white lipblock, hilarious. He was very
hippie and had a 21-year old girlfriend, living the surfer lifestyle....
He taught us the basics on the beach and then it was time to try it for real, on the waves which were preeetty big. To my surprise I actually managed to stand up quite a few times! We spent about 3 hours in the water and were exhausted afterwards....ready for our well-deserved beers and BBQ dinner 😊 Last day me and Lyndsie took the tram to the Mexican border for a day in Tijuana...after hearing the horror stories from everyone, we figured we needed to find out for ourselves. So we expected the worst...It wasn't really Mexico - streets full of pharmacies (to cater for the tourists who just cross the border to get their cheap illegal drugs), tacky restaurants (ok that IS typically mexican..) and rows and rows of souvenir stands. So like Cancun, but uglier 😊
After the weekend we flew back to Phoenix where we had one day before I flew back to NY, so we checked out some shops to get me a bigger handback where I would be able to put all that extra luggage in...I wasn't ready to pay extra again.
Back in NY at the same hostel I hung out with the owner and spent most of my days just strolling around Manhattan. I've been to New York several times now and I do not get tired of just walking through the city and watching people around me, looking at the buildings, it fascinates me. I went to Lower Manhattan to the exhibition of Bodies, showing actual (dead) human bodies, muscles, veins, organs. I didn't think I would want to see it, but I was intrigued and figured it would be interesting. Although the dead bodies did not make me nauseous, the extreme heat in the exhibition hall did (they didn't have AC), I started feeling faint and had to keep sitting down. A great exhibition though!
I kept passing Bryant Park which was near my hostel, and as it was NY Fashion Week I always made sure to watch out for celebrities 😊 I only saw Miss Jay from America's Next Top Model, but that night on my way to my next musical A Spring Awakening I walked by the red carpet of the Fashion Rocks show, where I saw Jessica Alba, Carmen Electra, Tyra Banks, Tommy
Hilfiger...I love starspotting. From there on to the real show though, Spring Awakening, which now is my favourite musical of all time!! The set was simple and intimate, but the sound and stars of the show blew me away. The content of the show is quite sexual, which seemed to shock my elderly neighbour. After the show she said "hmm it's quite different isn't it. Musicals seem to have changed quite a bit..". Haha.
I met up with several friends in NY, one of my classmates from high school happened to be on holiday in NY in the same week as me so we met up for a drink and did some shopping before she left for the airport. Together we took a picture with the naked cowboy, who I will let you know is not afraid to grab your ass. I also met up with a friend I met in Costa Rica, Carla, who introduced me to Koreatown where we had some delicious spicy beef and other food that I would not be able to name. While the street was full of little restaurants, this was the only one with a half-hour wait with a queue going outside...surely
that says something about the food 😊 On my last day I met up with Aida, who I know from home, she had just moved to NY for a master at Columbia. We had a coffee, strolled through Macy's for a bit, and then it was already time for me to get my shuttle to the airport....thankfully it was a shorter trip this time!!
Another great summer, probably my last camp summer but not the last time in the US for sure!
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