Hot and Cold

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Another quick run down of the last few months is in order.
After freezing my butt off in Montreal for a while, I decided it was time to head south to warm up. So I stopped by Toronto for a couple of nights and then headed for the town of Niagara Falls, an amazing little place with more entertainment on offer than you can poke a stick at. Let’s see, I counted 4 wax museums, 4 haunted houses, 2 3D cinemas, 1 Imax cinema, some tattoo parlours, a Hardrock Cafe, a Planet Hollywood, some steak houses, 2 casinos, a revolving restaurant, every conceivable fast food joint and only one Starbucks. Oh yeah, they also had some nice waterfalls there. I nearly forgot about that.
Then I hoped on the next bus to New York, where I spent 11 days trying to cram in every single tourist sight and activity, that I could find. While I was there a man won some kind of fancy competition, I think something to do with being the leader of the free world, whatever that means. Must have been a big deal, because people were just going crazy and dancing in the streets. I never did figure out what was going on.
Anyway, it was still too cold, so I went further south to Washington DC to visit friends, Trish and Reggie, who let me warm up in front of their telly for 6 days. After regaining some energy, I got myself a rental car and hit the road, as you do in the States. For the next two weeks I drove from the east to the west coast, passing through the beautiful Shenandoah Forest in Virginia, long highways lined with seemingly endless stretches of fast food restaurants and chain motels, stopping for a two-day hike down the Grand Canyon, marvelling at absolutely awesome and mind-boggling rock formations in southern Utah, feeling awkward in a strip club in Vegas and finally landing in colourful Venice Beach, Los Angeles. After only a four-day break in LA, I boarded a Greyhound and once again crossed that vast continent, this time in 60 hours, and then jumped on a plane in Miami, bound for the Cayman Islands to visit my friends Yun and Michael. Typical activities ensued: drinking rum cocktails, swimming with stingrays and getting lost riding a moped in Cuba. A couple of weeks in the Caribbean sun finally brought the warmth back into my bones.
A change in plans saw me scrapping my original idea of going to South America in favour of spending Christmas and New Year’s Eve with my dad in Germany and accepting an invitation to a wedding in India at the end of January. So as I am writing these lines, I am looking out at snow-covered German fields, which are experiencing one of the coldest European winters in many years. It’s not a with a little bit of excitement that I am looking forward to my last big adventure on this trip, a month in India before finally heading home.

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Photos

We have a winner!
Harlem on election night

New York, New York
as seen from Queens

Comments

[Marlene]

You are sure having a great trip. I have really enjoyed reading everything that you have written and seeing all of the photo's has been great. It makes me want to go and see some of the places that you have been to. Enjoy the rest of your holiday and see you when you get back Cheers Marlene

[Kam]

I did it
read it all....... man you sure did skip over things : ) I loved the photos