Day 11: ...

Today I did nothing worth reading but that doesn´t mean that I won´t write everything down. Tried to find a hostel in Curacao and ended up with "Poppy Kamers". Art, the owner, will pick me up from the airport, so if this works out I won´t have much trouble getting anywhere. The hostel is located 10 minutes away from Queen Emma bridge and also just 10 minutes away from a beach. As far as I know the house is a regular one-family house and they rent out rooms. Maybe I even meet people there. Would be nice since I don´t know anyone on the island so far.

In New York Alan joked around that I should "let the creepers contact me" by writing a public request at couch surfing. Due the lack of better ideas I did it and, well, I already received a message. I let my mood decide if I give it a try. Sometimes I answer these open messages too and would only consider myself 50% creepy so I might as well just try it.

But back to Miami: Apparently everyone speaks spanish in my area and hardly anyone understands english. This makes basic communication look like a dance off- I especially enjoy watching north american guests asking for restaurants. Still the hotel is very nice and I just won´t leave my room unless I get hungry. Lets consider this my lazy day.

Day 10: Bienvenido a Miami

Ashley had to go to class so she wash´t there to say goodbye but as I went to my laptop she left a very nice letter. I had prepared a letter too, which I left on the sofa- together with a little present. I really enjoyed my time in Orlando and I wanted to leave something I think she´d enjoy.

After packing my bag I rushed to the bus stop and my public transportation adventures started once again. I only had a screenshoot of the map and my bus to miami left on a parking lot in the middle of nowhere. Additionally the second public bus I took didn´t announce one bus stop. I had no Idea where I was and decided to ask the men beside me.

"You know where Wet ´n wild is girl?"

"No."

And suddenly another man stood up, basically shouting "I know where wet ´n wild is, I work there. I´m gonna take her there!" And he did. He took me all the way and as I didn´t know where to go he gave me company. It was funny because he also had no idea where we were but I  reached the parking lot, 5 minutes before the bus departed. I was so happy I hugged the man like crazy and then had to run to get my bags checked in.

The 4 hour bus ride to miami was quiet. At the airport everything was working different from what I have seen so far again so I needed some time to find my way but I finally ended up on the shuttle service to my hotel and from then on everything was very easy.

My room is worth much more than I pay for it and this bed is just so comfortable. Also there should be a lot of restaurants nearby and I can do my laundry. I think I like it here.

Day 9: Exploring the neighborhood

As my immune system finally recovered Ashley got sick. But I didn´t know this when I woke up in a completely silent flat. An hour passed by and nothing moved, so I decided to explore the neighborhood by going to one of the two only places I really knew: The drive-through pharmacy. Yaaaay. On the way I passed one of Orlandos 10 000 lakes, named "Lilly", and decided to enjoy the good weather.

If you look closely you can spot a toddler in the upper picture. As I passed them by the girl stopped watching turtles and instead decided to follow me around. Giggling and touching her hair. Then touching my hair which made her burst out into laughter. First it was funny but then she just would´t leave. Neither the father, nor I knew what to do so I spent the next half hour watching turtles with a two year old. Good times!

After my quick pharmacy visit I took all the comic books I could carry, went down to the pier and started reading them. At some point I must have fallen asleep because I woke to one of Ashleys neighbors laughing. Given my sleeping position I think I know why. I have this weird habit of squeezing myself into the most uncomfortable chairs and just turning around until its good enough for sleeping. That helps a lot when you travel but from the outside it must look like this:

All in all it was a lazy day, Ashley got up at some point, we finished watching "Party monster" and ate burritos. Then I went back to the lake again. I will miss it.

Day 8: Kiss her, dammit!

9am, Orlando. Brian was sitting in one of the many box offices feeling equally bored and restless as a grey car pulled over. In it, he spotted two girls. One of them handed him a 20 dollar bill. "It´s showtime", he mumbled as he went to his desk and got a small, white card to bring back to the car. He remembered the instructors voice telling him to be friendly as he had just finished his "Welcome trainee weekend" that has been a lot of things but not welcoming. Therefore he put on his brightest fake smile, leaned into the car and wished them " a magical day", which was smooth. "Well done Brian", he said "Only 600 more times or so then you can go home." 

This is how I imagine working at the welcoming booth at disney and yes, "welcoming" is an official job there. You can either do it at the parking lot or at the attractions entrance and it´s mostly retired old men or students working part time. You can even do an internship at disney if you are from Europe and have a bachelor degree. They won´t pay you much, you are not allowed to leave their property and you will sell food at Epcot all day but hey, Disney.

Why do I know all this? Because John got us into disney for free and it was, as imaginary Brian already announced, magical. Ashley stayed for about two hours, I spent the whole day there. The only thing that kinda sucked was how awkward some people make you feel about going to disney alone. They actually make it "a thing", and not a good one. But I decided not to care and had fun nevertheless.

I love taking pictures of people taking pictures

Lucky me was witnessing a child getting traumatized for life by one of the rides and sat next to a 4 year old in Ariels grotto that kept screaming "Kiss the girl, dammit. You gotta kiss her NOW!" as we reached that part of the story so that was fun.

John and I would meet up after he finished work (that guy has a freaking office at/near magic kingdom) and he took me to his old place where we packed up his last inventory to bring it to Ashleys later. He showed me his comic book collection and another big pile of comic books he didn´t want anymore. The words "You can have them all" clearly marked a point where my brain could´t proceed anymore. No way I could take them with me but I do read most of these and sadfghjklöä.

So I started to read as many as I could while he packed up stuff. Good thing that I am a ridiculously fast reader and therefore read 4 trades and half a hardcover in 30 minutes. I guess thats my secret superpower and it finally came in handy.

We ended the day at "pom pom". A great sandwich restaurant, I liked it.


PS: Having John as an inside man I could finally ask the questions no one really answered so far.
1) Have people died at disney? Yes!
2) Do they really drag their bodies off the lot to declare them dead in order to keep disney the happiest place on earth? Maybe.
3) How did people die? People die mostly in hotel rooms and have heart attacks but a few years ago two boys (13 & 14) were too inpatient to wait for the boat to take them to Tom Sawyers island, decided to swim there and drowned. Yeah, there were two dead children swimming in one of the main attractions. 

Day 7: I a world...

...where mankind is bond to its vehicles

one girl will embark on a journey

to find the nearest cinema and watch a film for free.

So yeah, Day 7 was a quiet day. Lots of ukulele playing, sitting on the lake and staring into the souls of lizards. (Who are literally everywhere and follow you around). At night Ashley sneaked me into the cinema where she is working, so I got to see "In a world" for free.

After "Road trip beer pong" I really appreciated the well written script and good casting. I can´t say yet if its really just the movie, the cinema´s atmosphere or the fact that you could order food and wine while watching but I got instantly excited.

The Enzian Theater sure is one of a kind. Actually it´s more of a restaurant with a movie screen in the middle. I think I remember going to something similar back home but never to something this huge and well concepted. A lot of little details helped to really get into this "movie culture but modern approach" thing. And then there´s the garden, which is beautfiful.

Because thats where "eden bar" is and Ashley works. The whole garden is just made of tropical (well for me) plants and then you have this amazing bar. Ashley introduced me to one of the "regular guests" who was a 50 year old gay man that loved to talk about his 2 month Europe trip back when he was young. I just let him talk for a few hours and eventually even learned something from it.

Day 6: ´MURICA!

Yesterday was interesting. I have only been away for a few days but it feels like I am finally getting into this travel thing where time and priorities become a very relative thing and do nothing but leave you pretty exited for everything that could possibly happen next. I don´t plan things so they just keep happening and I seem to enjoy that.

Ashley and I got up at 7am and drove to a vintage flea market. I swear if I would have lived in Orlando a lot of furniture would have been bought but since I don´t I tried to focus on things that fit in my bag and hopefully won't break (We´ll see about that…)

One thing I like about America is how you start and handle smalltalk. It seems to me like there are certain conversational rules that make everything very simple, even if you normally don´t shine in this field. Additionally some people use nicknames like: Sweetheart, sunshine, cutie or lovely and I love that. It gives you permission to be absolutely exited about everything so I usually try to outnice my conversational partner or give a lot of compliments because people do appreciate that.

On our way back we spontaneously pulled up to a yard sale where a family offered all kind of crazy stuff for sale. I only got a dress but Ashley surely hit the jackpot as she bought an Ouja board. They also offered an original indian folk dress, all kinds of toys and all that for nearly nothing.

So here´s my new baggage.

We then decided to take it slow. Partly because we were tired and partly because I didn´t blog for 3 days and wanted to update everything which took a few hours because I really didn´t feel like doing it. Somewhen during that time John, Ashleys new roommate, arrived. John works at Disney and plans roller coasters which is probably one of the coolest jobs ever.

Ashley had to leave for work, John arranged his stuff and I went down to the lake to play some ukulele. Songwriting is becoming easier again now that nothing really matters. I can just do what I feel like doing, no pressure. An it pays off. I like my new songs.

John and I then got fancy and left to a housewarming party which was nice. There were a lot of very smart people who are getting their PhD´s in fields like artificial intelligence and stuff. I didn´t really feel like getting drunk again so I enjoyed the conversations and tried to learn a few things. We discussed and sometimes argumented about many things and it was interesting to hear about different mindsets when it comes to certain topics. But before you think we were all getting intellectual I should probably point out that this house also had a pole dancing room and therefore people kept stripping into their underwear because "of the better grip". They were doing crazy acrobatic stuff- and I´m talking about guys and girls here. Everyone had the physical abilities of a monkey, except for me but thanks to a girl that also works as a pole dance instructor I can now do a fireman spin, YAY!

We got home around 5 am and in america that apparently is the perfect time to grab a Mc Donalds breakfast which we did. Today I learned a lot of things but the most important one is probably: You can buy shotguns a Walmart.

Day 5: Lunas Day out!

Ashley took me to a vegan restaurant for breakfast and we had the most awesome somethings. We met up with Nathan there, who actually got to know her via couch surfing and now moved here. Ashley mentioned that his roommate owns the cutest dog and we joked around asking if we could borrow her to go to the doggiepark. He asked his roommate and she actually said yes!

Before we got to pick her up Ashley took me to a nice record shop. They also sold books, selected comics and collectibles. I bought myself a tallest man on earth record.

After that we went to pick up Luna and who is is just the sweetest dog. Here are some pictures of her driving with us:

The only doggieparks I know are in Vienna and have little to do with running freely but this really was a park, and it was filled with friendly dog owners and playing dogs. They even had little footpaths that were leading into some kind of wood. We had a great time there.

Somewhen we decided to take Luna to the pet store and look if we can find a dorky Halloween costume. Well we didn´t, but we found so many other really cool things. If you would close your eyes for a minute and imagine the most random gadget for a dog you can think of  I can assure you: this store has it in 4 different colors.

We also got to hold ferrets who I am now officially crazy about. They even had a 30% discount on them. Luna liked them too but probably for other reasons. One of the employes gave us free bandanas and treats. I bought Luna some "dog crack" (Which we fed to her but didn´t stick along long enough to see how it works) and as we brought her home we decided to spend the night chilled by ordering pizza and watching movies.

Nathan and his son came to Ashley´s place. His son was grounded so he had to "lie down immediately or do math", he chose lying down. As for us we could´t decide on a movie so we kept watching youtube videos of spoken word poetry and TED talks. Oh, and we also watched two episodes of "It´s always sunny in Philadelphia" which is pretty funny. Guess I´ll continue watching this back home. Using Netflix comes in pretty handy when you don´t know what to watch because you can choose from different Genres. We decided to go with "raunchy" and soon started to play the mustache drinking game to a movie called "Roadtrip Beer Pong".

So basically we turned a movie, that is about a drinking game, into a drinking game and it worked out fine. One of the worst scripts I ever encountered but I nearly understand beer pong now. Thats something.

After that Ashley and Nathan decided to show me "Parks and recreation" from season one. I don´t know how many episodes we watched but I remember waking up one time because Nathan threw paper balls of me and another time just to see that everyone else left the room. So I just kept sleeping.

PS: How could I forget THAT? We got to Krispy Kreme and I got to eat my first real american donut which has just been made a few minutes ago and was still warm. It was magical!