Hi everyone!
So I have decided to write a blog due to the fact that lately I am traveling quite much and I thought this could be a great way for everyone to learn a bit about the places I visit and the things I see and experience. Also, this blog could serve as an archive, which later I can print and publish for myself and show it to the future generation so they can try to imagine how was the world these days.
2019.... where should I start?!
Well until now this year has been quite full of adventures, traveling and work. I promise that I will write some posts about my previous visits to Lithuania, Poland, Ibiza, the Balkan tour with the motorcycle, I just have to find a little time to gather my thoughts.
But first things first, since I am currently in the United States, I will write about this.
On the 5th of August, after a short week that I've spent in Ibiza with some friends, I was on the plane towards New York City with a layover in Moscow. Aeroflot is a Russian airline, which we took to get to the Big Apple. It was quite nice in economy class, plenty of leg space, but compared to other major airlines, they only had beer and wine in their menu, no other spirits. Anyway, after approximately 15 hours, I and my friend, Krisztian, have arrived at JFK airport. The customs took me approximately 5 seconds to get through and since we did not have any checked-in luggage, we were on our way to Manhattan with the New York express metro, which will take you from JFK to Times Square in approximately 35-40 minutes. So in order to celebrate my 10th time in the US and Krisztian's 3rd time, we bought a beer and drank in the middle of Time Square. What a feeling!
We had a white night ahead of us since we had our bus to Boston early in the morning (6:40 AM). We had plenty of time to kill, so after meeting with a friend, we've decided to visit a sky bar in the city that never sleeps. The chosen one was close to the Square and we found it randomly on Google maps and the name of it was SpyGlass Sky Bar. It had an amazing view of the Empire State Building.
Spending a few hours here, and sipping on two $9 beer was not too bad. Well, what can I say, I could get used to this view. the bar was closing at 1 AM, so we had to leave and we started to just walk a bit in the city during these hours. I would say, New York, is the city of controversies, at least for me because you either love it or hate it. During the day, the city of filled with tourist in a way that you are not able to walk comfortably on the streets, you keep bumping in people, who are following their daily routine, you see all these foreign street vendors selling Kebab and all other fast food for good money. Piece of advice: DO NOT TRY PRETZELS in New York. They are not worth the $5. It is rock hard and tasteless. During the night the city is getting quieter and is becoming dirtier. By dirty, I mean that every place (hotel/restaurant/business office, etc.) is putting out the trash on the street, which will be cleaned by morning, but when you walk in Manhattan, you will see tons of trash everywhere. So, I love New York, whether it is day or night, but ONLY to visit! I could not imagine myself living there. It is just way too crowded and freakishly expensive. Its architecture although is not that old as the buildings in Transylvania or Hungary, but they are still impressive as all the skyscrapers stand out tall and almost every morning you can not even see the top of them because the clouds are so low. Also, other modern buildings are built, just like this one:
So this time I did not have to much time to spend in New York but I will tell you all about it in another post during my travels.
So at 6:40AM, we departed to Boston and it takes the bus a good hour just to exit Manhattan. Crazy! Another 4 hours to get to Boston, so we arrived somewhere at 11:45 AM to South Station. During the bus ride, through an application called TURO we have rented a car, which was a Chevrolet Spark Electric Vehicle. TURO application lets you to rent somebody's car for a lot cheaper than regular rental agencies do it. The price for a 2 day rental (including basic insurance) was 80 dollars. The limitation in TURO is that you have to bring back the car from where you picked it up and the mileage is also limited, which means if you go over a certain mile while the car is with you, you have to pay extra for each mile. But if you plan to visit locally, this is the application through which you want to rent.
With the car, we drove to Hampton Beach, where I've met some of the Work and Travel students that I've sent to the US to work during the summer with this cultural exchange program. I checked on them and we've grilled some chicken and shared some stories. It was really nice.
The next day was a beach day to rest out our jet lag and travels. Hampton Beach is a famous tourist place in the US. During the summer, the place is packed with families spending their holidays and their money in this resort. The beach is wide and long, though the water is very cold. Not a lot of people were in the water. Along the beach, there are hundreds of restaurants, shops and ice cream places where you can go nuts and max out your debit/credit card.
Later that day, around 4 PM we started to head back to Boston, since we wanted to spend a night in the city center and have a few Pitchers. On the way back to Boston our Electric wonder car told us that we need to charge it more so we can get to our destination. We stopped by a Range Rover auto dealership that had an electrical charger. I had to call the guy from whom we rented the car, so he can explain how this recharge works. I had to register online, download an app and then unlock the charging station. Complicated, but we left the car to charge for one hour and the cost was $1. Ridiculous.
We managed to get to the hotel where we plugged in the car into the wall charger and left it there for the entire night. We headed to Boston City center with the metro to a pub called Sissy K's to drink those well-deserved pitchers of Samuel Adams beer.
At the entrance, of course, my ID was checked if I am 21 and legal to get in. Don't I look 21? Come on! Seriously! In my opinion is crazy that people in the US and have their driver's license at the age of 16, but they can not have a drink until they are 21. This is stupid. Dear Mr. Government, people are still drinking even if they are underage, they are just finding the perfect place and the perfect time to do it. The more you forbid something, the sweater is the fruit! I think everyone can agree with this.
The two $18 dollar Pitcher felt like a taste of Heaven after the long day. It was karaoke night, and the best singer could have won $200. Initially, we wanted to sing a Hungarian song. If we would have had one beer more, we would have had the courage, if we would have had one beer less, we would have been able to do it. :)) So we've ended up not doing it, so I don't know the reason why it happened, but on our way back to the hotel we got soaking wet due to heavy rain, which could not wait another 30 minutes. I believe some dude back at the pub was singing and dancing the rain song. Oh, well!
The next day we dropped off the rented vehicle in Boston and waited for another friend to pick us up.
On the 9th of August, we left Boston, but that is the content of my next post.
I will close each of my post with one motivational advice:
