DC and CT

My last Greyhound trip was from Raleigh to DC, where I stopped for 1 day to visit my dear alfase friend Margo. From here on I took the fancy cheap double decker MegaBus up to New York City, where I changed for the train up to Newtown, Connecticut. Newtown, is a small town 2 h north of New York, and it was here I spent my gap year after high school to work as a au-pair for two lovely kids named Henry and Felix. :) This is 10 years ago...Already! This means that I'm either old or that time has gone by really really fast and I am still 20 years old... and the boys, well they are not babies anymore, they are tall and smart teenagers :)

It is good to be back though and catch up on the changes and non-changes that has happened. We have had plenty of ice-cream, counted Felix's hens several times, made a duct tape belt (!), played an energetic monopoly game, visited Stew Leonard's just because of all the free samples, got lost while driving but thanks to the GPS on Felix's iPhone we got saved, and we have had some delicious dinners cooked my Catherine the Mum :) What else can you ask for?! I really do enjoy my extended holiday :)

Tonight, I am off to the city, Manhattan, for a looong weekend to meet up with old friends, check out Brooklyn and hopefully get to see some other couchsurfers.

Hasta luego!

Wilmington & Raleigh

After a couple of busy days in Charleston I hitched a ride with David, my Charleston host, up the East coast to Wilmington, where I enjoyed a couple of days of relaxation with my new CS host Hill. Hill showed me some good North Carolinian hospitality and gave me some nice tours of Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach. Wrightsville Beach is a laid-back beach town with miles-long beaches, piers, surf shops and tanned people :) In between the touring, we had some very good discussions, shared some good travel stories and talked about the great life of a backpacker! Hill showed me a trailer to an awesome movie about the life of backpackers all over the world A Map For Saturday. I can't wait to see this movie!! I think all backpackers will love it! If you want to know what the backpacker life is all about then it is something you want to watch too :)

Hill also showed me the cool site and non-profit organization Playing For Change. I absolutely love this! One of my favorite songs/videos is this one: War / No more Trouble If eveybody would focus on projects like this there would for sure be no wars.

My next Couchsurfing experience was in Raleigh. Luck stoke me twice and I got a ride with Hill up to Raleigh, where we met up with Eric, my last-minute-request host :) Raleigh might not have been the most interesting city but we had a good time and met up with other Couchsurfers in town and shared our traveling stories. I only spend two nights and 1 full day in Raleigh so didn't have much time to do much plus you always need to relax...it is vacation time after all! 

By the way, if anyone wants a hug, I offer them for free :) freehugscampaign.org

Charleston, South Carolina

How ya doin ya all!

Trying to crack down on my Southern accent and eat loads of butterfilled pancakes, cheese covered fried chicken wings, and tons of cavety cheering Italian ice. Wow, what a diet!

Charleston is a beautiful place though, with its cubblestone filled streets, 17th century homes, ghost hunted prison, and a harbor front filled with sail boats. It is definitely worth a visit if you happen to pass by!

I am also couchsurfing here with a kind gentleman called David. It turned out that the two Australian girls I met on the bus from Jacksonville up to Charleston was also going to couchsurf with David so we all bonded in the bus, got picked up by David and have all had a very good time. David has been touring us downtown, taking us to some good bars and a reggae festival. We also ended up going to a house party with a live band playing in the living room and I have to say that they were so good... I even bought their CD. What a nice place Charleston is!

David also took us to a stand up comedy show and afterwards we went to listen to the best Jazz drummer in town at the fancy 5 star restaurant wearing my flip flops and a shirt with a hole in it.. Hahahaha... not quite the dress code but I passed and the music was the best :)

Saturday night, more couchsurfers came to crash at David's place and I almost lost counting...1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7....8 surfers! I told him he should open a hostel ;) But we managed, David has a lot of space and beddings... and the more the merrier right! :)

Tomorrow, I will hitch a ride with David up north and spend a couple of days in Wilmington.

Jacksonville, Florida

After spending a good amount of time in Miami and the Keys it felt good to be on the road again and on the move. The Greyhound bus wasn't as bad as I remembered and with a very good book ("Message in a bottle") my 10h journey to Jacksonville went really fast (plus I almost finished the book!).

My Couchsurfing host Liz picked me up at the bus station and introduced me to her lovely two cats in her apartment. These energetic cats ended up keeping me awake most of the night as they tossed and turned in my bed. But as I love cats I didn't mind :) The other day I caught one of the cats drinking from the toilet and I managed to get it on a picture. Yum, Yum....

Liz is a great host, but as I am here during the weekdays, she works a lot and I don't get to see her as much. However, she introduced me to her yoga studio and yesterday I finally got to do some much needed yoga. (I am in desperate need of some regular yoga... my backpack is starting to kill me.)

Liz also lent me her bike and I went on a couple of relaxing bike rides along the Jacksonville river and downtown. I have almost forgot how much I love biking. Jacksonville and Avondale (where Liz lives) is a very beautiful place and the people are very sweet. I am starting to feel the Southern hospitality...

Ciao for now and see in the next city!

Key West...

....the most southern tip of Florida and 90 miles from Cuba, that's where I went over the weekend with some Couchsurfers. I met Brook and her daughter Emerson at a CS event in Miami and she was looking for people to join them and her husband Bryan for a weekend trip down south and me and an Italien girl, Fransesca, ended up going with them. The road trip down there was beautiful as you ride on the long bridges that takes you from one small island to the next one. Brook had booked a cute little hotel for us and we got a room with our own kitchenette so we could cook our own food.

The Eden House Hotel http://www.edenhouse.com/ was a really nice place with free happy hour drinks every day at 4pm, so we made sure to be in the pool for that time :) They also surprised us with free hot dogs and hamburgers one afternoon :) ...freebies are always appreciated!

Key West is a hot place...it was like Colombia hot....you sweat by doing just about nothing. It is a very beautiful town though with pretty houses and a long harbour front. I was a bit surprised by how big the town was as I was expecting something smaller and less cars and I guess less tourists... maybe I got used to those random fishing villages in Colombia and Central America that just has less tourists. Anyways, we had a good time down south and we got Emerson, 4 years old, to entertain us.

Back in Miami I ended up couchsurfing one night with Brook and Bryan in Boca Raton before I continued on my State side trip north to Jacksonville.

Oh by the way, during my time in Key West I became an AUNTIE to a beautiful little baby boy!!!! yeeeeiiiiii :)