Thursday, February 22, 2007

Back in Belgium

I am back in Belgium. Yeah. Back in Wevelgem. No latino or african american culture here. Boring.

Blogspot has been taken over by google. Just like orkut was taken over by google. Just like everything is being taken over by google.

Maybe see you later!

Ciao

Mall And Movies

It rained for two days in Miami and I had to do something, so I went to visit the ‘malls’. Hector and Billy had already showed me some of the malls they go to and I found even more on the way. I don’t really like malls too much. I way prefer the European way of shopping: on the street! That’s why I like Lincoln Road so much or Manhattan.

I went to the biggest mall in Fort Lauderdale, Sawgrass Mills. It’s an excursion that is listed in the ‘sightseeings’ of South Florida. Well, I’m sorry, but going to a mall is not a tourist attraction to me. It sucked. Sure, it’s big. But I wasn’t impressed at all. And it’s not only an outlet mall. It has normal stores too. I was in an outlet place in New York State last year, which was nicer. Malls are crazy though. I mean, some try to bring in some atmosphere by creating fountains or different sublevels or even fake waterfalls. There’s a lot of little stands in the middle of the ‘shopping lanes’ and every store seems to scream for your attention with huge ‘sale’ billboards. The sales are of course only in a small corner in the back. There’s a lot of ‘buy 2, get the 3rd free’ actions. I didn’t really feel like shopping too much. I only bought a few things, of which my new cool Samsonite travel suitcase was the best purchase. I’m really happy with that one.

The nice thing with malls is that when you go to the food court, every eatery has someone standing outside to have you taste what they offer. I especially like the pretzel stands or Cinnabon, which have cinnamon pretzels. There’s panda express (there orange chicken is good) and all different kinds of pizza places, burger joints, sub makers… It’s all very fast food, but hey, that’s the US.

Every mall has a huge cinema complex too. The reason why I was visiting all these malls, was to get to see Apocalypto, the Mel Gibson movie about the Maya culture. I really looked forward to seeing hat movie as the reviews were good and it’s just a culture I want to get to know more of. The only problem was that they didn’t really show the movie in many theatres and the hours that were given in the newspaper were incorrect. Anyways. I went to the movies a few times and what I always do in the states is make it into a movie afternoon. I pay for one ticket and then after the feature film I just go from one theatre in the other to see parts of other movies. It sounds crazy, but I always did this when I lived in the states and I discovered some interesting movies like that. During two visits I saw three movies in their entire length and big parts of some 5 other movies.

Apocalypto is an amazing movie. I really loved it. xxx1/2. I just loved everything about it. I don’t think highly of Mel Gibson, but I thought it was incredible how he filmed those scenes in the jungle. Also the entire movie is one long journey that ends in a chase scene. It just keeps you focused all the time. I also absolutely loved the performers. Especially the evil guys. They were just the coolest meanest native Americans I’ve ever seen. When you see pictures of heavily tattooed El Salvadorian gangsters in prison: well they got inspired by their Mayan ancestors man! A lot of people didn’t like it because of its violence and its gore. But, I didn’t think it was bad at all. I prefer seeing this than horror flicks like Saw for instance. This was very well done.

I also saw Last King Of Schotland, which was a bit disappointing. Forest Whitaker isn’t that good. He’s ok, but I wasn’t that impressed. The movie was a channel four production, which basically means it’s a good television movie. I really didn’t think it was that extraordinary. I was more impressed by Will Smith in Pursuit of Happiness. That guy surprised me by acting so well. Anyways. Third movie: Dreamgirls. Again, disappointed. That Jennifer Hudson girl was amazing. But she’s the movie: I don’t understand why she got a nomination for best supporting actress. Beyonce was just not present at all, although I loved it when she sang ‘listen’. Still, her character and her performance were very weak. Eddie Murphy was okay, just like Jamie Foxx and Danny Glover, but they weren’t extraordinary.

And then the movies that I briefly saw: I saw parts of The Queen, which I missed in Europe, but want to see in its entirety. I saw parts of Freedom Writers, which is your typical Hollywood movie about a literature teacher trying to make ghetto kids appreciate to write and read. With Hilary Swank. Too standard. Then I saw a part of Norbit, the new Eddie Murphy comedy. I hate it. Really, I don’t understand anyone who can laugh with jokes like that.

South Beach

I just spent a week or so in South Beach. I really like that place. I’ve been there plenty of times before, but this time was different. First it was February, the busiest time of the year and also the nicest to visit the place. It was remarkable how different it was to my visits in the summer during the hurricane season. There was more atmosphere, the weather was less humid and much more pleasant. The restaurants were full, there were a lot of people on the beach. Yeah, nice period to visit. But an expensive period of course. Second: I had no tourists to take care of.

South Beach is the Art Deco area of Miami, although it looks nothing like our Art Deco in Brussels. It’s Tropical Deco, like they call it. Lots of colours, but very basic buildings. The best preserved buildings are on Ocean Drive. They now almost all turned into hotels and restaurants, surrounded by tall new condominium buildings. It’s only in the evening and at night that things get beautiful. During the day, the buildings somehow lose their charm. Ocean Drive looked really cool this time with all the outside terraces filled with people. On the other side of the Drive, the Ocean side, they finally finished a boardwalk promenade. I love walking up and down on it, doing my favourite pastime: people watching.

There’s a few well known establishments on Ocean Drive, of which the most touristy one is the house in front of which Gianni Versace was murdered. I don’t really like the house, I prefer the house to the left of it, but you see a lot of people taking pictures of the gate. Whatever. Across that house on the beach side, you have the beach volley guys and the open air fitness equipment. It’s not like in Venice Beach though, it’s more natural.

I really prefer South Beach, Florida to Venice/Santa Monica, California. There’s just something much more natural in South Beach. There’s less attitude. There a lot of hot people in South Beach, hey, more than in LA, but they don’t really show off that much. It’s much less hip or alternative, but it’s somehow much more pleasant. The only thing I prefer about the LA beaches is the weirdo’s you meet on the promenade there. The skaters, the bladers, the artists. You don’t really have that in South Beach. But what I definitely prefer in South Beach are the beaches. Man, the beaches are nice! And the water is much cleaner too. It was a bit too cold to swim though, but it just feels much cleaner.

Another nice thing about South Beach is the mix of people. More than in LA, where you basically just have white folk, black folk and lots of Mexicans, you have a total different mix of people here. There’s more European tourists from all over Europe. There’s all the possible Caribbean, Central and Latin American people… It looked as if there hardly are any North Americans here. Nobody in South Beach was born in South Beach. They all come from somewhere else. You do have black people too, but the population is predominantly latin. South Beach is also much more gay than Santa Monica or Venice, but in a cool kind of way. And the models here look like they deserve to be models. In LA the models look like they’ve been fabricated at plastic surgery hospitals.

There’s three more roads that you can walk on. Collins Avenue is the one behind Ocean Drive and has all the hotels plus a lot of designer stores. Washington Avenue is the one behind Collins Avenue and has all the cool restaurants and shops and delis and stuff. And then there’s Lincoln Road, which is a pedestrian zone of ten blocks with more restaurants and shops. It beats 3rd Street Promenade (Santa Monica) in charm and atmosphere.

I noticed something funny in the Miami fashion. A lot of shirts and t’s had huge symbols on them (inspired by death metal album covers: skulls, snakes, crosses..). Very cool, BUT they also pimp the shirts with bling bling. That is really incredibly ugly. However, it’s very Miami. I didn’t take a picture of it. There’s a lot of cool shops on Lincoln Road and Washington Avenue. On the latter avenue they have - close to Lincoln Road - lots of vintage stores, second hand clothes… and the further south you go, the more ‘independent’ the stores become. No chain stores there.

And there’s the nightlife! I love going to Twist. It’s kind of like a hook up place, but you can have fun watching people there. There’s a few rooms that play all kinds of music. As you enter you go though a mainstream (often pop rock) bar with video’s, then you get to a patio where there’s a separate bar in which gogo dancers get really trashy with stupid customers willing to put a dollar bill in their pants to get a touch or kiss maybe. If you walk up on the stairs in the patio you end up on the second level where you have a room with urban music and then a dance floor where you hear the typical Miami house (Victor Calderone, Peter Rauhofer). The dance floor is totally dark though, so just go there to dance and not to watch people, there’s plenty of places in the bar where you can do that. Twist has no cover! Most other clubs on Washington Avenue have and they are pretty expensive. Most of the clubs have daily night events. A bit further on Washington you have this r’n b club with an dress code! And there’s the ‘Madonna’, which is basically a nude bar. The only other club that I went to was on Lincoln Road, called The Score. I had been there once and was disappointed by its size (small bar), but I didn’t know there was a door leading to a big dance hall behind the bar. I went on Wednesday night: the latin night. I hoped to hear some more reggaeton, but all I got was salsa, salsa, merengue, salsa, latin pop and did I mention salsa? I needed a few cuba libres to appreciate it though. But I had great fun.

Friday and Saturday night are incredibly busy! Parking is hell. Remember this golden tip: park your car in the car parking near the police station (12 street/Washington). During the week it’s only 6 dollars/24 hours. In the weekends it’s 10 dollars. You’ll pay much more in other parking lots and it’s kind of safe next to the police station. It’s also very central. The parking on Lincoln Road for instance is always full and 8 dollars per day during the week. There is hardly any room to park your car in the street as it’s for residents only. And the other places are a quarter per 10 minutes or so. Actually, don’t get a car when you just want to stay in South Beach alone.

I was happy to have a car though as I found a very nice and affordable hotel on 76 street (yes, 60 blocks north of Lincoln Road which is 16 street). I found the Baltic hotel by accident. I wanted to get something cheap but the motels along highway 1 and road 1A1 (the coastal road) were either dirty, sold out or too expensive. I just happened to see the little corner hotel and stopped. I got a nice room for 80 dollars flat. A 2 minute walk from the beach (very clean, family friendly, quiet). The owner is a Costa Rican woman who just loves to talk (about her feud with the Cuban neighbours: ‘the Cubans think they own Miami’) and the rooms are really neat. I also stayed in the Royal Hotel on 8th street/Washington. That room wasn’t as clean, but I loved the interior (very sixties: all white plastic furniture which combined the bed with the kitchen table or the relax chair with the tv holder) and the price was okay for such a good location. I would recommend the Clay hotel though, if you ever decide to go. It’s most central and most economical. No cool interior, but really the best place on the beach. There’s a lot of shabby motel looking hotels that overcharge for dirty rooms. And the big hotels charge too much money for a room. I finally understood how hotels can make money. It’s because of impulsive travellers like me. You end up paying twice as much as if you would pay it in a travel agency! My business card didn’t help much.

Oh well. I’m stuck at the airport in Miami. Hope to get the last flight to Atlanta, otherwise I’m fucked.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Puerto Rico

I just spent a short week in Puerto Rico. I fled there to escape the cold of Washington, New York and, yes, Miami (where it’s been cloudy for a while now). There were three destinations on my list: Yucatan, Mexico was an option. Belize as well. And Puerto Rico. I decided not to go on my own to Belize after reading the Frommer’s Belize guide. I really want to visit that country (so small and so diverse!), but not alone. And if I do decide to visit Belize with someone else, I might just as well visit the neighbouring Yucatan at the same time. So hence, no Yucatan either.

I didn’t know much about Puerto Rico apart from the singers that the country has produced (Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin and Ghent-resident Gabriel Rios), it’s most typical sound (reggaeton), the song by Vaya Con Dios and Marco, a law enforcement officer from Fort Lauderdale who used to be a pen pall of mine and who I met twice while touring in Florida. Most probably the coolest blatino I had ever met!

Anyways, back at the house of the couple I’m staying with in West Miami, I have mixed feelings about my visit of the Isla Del Encanto. I had never associated Puerto Rico with that Pixies classic ‘Isla De Encanta’ until I saw it on the license plates of the cars. I have experienced as much joyful moments as annoying and frustrating ones. It’s been a trip of ups and downs, part of which is my fault as I naively thought I could just visit the island without serious preparation. Being impulsive was the worst thing I could do. It will definitely make me rethink about how I travel.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

puerto rico

I just spent a short week in Puerto Rico. I fled there to escape the cold of Washington, New York and, yes, Miami (where it’s been cloudy for a while now). There were three destinations on my list: Yucatan, Mexico was an option. Belize as well. And Puerto Rico. I decided not to go on my own to Belize after reading the Frommer’s Belize guide. I really want to visit that country (so small and so diverse!), but not alone. And if I do decide to visit Belize with someone else, I might just as well visit the neighbouring Yucatan at the same time. So hence, no Yucatan either.

I didn’t know much about Puerto Rico apart from the singers that the country has produced (Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin and Ghent-resident Gabriel Rios), it’s most typical sound (reggaeton), the song by Vaya Con Dios and Marco, a law enforcement officer from Fort Lauderdale who used to be a pen pall of mine and who I met twice while touring in Florida. Most probably the coolest blatino I had ever met!

Anyways, back at the house of the couple I’m staying with in West Miami, I have mixed feelings about my visit of the Isla Del Encanto. I had never associated Puerto Rico with that Pixies classic ‘Isla De Encanta’ until I saw it on the license plates of the cars. I have experienced as much joyful moments as annoying and frustrating ones. It’s been a trip of ups and downs, part of which is my fault as I naively thought I could just visit the island without serious preparation. Being impulsive was the worst thing I could do. It will definitely make me rethink about how I travel.

oh, this entry has been put twice on the bogspot site... i couldn't delete the other one

PR 1 Puerto Rico

I just spent a short week in Puerto Rico. I fled there to escape the cold of Washington, New York and, yes, Miami (where it’s been cloudy for a while now). There were three destinations on my list: Yucatan, Mexico was an option. Belize as well. And Puerto Rico. I decided not to go on my own to Belize after reading the Frommer’s Belize guide. I really want to visit that country (so small and so diverse!), but not alone. And if I do decide to visit Belize with someone else, I might just as well visit the neighbouring Yucatan at the same time. So hence, no Yucatan either.

I didn’t know much about Puerto Rico apart from the singers that the country has produced (Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin and Ghent-resident Gabriel Rios), it’s most typical sound (reggaeton), the song by Vaya Con Dios and Marco, a law enforcement officer from Fort Lauderdale who used to be a pen pall of mine and who I met twice while touring in Florida. Most probably the coolest blatino I had ever met!

Anyways, back at the house of the couple I’m staying with in West Miami, I have mixed feelings about my visit of the Isla Del Encanto. I had never associated Puerto Rico with that Pixies classic ‘Isla De Encanta’ until I saw it on the license plates of the cars. I have experienced as much joyful moments as annoying and frustrating ones. It’s been a trip of ups and downs, part of which is my fault as I naively thought I could just visit the island without serious preparation. Being impulsive was the worst thing I could do. It will definitely make me rethink about how I travel.

PR 2 Puerto Caro

I knew the Caribbean was expensive and that’s why I didn’t go to the Bahamas or Bermuda or any of those islands. I figured Puerto Rico would be more like the US. After all, it’s a US commonwealth country. But boy, was I wrong. I ended up spending a fortune on the island for things that weren’t really worth their money. On accommodation for instance. I had bought and read the Frommer’s Puerto Rico guide who listed a few moderate and budget hotels near the capital San Juan. Some of them got really nice reviews on the internet too, so I called them up before booking the flight. However, five of them were sold out and couldn’t help me with alternative addresses. The bizarre thing was that the prices they gave me over the phone were already 20% more expensive than the rates in the guide book (released summer 2006). The cheapest rate I could get was 75 dollars! Without tax.

I called this hotel in the centre of Condado who was famed for being a ‘house party’ at times. It was a gay owned hotel with a bar on the beach and close to a bus station taking you to Old San Juan. They asked 115 dollars for a room and I decided to be a bit decadent and go party in Puerto Rico. Upon arrival however, one of the guests came to warn me I should get to another hotel. I didn’t really trust the guy. It could have been someone working for another hotel. But I did take his advice on checking the room first. And that’s when I first thought: what the hell am I doing here?

I had just spent 15 dollar on a taxi ride from the airport to the hotel, which would not even have cost 10 euro in Brussels (no meter! fixed price! In EVERY cab!). I really didn’t want to pay 115 dollar for a room, which even in Switzerland would not even be worth 130 CHF (35 euro). The room was damp and smelly, the sheets looked as if they had been washed 1150 times, the toilet seat was about to break as I would sit on it and the shower, well, the shower produced a few leaks only. But I did take it (for the round price of 100 dollars) as I really didn’t want to spend 200 dollar for a more decent room in the San Juan Beach hotel nearby. The other hotels in the neighbourhood were sold out or asked ridiculously high prices. The Marriott for instance had a room for 390 dollar! I ended up paying 100 dollar each night for the entire trip as it was the lowest I could go for a decent room. And with decent, I really don’t mean fancy. I mean: decent. The kind of rooms you get in Germany for 25 euro.

Not only were the taxis and the accommodation outrageously expensive, the prices of food and clothes and everything else you can buy were never below US prices. Even at my favourite Subway sandwich place, the menu was more expensive than in New York. If you ever go to Puerto Rico, don’t go alone and split the costs with a travel partner (there is nothing for backpacking single travellers there) or try to stay with a local family. Even my business card didn’t do wonders. A tour guide? For a cruise line company ? (I never told them I did river cruises instead of Caribbean cruises) Fine! But you have to pay the total amount anyways.

PR 3 Puerto Carro

I ended up renting a car because I needed to get out of the Costa del Sol looking Condado beach area, which had nothing authentic. There is no public transport on the island. The bus from Condado to Old San Juan for instance should run every 20 minutes, but I tried to take it twice and I had to wait 45 minutes each time. Getting out of San Juan to the rest of the country is impossible without a car. Unless you would rent a sailing boat and sail around it, but I don’t have a sailing license (yet). Day excursions cost way too much money (example: three hours in Ponce, the second city of the country, from San Juan: 85 dollar) so I got myself a Lancer for a few days and guaranteed myself some adventure.

The craziest thing in Puerto Rico are the drivers. Or the traffic in general. My god. People say that Belgium is undriveable if that’s a word, but it’s nothing compared to PR. I kind of liked it though. It’s challenging and definitely not boring. You don’t really enjoy the view that much as you have to be 100 percent concentrated, but I somehow felt like driving in one of those Playstation games, never knowing what would come up next. Puerto Ricons don’t use their indicators. Very frustrating. They also stop without any sign of warning. Even on the highway. They also don’t drive in lines. I guess they will be flabbergasted if you told them that a highway has two lanes in order to have traffic ride in two lines. Then it gets confusing as the cars are American and have mileage, just like the speed limit is indicated in mileage, but the distances are put in kilometres. Signs appear and disappear making sure you’ll not find your destination easily.

The big thrill of driving a car in Puerto Rico is that everyone constantly warns you about carjacking. Of course the guide book mentioned it, but also the employee at Avis who gave me the advice to stay on the main roads only and not to drive at night. I wonder why drug addicts would try and steel your car to sell it for cash as it was my impression that everyone on the island already has a car! There are some 3,5 million people living in Puerto Rico. I saw at least 2 million cars. I thought it was amazing that every single car on the highway was manned by the driver only. Carpooling still needs to be introduced there. Maybe they ship the stolen cars to New York, where 2 million more Boricua’s (nickname of Puerto Ricans) live. I don’t know. However, I made a slight mistake of driving through the inland routes. I went on this panoramic route, which was beautiful, but I had no time to really enjoy it that much. It was a rollercoaster ride over hills and mountains with hundreds of hairpin bends with crazy conductores popping out of nothing almost crashing into my rental car. I saw two accidents in an hour drive on that road! But more scary were the many abandoned cars along the road. I also saw some bush fires on the way, which made me think of my own Final Destination movie. Burned out cars along the road, bush fires, accidents… I was sure they were signs of my near death. Very scary thought to concentrate on when driving on hilly and bendy roads. I made it in one piece though. Still, it would have been cooler with someone in the car!

PR 4 Puerto Bailando

Although I didn’t like my first hotel at all, the Atlantic Beach hotel, I had some great fun on my first night. The hotel had a bar, which turned out to be the gay meeting point of Condado, sometimes referred to as the Miami South Beach of Puerto Rico. I spent some time in the bar, drinking the local beer Medalla Light for 3 dollars per beer (happy hour). By the way: they don’t have regular Medalla, they only produce the Light one. It’s better than Heineken, but hey, only slightly. Anyways, I had some fun watching the crowd of the bar. There were some loud American friends making a fool of themselves by being loud Americans. They must have been 45 or so, but they acted like college kids. I don’t know if they were gay or not, they could have been just four office managers gone wild, but they sucked. And they stayed on my floor! Then there were a few couples watching the constructions sites, in between witch our ‘hotel’ was located. There were also a few attractive locals walking in, but my guess was that they were rent boys, who weren’t really successful in their pursuits.

An older American who was on a business trip started talking to me and offered me a drink. I guess I’m becoming as gay as you, Piet, accepting drinks from older guys knowing very well that they don’t make a chance at all, but hey, I ran out of money and I was thirsty. The guy ended up being a very interesting lawyer from Chicago who worked for the same law firm where presidential candidate (and my personal favourite) Barack Obama met his wife at during an internship. Yeah, I had interesting conversations with that guy and he needed a drinking partner too. I ended up convincing him to go to this club where they played reggaeton. I had asked some guy at the bookstore where I had to go for a reggaeton night and he warned me about the straight reggaeton places. Apparently, I wouldn’t get out alive as a gringo looking reggaeton lover. So, he suggested Club Eros, a metrosexual (read: predominantly gay) club which had a latin night on Wednesday. I absolutely loved the place!

The club was a ten minute walk from the hotel, but was located in a more seedy area of course. I had no trouble walking there with that guy, although he was very scared and I would have been scared too if I had walked up there on my own. However, no mugging and no harassing whatsoever. Unlike other tourists who wrote their stories on the internet. They served Coors light at the club (a beer from Colorado, only available in light version) and that’s what we continued drinking. The place looked very cool. It would be very successful in Brussels or Antwerp. And I loved the fact that they played reggaeton. I danced a lot and watched the locals move their asses and hips as if they auditioned for a part in an urban video clip. I realised that the only thing that separates reggaeton from sex are clothes. And yes, Puerto Ricans are beautiful! Definitely, the second best looking people on this planet!

I didn’t know much about reggaeton. It’s been around for a while, but it only recently started to be mainstream. It’s basically latin gangsta rap with a very typical sound that you either like or not. It’s like drum ‘n bass. Every song sort of sounds the same, but not quite. The bass is very important and the attitude even more. Unfortunately it’s the music of the drug dealers and the criminals and the lyrics are really nasty and aggressive, but I just love those beats. However, I heard nothing but reggaeton. On the radio, on tv, out of boom cars passing by in the street… I’ve heard enough of it for the rest of the month. Examples: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWQUPak5S-g / (the most famous duo) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrA4ERbxxF0 / (yeah, they have child stars too)

Apart from reggaeton, there’s other latin music too, but I didn’t really hear it that much. Ricky Martin has an unplugged cd and I heard some nice version of some terrible songs. He’s still big there. And of course you have meringue and cumbia and salsa and stuff. There’s a lot of music everywhere you go and that’s what makes travelling so cool.

PR 5 Puerto Rios

On a small note. Just as a test, I asked 20 people if they knew Gabriel Rios and only one person (the bar tender of the gay bar in the hotel) knew who he was. Most other people (young, educated, older, music loving taxi drivers, …) had no clue who he was, but were very interested in hearing me talk about him. I don’t like Rios and his music; I don’t think it’s anything special. I’ve seen him live a few times and I thought he sucked (he doesn’t address the audience), I watched him parade with an ugly model girlfriend at the Cactus festival in Bruges last year, I’ve heard him during interviews: not my kind of guy. I don’t even understand why people think he’s attractive. But it was nice to know that nobody knew him in Puerto Rico. Let him never tell people otherwise!

PR 6 San Juan

I visited the old city of San Juan twice. The first visit was a bit of a disappointment as I had fallen from a boardwalk looking up at the facades of the beautiful, colourful, hacienda houses. I put on some ice and thought I would be okay, but ended up walking way too much on it, making me have to rest and get back to the hotel way too early. But I finished my stay in Viejo San Juan and that was a nice farewell to Puerto Rico. I really liked Old San Juan: the houses, the doorways, the colours, the street life, the squares, the people, the fortresses, the views on the ocean, the cemetery, the chapels and the churches, the people, the statues that are spread all over the city, the big cruise ships that dock in the harbour, the history, the inner courts and again, the people. My imagination ran wild when I walked around in the city. I thought of the days when Columbus arrived, when the Spaniards fought the Dutch, when the pirates took hold of the city, … yeah that was cool. I also visited the Bacardi distillery across the bay. I didn’t have enough time though as I had to rush to the airport in time and it’s a rip off I you don’t go there with your local car. (there’s a ferry going across the bay, and a bus taking you there, but if you want to get there fast you have to rely on faux taxi drivers who take you there at ridiculous prices) You do get to taste several Bacardi rums and see how you can make the perfect cocktail. They have excellent flavours you can’t buy in Europe (yet)… like coco rum of course… the tour itself is free, it’s only getting there that is expensive. Go there by car! But that’s just something extra. San Juan is really nice, but small. You can visit it in an afternoon.

PR 7 Puerto Playa Oeste

I am very happy to have left Condado Beach for a trip to the west coast of the island. I wanted to visit the east coast as well, but I never made it there. You could visit it all in a week, but with better planning. I didn’t get to do plenty of things I wanted to do in Puerto Rico. I didn’t see a cock fight, I didn’t see the pearl of the south, I didn’t see the rainforest, nor the most beautiful beach of the island (Loquillo), but I had a nice time in the west.

First I visited the Caves of Camuy, which is one of the few natural attractions of the country. It’s one of those school trip destination, which meant that there were plenty school kids hanging around. Upon arrival, I had just missed a guided tour, so I had to wait 40 minutes for the next one (yeah, that’s Puerto Rico too), but I had fun watching the kids and how incredibly mixed the children were. From pitch black to whiter than… me. They weren’t all adorable. I think half will grow up to be ugly and at least 5 will start dealing drugs. But some were incredibly cute. If I don’t find a Brazilian mother for my children, I’ll start looking in Puerto Rico.

The tour itself was a bit amateur, but I was entertained. I still couldn’t walk properly, so I didn’t really want to complain too much. The caves are naturally cut out of a rock formation area called the Karst region. Now, I once was so fascinated by a guy in my school who had the same name extended with –en that I looked up the word in the dictionary. I hadn’t thought about that guy in ages, but finally seeing around the world. The caves are inhabited with bats, but I didn’t get to see any. We did see amazing shapes of stalactites and stalagmites that, in my imagination, looked like dinosaur fossils. But I especially liked the light that came into the caves.

We had to wait a long time before the trolley brought us back to the parking lot and I wondered what would happen if I was stuck with my fellow tour takers in a LOST kind of scenario. There was absolutely no-one in the group I felt like bonding with. It was the most boring mix of people I’ve ever seen together on an excursion. But the local guide was nice.

The drive from the Caves to Mayaquez was incredibly. I didn’t see that much of the very diverse landscapes I drove through as I was too focused on the road, but it showed that Puerto Rico was more than beaches. I liked the houses along the road that looked as if they were either very expensive or very cheap. I never know with Caribbean houses. They look so charming, but they probably are not modern at all inside. I like the colours and the flowers around the houses and of course the stray dogs and chicken that walk around and tease the cow or horse which is tied up along the road to graze.

More about Mayaquez later. This is about the west coast. I visited two beaches on the west coast that were tipped to me by other people I had met earlier in the trip. The first one was Boqueron in the southwest of the island. The other one was Rincon in the northwest of the island.

Boqueron has a large beach with palm trees as far as the eye can see. It also has a small village centre where you can buy mussels on the street! I tried to stop in the village and walk around, but it was so busy (on a Saturday) that I couldn’t find any place to park my car. They have a local dish which serves mussels in coconut milk sauce. It’s the kind of village that will become a major tourist attraction in a few years time. I parked my car on a designated car park near some condominiums and a big beach resort. From there you had a perfect beach filled with Puerto Ricans who want to get away in the weekend. I really liked that beach a lot and stayed there for a while watching the many surfers and ordinary families who had brought there whole kitchen with them.

Leaving Boqueron, I drove a little bit further inland to San German, which is the second oldest city of the country and the place where the missionaries tried to baptise the Indians. I had no idea there were Indians on the island, but apparently there were two tribes who didn’t like each other. They all got extinct of course, because of the European diseases, but some people still claim to be from a direct lineage of the indigenous people. San German was dead! There was no one there apart from this older man who was walking his dog and a few kids with their skate board. The city had a nice square though, as almost all these little towns.

Rincon is famed for its lighthouses and the best sunsets of the region and I didn’t want to miss that all. Of course, I ended up visiting the beach on that one day when it got cloudy in the afternoon and rained a bit. No sunset. However, I really liked Rincon. I stayed in a beach hotel which also had a bar and restaurant. A small family owned place with six rooms or so. There were more of these places on that stretch of beach and there was a nice atmosphere. Lots of young people, pina collada’s (invented in Puerto Rico) for 5 dollar, Rincon Steak Sandwiches for 8 dollar. I really liked the place, although I ended up leaving with some 20 bites of sand fleas I guess. I didn’t really have that much fun in the bar, because everyone was watching the superbowl game at home. But the owners of the place were really nice and we listed to Moby and some latin songs as I imagined how the sun would set on that nice beach.

PR 8 Puerto Ponce

People who know Puerto Rico ask: did you go to Ponce? Well, I did and I didn’t. If they ever ask me what the most useless thing was that I have ever done in my life, than I finally have an answer. I drove almost an hour from San German to Ponce with the idea of spending the evening in the Pearl Of The South as the city is called, but I ended up driving back to Mayaguez after not finding the centre of the city at all and filled with angst paranoia about being mugged and carjacked. There’s something terribly wrong with the maps that the tourist office issues and I just drove around in circles. Ponce is also not a small city and I ended up driving through a neighbourhood where I just did not want to get stranded. The big problem was that there were no lights in that city. After I had taken the only exit I found to the centre of Ponce, there were no more indications and the people who were outside looked as if they too auditioned for a reggaeton video clip, but then as gangsters. I took that exit twice and just didn’t find any sign to get to the centre of the city, where a hotel called Belgica is located. (a dump apparently). So I ended up driving back to Mayaguez. A reason to come back, as some people told me afterwards. We’ll see..

PR 9 Two Nights In Mayagüez

I experienced the most interesting part of my trip in the third largest city of the country, Mayagüez (pronounced majawez). I somehow ended up there after my rollercoaster ride in the hills of central Puerto Rico and I didn’t want to go look for a hotel in Boqueron. I passed a nice looking hotel who offered me a room for 100 dollars again (a bit cheaper than the price in the brochure) and I happily accepted. There was a car park and the hotel was right in the centre near the main square and the church.

Much to my surprise the city was celebrating it’s patron saint that weekend! I couldn’t have had more luck. It looked as if the whole town was getting ready for the big party. My first impression was very positive. The church was small, but typical for the region. They had this statue of the virgin Mary who I never had seen looking so sad. Some older guy in the church told me it depicted the ‘birth of pain’, when Maria says goodbye to Jesus’ body after his crucifixion. The man was probably one of the oldest people in town who probably has been mayor at one time, or at least someone important. He explained to me how the archbishop of Puerto Rico was going to visit and that there would be an open mass, with a procession and some bands playing in front of the church. Hey, I needed not hear more.

There was a nice atmosphere in the city, with small stands selling fried codfish or a sweet cake called Mallorca. The most intriguing thing was this horseracing betting game which drew a lot of people. I was amazed by this simple betting game which I had never seen before on a European fair. Some guy spins a wheel after which 20 horses race around. When the last horse stops they check which horse stopped closest to the finish line. If you had bet on that horse, you win. I loved the enthusiasm of the people who participated! That was fun. The mass itself was boring. The procession around the square in the centre of which you have a nice statue of Christopher Columbus was boring too, although i enjoyed it as it was the first time I saw such a thing. You see it on tv, but it’s nicer in real life. And then you had some old singers sing some popular songs, to which the older crowd was shaking and moving. The strange thing was that I did not see any 20 or 30 something, making me conclude that it’s the kind of town were you grow up and come back after you spend your young life in San Juan or New York.

Unfortunately I found out that there are young people in Mayaguez too. There’s actually a university in the city. It’s quite bustling. And my hotel was right in the middle of downtown where bustling is all it does on a Saturday night. I had met a nice couple during breakfast who were in town for some medical treatment and had to wait 3 hours in between two tests. They offered me to show me around the city, which I happily accepted. They showed me the campus of the university, the mall, the harbour, the tuna producing industries, the ferry to the Dominican Republic and they constantly reminded me to be careful if I would venture out on foot or with my car. It was as if they were giving me a tour in Beirut. I couldn’t possibly think the city was so criminal after the very nice evening I had celebrating the patron saint. However, that second night in Mayaguez I experienced madness in front of the hotel.

I had stayed in after checking out the area around the hotel. There were some bars and clubs but none of them appealed to me. Some looked a bit dangerous, others worked with a door policy based on the dress code. I just enjoyed watching the people and when I still couldn’t sleep at 2.30am, I decided to watch the street live from the outside corridor of the hotel. And then it happened. A car stopped, someone got out, started beating up a guy, who was immediately backed by his friends who started to beat the aggressor, upon which the driver of the car did nothing less than get in reverse, then turn and drive into the fighting crowd! I swear, I couldn’t believe I was witnessing this. I got back to the room, felt very uneasy and had my imagination run wild about a possible Rio style gang war. My paranoia didn’t stop when I saw two police officers do surveillance in front of my window. Although they should have given me some rest and peace, they actually enhanced my fear of being trapped in a crazy action movie. The noise outside was incredible up until 5 am. I never knew what happened to the kids They told me no one got seriously injured, but I find that hard to believe. All I know is that I didn’t sleep at all that night. And all I know is that I couldn’t hear any reggaeton anymore as that was the soundtrack music to this chaos. Every time a boom car drove around the area (showing off, trying to impress), it almost got kicked out of the bed by the mattress moving to the incredibly powerful bass.

PR 10 Puerto Rico End

Puerto Rico has some nice assets. First the people: they are really great. Friendly, attractive, joyful. Then the houses. Very colourful and with lots of flowers. Of course the beaches and the weather is great. And if you had to a mall, you just think you’re in the states. So they do have everything possible. I do want to go back one day, but preferably as the start (or finish) of a Caribbean cruise or an island hopping trip. However, it’s so fucking expensive! And the constant warnings of locals about mugging and carjacking does ruin your careless trip. I wanted to stay in a beach hotel, but don’t go to Puerto Rico for that. And definitely don’t go to the tourist areas Condado and Isla Verde, which look just like Salou. This was my first island trip ever (if you don’t consider Britain to be an island) and I was really wondering why I prefer expensive Puerto Rico than cheaper Cyprus or Malta. Oh well. I’m back in Miami

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

011 Hector and Billy in Miami



I just spent two nights at a huge house in West-Miami. It belongs to an older gay couple I had met in march last year. They were passengers on my second Belgium and Holland trip and were, together with a lady from St-Petersburg, some of the most memorable people of the year. They were really fond of having me over, as at the same time they also had the program director from their Tuscany trip over. I didn’t meet her as she is away for a few days, doing some sightseeing in Florida. And I leave to Puerto Rico tomorrow!

The house is amazing! Incredible. If you ever get to see the movie clip I made with my camera, ask for it. I can’t post it here on the blog. It has four bathrooms I guess. I am sleeping in one of the several guest rooms, with my own bathroom. They have a huge kitchen, a huge bar (inside and outside), a huge everything.. I think interior design stores love them.. Oh, you know the kind of house I’m talking about. You watch that show on MTV at times too. Crips or whatever it is called. It’s that kind of house. I love it. I really absolutely love this place. They have piano that they never use and a swimming pool. I wanted to take a dip but it’s too cold here. Yes, even in Miami it’s cold(er).

Billy is a Montana born artist from New York who still paints (I really like his portraits, not so much his flowers) and who made money in real estate. Hector is a Cuban born psychologist who also taught at the university of Miami. They are such a sweet couple. I had already mentioned them to a lot of people, because I assumed they had been together for 40 years. But I must have misunderstood. They know each other for 40 years, but didn’t become a couple until 20 years ago when both of their partners died. They are just so amazing together. It’s funny. It’s a typical couple though with one person being a bit more dominant and the other more easy. They do ‘fight’ at times, but they seem very happy together and they spoil me rotten. Hehe. Hector is 72 and Billy 66.

For my b-day they took me to this Australian steakhouse where I got a well done butterfly steak (they just cut the steak open so it’s thinner and has the shape of a butterfly). Very good steak! Then I got a b day cake with a very short b day song by the staff. Very kitsch and very American, like we do on the ships, but I actually liked it. Not so much the cake though, which was a typical US mix of brownies and cream. No candles. We talked until late at night at their inside ‘bar’ drinking Puerto Rican Bacardi rum (and that for a Cuban!). They are just a real interesting couple. I didn’t want to ask too many personal questions, but I couldn’t help asking some details. They didn’t mind.

Next day was actually real nice. First I slept quiet long, with day long comments as a result of course. Hector sounded like me dad, disapproving of my sleeping so long. Then we went to La Caretta, a Cuban joint where a had some beef stew with beans and rice. It was delicious! I couldn’t eat my plate again and felt very guilty as it was so good. But I didn’t ask a doggy bag. Then we had to rush (no time to digest the food) to a shopping mall where they had a theatre. Billy and Hector love movies and we went to see Notes Of A Scandal with Oscar nominees Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett. I knew little of the movie. And it’s better if you do too, before you go see it. *** spoiler ahead *** I just thought it was a movie about a teacher having sex with one of her students. But it’s so much more. It’s basically about a lonely (lesbian?) spinster who’s obsessions for a new friendship is compulsive. It was a scary movie actually. I definitely recommend the movie!!!!

The rest of the day was more of the same. Another shopping mall and another one. Not sure why they wanted to take me to the malls, but it was fun. One mall is called the Falls mall and has some little artificial waterfalls. I guess that’s the only thing in West Miami close to a sightseeing. Still, I liked the whole day. Driving around Miami Dade County, looking at the houses, the typical billboard shops around the alternative highways. And I liked the company. I am happy to see that gay couples can grow up old together and be happy. I am also happy that Stevao sent me a birthday sms.

Monday, January 29, 2007

010 Stand Up Comedy

A friend of Jayte works for A&E, arts and entertainment. It’s a popular showbiz channel on television. He invited us to a vip table at Caroline’s, a comedy club on Broadway and 50th street. I liked the idea of going to a nyc comedy club, even though I had never heard of the star of the night, Paul Mooney.

The opener of the night was very funny. I guess I understood 90 of the jokes. I had some trouble knowing what she was referring too and her character is drunk so she mumbled a lot. She was fun though. I liked her a lot. Very cynical and sarcastic, although her victims were easy: Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, George W. Bush. I forgot the jokes, I forgot her name. But she was hilarious.

Paul Mooney on the other hand was more difficult to digest. He’s an African American who had issues with the ‘white folks’. The vast majority of the crowd was African American or Black American as you have to call them now and I guess he was on a roll talking bad about ‘the white folks’ as that got a lot of cheers. He didn’t really care that I was sitting in front of him. He never gave me any look. He was funny though as he didn’t only laugh with the white folk, but also with his fellow black guys (he clearly had a problem with Oprah Winfrey), the Chinese, the Mexicans. Too bad he didn’t laugh with the gays, the Jews, the Muslims and handicapped. He was pretty nasty though and I sensed a lot of frustration and anger in his jokes. Especially at the end, where he almost gave a political speech and noticed that the crowd wasn’t laughing anymore. Larry, the guy who works for A&E was going to confront him with that. At the end of the show, I really didn’t know if he wanted to be funny or if he really hated the ‘white folks’. All I know is that a white stand up comedian could never get away with a night black bashing.

He releases a new dvd: Jesus is black. Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HpnMdzEp7s&NR

Jayte took me to two of his favourite bars in Manhattan. I didn’t like them. They were empty (it was still freezing) and the music sucked big time. I expected a little bit more cool in New York. But I’m sure I went to the ‘wrong’ places. I so much hope I don’t have to work in June and can join my friends on their trip to NYC. I really love this place.

009 American Idol and the Strand

I stayed at home for the most of the day, watching some television, a very addictive thing in the states. There was this 60 minutes special on CNN about the harsh judgements of American Idol. I saw the two episode that they were referring to. Especially the auditions in Memphis and New York were hilarious! I thought that was the funniest tv of the year! I’ll see if I can add some you tube fragments. I’m not a fan of American Idol, BUT I do love the audition episodes. http://www.americanidol.com/videos/view/?vid=503

I headed to the city at around 6 pm or so and went shopping in Soho! Dangerous! I didn’t have much cash money with me, fortunately, but there were plenty of things I liked. I got of at Prince Street, walked a bit south, but then walked up north again along Broadway. There was this one t shirt I wanted to buy: ‘Can’t we all just get along’ with the symbol of the new religion (a mix of the Jewish/Christian/Muslim symbols). But then I thought that was a bit too PC.

I ended up at the Strand, which is the biggest bookstore in NYC. More than 18.000 books, that’s how they advertise. I had big expectations, but was a bit disappointed. It’s big, but De Slegte in Amsterdam isn’t that much smaller really. The Strands is a phenomenon though. You can find new books 20 percent cheaper than anywhere else. There are a lot of books, sure, but they have 20 copies of one book. If not more. They do have a lot of second hand book and I did spent 60 dollars on books and 90 minutes of my time there, but I just expected more of the biggest bookstore in NYC, the US and hence The World. I bought another book of Bill Bryson, a new 2007 guidebook of Belize, a book on travel writing, a book on life in the middle ages, … I also bought a gift for Jayte: a new biography of Elisabeth Taylor, one of his idols. The art/movie/music section is of course very big. After all this is New York. Tom, if you go to the store, check out the reference department. They have cool books you will like. Like a small dictionary which explains names of cities and areas. I didn’t have anything to put my books in, so I ended up buying a cool shoulder bag. I also bought a Strand t-shirt to wear at the beach.

008 I Love New York

I’d love to live in New York for a while. Preferably Manhattan, but Brooklyn is okay too. The place where I’m staying at is located in south Brooklyn and it takes about 45 minutes to get to Manhattan. Actually, I spent more than an hour getting to Manhattan (walking to metro station, taking two metro trains, walking to where I had to be).. I realised Wevelgem isn’t that bad. It only takes me 20 minutes longer to get to Brussels. However, not for 2 dollars.

Staying in Brooklyn and commuting to Manhattan made me feel a bit like I was in London, where you also have to live far away to get an affordable room. Jayte pays 975 dollars/month for a two room apartment with kitchen, living room and bathroom. He has to spend at least 45 minutes to get to his office, if not more. It’s a nice apartment in a quiet neighbourhood, but a bit far off. Today, I also went to a place in Chelsea, the gay neighbourhood in Midtown Manhattan. A small studio with so little room that they had to cut out a part of the wall to place a refrigerator, costs more than 2000 dollar per month! It wasn’t the nicest area in Chelsea, but it was close to the coolest area. But it was small man! Maybe 30 square meter in total. The small size wouldn’t matter much to me, but the rent! Hello! 2000 dollar!

The place I visited in Chelsea belongs to a pet groomer. For all those who don’t know what that is (I didn’t either): a pet groomer is basically a dog stylist who washes them, cuts their hair and makes them look as pretty as their bosses. This guy isn’t just an ordinary groomer, but a celebrity pet groomer. He ‘does’ the hair of the dogs of P. Diddy for instance. I didn’t meet the guy, I went there to meet my buddy Sean, who flew in from Atlanta for a weekend in NYC. And Sean was there because a friend of him was house sitting the apartment. I had a great time meeting him again. He looked happier, healthier and … heavier than ever before! No offence Sean. You looked good.

Before heading back to Brooklyn I visited two areas in Manhattan that I really like. First Chelsea. I had never been there before, but I definitely recommend walking down 8th avenue from 23 to 14 street. It’s a gay neighbourhood, but there’s a lot of cool restaurants and some nice shops. I especially liked the kitsch selling gift shops. There’s a lot of bars, but I was there around 8 pm so they were empty. I always thought NYC was boring for gay people as I had only been to Greenwich village before and that was a bore. But now I know where the bars are!

I decided to walk around in NYC. It was much less cold today than yesterday and I just love walking around in Manhattan. I didn’t care to see sightseeings as they are, well, like.. boring. But I just love walking around there. I passed the flatiron building, which isn’t illuminated at night. And I walked to the east side where I walked down 3rd avenue to end up at my favourite place of New York: St Marks Place. That’s the name for 8th street and the old hippie neighbourhood of the city. It’s very touristy now, with lots of stands selling souvenirs and – this time of the year – lots of hats and scarves. But you also still have cool second hand record stores (2,99 for ALL single compact discs) and an excellent second hand bookstore, where I bought a book of Bill Bryson, the travel writer a friend of mine and some passengers of mine told me I sound like! I didn’t stay long there as Jayte had made dinner for me and I had to head home, but I might go back there just to buy some funny t-shirts. Cool place!

I had fun today, just by walking around in New York and looking at people and having the feeling I belonged there. I really love New York. There’s something special about the place. I really feel very comfortable here and I can really imagine living here. So much to do! I had a great time with my friends, but I also had a great time looking at the people around me on the street, in the subway, in the shops… I met some models (or wannabe models) on the subway. I wanted to tell them how ugly I thought they were. So anorexic! They were both eating raisins. I guess that was their main course of the day. I so much felt like telling them a new study proved raisins make people fat. I also saw a few extravagant homeless people / beggars. One was this super tall Ru-Paul like dirty drag queen in ragged clothes. I also love the musicians in the subway. One played this open drum. I should have taken a picture of it, because I can’t describe it. But I thought it was amazing what sounds he got out of it. I also love the mixture of people and languages. I sometimes think everyone is an immigrant here.

The roommate of Jayte, Rick, is also cool. He’s an aspiring scriptwriter/actor from Italian descent. Doesn’t have the looks of Joey though, but I just had to think of Joey when I heard his stories. He is now an ‘extra’ on the set of a new Will Smith movie of which some scenes are being shot at the Brooklyn bridge. The movie synopsis sounds stupid: Smith has found a cure for cancer, but when everyone is injected they turn into vampires! As I said: stupid. They need more than 500 extra’s for an evacuation scene. They shoot it in six days! Six nights basically, in this cold. Rick isn’t staying on the set. There’s so many extra’s that they don’t really notice if you’re there or not. He goes in when they start shooting, then leaves the set and goes back to sign out. (he has a friend on the set who lets him know). It would have been cool to have gone to the set though. Apparently Will Smith entertains the crowd while they are waiting outside. And apparently lots of people there are homeless. They get 78 bucks a day! Can you imagine? 78 bucks a day, six days longs! I want to be an extra too. Now I understand how Joey could live in that apartment. (Jayte just spoiled this joke by saying extra’s sometimes only have one shoot per month)

I can imagine living here and meeting all these semi-artistic folk. People aren’t as friendly as in Annapolis though. Nobody is looking in your eyes. They all look straight ahead or down to the ground. Except in Chelsea of course and on 3rd Avenue when I did have some nice eye contact. I was too tired to go out tonight. But I really had a nice day today. Yeah, I really love New York.

Saturday, January 27, 2007

007 Brooklyn & Manhattan & Alvin Ailey

Jayte lives in Brooklyn, one of the five boroughs of New York. The part of Brooklyn where he lives is okay. I immediately felt very safe. It’s a very Jewish neighbourhood too. It was strange. I immediately felt at home yesterday night when I arrived. I thought: cool, I’m in New York! The idea alone was very exciting. But today, I’m feeling a bit less excited. One: it’s fucking cold! It’s freezing, some 15 degrees Fahrenheit or so. I’ve never walked around in much colder weather and it annoys me. I wanted to visit Williamsburg, as that is named the new Soho with cool shops and galleries. I am walking around with an old guide book which is very outdated. The Williamsburg culture museum is torn down for instance. I had walked some 15 minutes trying to find that building in the freezing cold. I only ended up taking a picture of the Williamsburg bridge and the view over Manhattan. I talked to one of those Hasidic Jews, who was actually quite friendly, and also to a younger wannabe rock star who does something with computers for a living. He did rave about Williamsburg, but it was just not the moment to visit the area. Especially since it was also early morning.

I then took the subway to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I didn’t make the same mistake as in Washington so I visited those sections which could show me something I hadn’t seen yet. It’s a huge museum, which shows all kinds of art from all over the world. I especially liked the music instrument museum and the modern art section. Again, a painting by Pollock took me by surprise. Maybe I should see that movie with Ed Harris to get to know the artist a bit more. There were several pieces of art that I liked and I didn’t get bored in the museum at all. A must! One strange thing: the admission price is ‘suggested’, which is stupid. They suggest 20 dollars. I gave 10. I don’t even know why I gave ten, I normally always try to get in for free and now that I could just skip paying, I did. It reminded me of Homer Simpson who visits one of those ‘suggested admission’ museums and dropped in a penny.

I walked across Central Park which looked dead and headed to the Museum of Natural History, a bit inspired by the bit of the movie I had seen ‘A Night At The Museum’. There was a huge line to pay another ‘suggested’ admission and when I looked at the plan, I didn’t really feel like visiting yet another museum. I bough a hot dog outside (not worth its money, but it’s a thing to do in New York) and then I took the train to 42St street. I wanted to walk around a bit near Times Square, but again the cold wind was killing me. I spent some time in the huge Toys R Us with the big internal wheel for kids and the moving tyrannosaurus. Very typical: a huge shop, but little diversity in the toys. It’s all Lego, Star Wars, GI Joe, Barbie… Very little board games. Then I headed to the Virgin Megastore, where I spent more time, until I realised I had to be at Jayte’s office.

Jayte works for Alvin Ailey, a very respected dance company. He used to be a dancer, but is now the head of the designer department who create the costumes for the performers. I really liked being in that building. I wanted to walk around and watch rehearsals and classes (as it’s also a dance school), but I wasn’t allowed. I did have some peeks in the rooms though. Lots of attractive dancers where walking around. I totally loved being there, but was immediately thinking about how I may have missed out on a career as a dancer. I spent some time next to a new costume maker, looking up some info for cheap tickets to the sun. Difficult!!!! But I also looked around and watched ‘behind the stage’ moments. Fun! Jayte and I went to eat at a cool place near his office, called Vinyl. I liked the place. I had the grandfather’s meatloaf, which was okay, but not extraordinary, but I just liked the interior. The menu card is written on old vinyl records from Olivia Newton John for instance; And the coolest thing is that they have four restrooms named after a celebrity singer. I had to go into Nelly’s toilet. Nelly is the rap singer of ‘Hot in Here’. As you are taking a rest, you hear his music and you’re looking at his little statue in a glass box. I also went to check out Dolly (Parton). Definitely worth checking out.

And that was basically my day in New York. It wasn’t really boring, but also not very exciting.

006 Amtrak ride

Ray was surprised to learn that I would prefer taking the train to New York than taking a flight. My god! If I can take a train why wouldn’t I take it? It’s like with the commuter bus! Watch your luggage! Don’t fall asleep! Those were his warning. Yeah. Sure, I’ll watch my stuff. But I’m on the train now and I’m surrounded by normal people. I’m in the quiet car, where talking and using the cell phone is prohibited. Cool! It’s pretty full. I got on the regional train from Washington to New York, which takes about 3,5 hours or so and I got on at the BWI airport as that’s where Ray flew to Atlanta from. It cost me 69 dollars, but if I would have bought it earlier it would have been cheaper. Anyways, the train was a few minutes late, but I didn’t care that much. The seat I’m sitting in is very comfortable. I actually really love it; Very spacious for a train and the overhead compartments are big enough for suitcases. I think a third of the people here are using a laptop. Some read. The majority is white, apart from the conductor. We just passed Philadelphia. I would have wanted to visit that city too, but I’ll do that some other time. With Hilde maybe. No, I’ve been on the train for almost two hours now and I can honestly recommend it to everyone!

005 Movies at the Mall

I decided to go to the mall in the afternoon. I had called mr and mrs Wolfe for a meeting, but they didn’t pick up the phone, so I bought a matinee ticket for The Pursuit of Happiness. I had called Evelyn and Harry the day before and they invited me for lunch, but I also had promised Ray to go to lunch with him, so we sort of decided to meet upon my return end of February.

The Pursuit of Happiness wasn’t really on my list of movies to see, but it was the first available movie, so I got in. Also because the trailer featured gorgeous images of San Francisco. It’s based on yet another true story of the American Dream: sales person with a lot of debts needs to take care of his son as his wife leaves him, as he is kicked out of his house and as he just started an internship as a stock broker. Whatever! BUT the acting was amazing! Will Smith, who I normally don’t like that much, was excellent. Thandie Newton was very expressive in her short part as the disappointed wife. And the little boy (Smith’s own son) was good too. The story was very drama, Hollywood drama, and after 100 minutes I had enough of seeing someone’s bad luck, even though I knew this story would have a happy end. But I also thought it was interesting to see that a movie about becoming homeless can be such a big hit. I was thinking how Ken Loach would have made that movie or de brothers Dardenne. In the end, this story is about a homeless father who has to seek refuge in shelters/ But their style will never reach a big audience and this movie does! Even though I hated the soundtrack and the typical emotional close ups of facial expressions. Still, the end, although very predictable, moved me. Great acting, Will!

This being a movie theatre in the States, I of course went into other rooms to see parts of the movies that were playing as well. I stayed for some 15 minutes in the two week box office topper Stomp The Yard. From what I’ve seen it’s the most ridiculous chart topper of the year. It’s some kind of dance movie with an all black cast about rival school gangs who do a streetdance/krumping performance on stage while stomping their feet on the wooden floor in an urban tap or line dancing style. It was horrible, especially the camerawork who tried to be ‘hip’ by showing some parts in slow motion and than fast forwarding the images. Awful. After that I went in to see that 200+ dollar box office hit A Night At The Museum. I left after half an hour or so as I had not laughed one single time and I was incredibly annoyed by the illogical storyline which is just an excuse for some visual affects. I didn’t even wait to see Robin Williams perform.

004 Washington Day 2


Washington is pretty big and the sightseeings are all spread out. The best way to plan your day is to take one of those hop on, hop off tours. There’s two of them. One is 20 dollar, the other 32 dollar (goes a little bit further). However, when I decided to do that it was already past 1 pm and the ticket sales people actually talked me out of doing the tour. I took the metro to the White House again, the north side this time, and then walked my way to the Washington monument. It’s basically nothing more than an obelisk. I wanted to take the elevator up, but the ticket booth was already closed. So get there in the morning if you want to go up! I decided to walk around the Mall, the name given to the huge park that connects the Capitol building with the Lincoln Memorial in the far end. I really wanted to see the Lincoln memorial as I somehow associate that with the capital. Especially since the underrated remake of Planet Of The Apes ended there. There’s no public transport getting you there. No metro, no bus. You either have to take one of those tours or walk!

The Lincoln Memorial itself I impressive, but it looks just like you expect it to look and there’s not much going on around it. I’m sure in the summer it’s filled with tourists and students laying in the sun! There’s a small museum there as well but the nicest thing is that you have a great view of the Washington Monument, being reflected in the pool that connects both monuments. Nearby you also have the memorials of the victims of the Vietnam war and the Korean war. There’s also a somewhat boring memorial for the victims of the Second World War. Anyways, there’s plenty of memorials and statues. I first started to take pictures of them, but after a day I had enough of them. I basically did a whole lot of walking in Washington, DC which I didn’t mind, but it would have been nicer if they had public transport to the Lincoln Memorial.

The next day I went back with the commuter bus, only to find out that there’s little to do before 11 am. All museums open late! And I was basically stuck in DC. I headed to the FBI building first, as I know someone who had visited the place. Unfortunately, the FBI no longer allows visitors. Another museum that I wanted to visit was ‘closed for renovation’. It was the American History museum, which appealed to me more than the art museums or the technical museum. I wanted to visit the National Portrait Gallery as well and the Spy museum, but they opened even later than 11 am. I ended up going inside of the Fort Theatre, where Lincoln was murder. Across the street there’s the house, where Lincoln died after being brought there. It’s all about Lincoln and Washington in DC. Not many other presidents are omnipresent there. I found it strange that I didn’t see anything of Bill Clinton. Not one single things reminded me of his legacy. Bush however is everywhere, which is a bit strange as 70 percent of the people in DC voted Democrat.

I took the metro to Foggy Bottom, which is the area around the white house and which I only remember because it was one of the questions in our vocabulary test at university and almost the entire class had no idea what it was. Anyways, it’s the last stop in DC and from there I walked to Georgetown, which is supposed to be the charming area of the city. Of course, it was called again and when I walked to the little Harbour front I didn’t see much charm. Nobody was out there, no life at all, all the sidewalk and river front bars were closed. But the rest of Georgetown was a bit more lively. There’s two shopping streets, with the usual stores (Barnes & Nobles, Urban Outfitters, Gap) and behind those streets you have a nice quiet residential area with beautiful building. At least for Americans. There’s this ‘old stone house’, which is the tourist draw of the street. But I passed it a few times not noticing there was anything old about it. I liked the canal that run there. I didn’t expect to see a small canal in the big city. But to be really honest, Georgetown wasn’t a gem. I’m sure it’s all more bustling in the summer, but I think I expected more of a student neighbourhood. I still don’t know where the second hand book and record stores are for instance. On my way to Georgetown, I did meet a nice guy who walked a bit with me. I love that about visiting the states, you always end up meeting people who like to talk to you. He suggested I also visited Dupont Circle neighbourhood, as there were a few second hand stores there. I did wanted to go to that place, but it was already pas 1.30 am and I wanted to visit a museum as well.

I also lost a lot of time in a travel agent store. STA travel. I ended up being the first ‘customer’ of a trainee, who just totally sucked. I came in with questions about Puerto Rico and Belize, but he started suggesting trips to Hawaii. Duh! Anyways, the women who was supervising him was cool and talked a bit about Belize, how she was robbed at gunpoint near the border with Guatemala. But that’s the ‘adventure’, she added. Yeah, cool, but I have a laptop now. I was a bit tired of walking so I took a bus back to the centre. Funnily enough it was very easy to get on the bus from Georgetown, although every single person I had asked told me it was impossible to get there with the public transport. Some people just don’t know their city I guess. Anyways, the bus broke down and we had to wait for another bus to pick us up.

There are several museums in Washington and most of them are free. Especially the Smithsonian museums, which is a name given to all the museums that used to belong to one person who gave his collection to the government. High on the wish lists of tourists is the technical museum, but I couldn’t care less. I ended up going to the National Gallery of Art. There’s two buildings, a west and an east building, which have a vast collection of all kinds of paintings. I made the mistake of wanting to visit the entire museum. I should have looked at the map first and then go to the parts which really interested me. I ended up seeing too many paintings and sculpture from European artists. None of them are master pieces and the visit started to bore me a bit, apart from seeing Rubens and Rembrandt! There was actually an extra exhibition on sketches by Rembrandt. I was also impressed by the work of Degas, who I was unfamiliar with. I especially liked his sculptures of ballerina’s. I had made an appointment with Amy, who was on my last trip in December and she wanted to meet quite early, so I had to rush through the building. Never good! That’s why I need to go back there. I didn’t get to see much of the American artists and some of the things I saw were interesting. No San Marco squares or flower fields with medieval castles in the back. No, Americans depicts other facets of life, like the life of the native Americans. Start your visit with those sections and do the European paintings when you have time! I also didn’t have much time to spend in the modern art section, although I did one floor upon entering the museum, which impressed me a lot. I actually like Modern art. I was surprised to like the paintings of Pollock. I guess I was not interested in his work because I don’t like Ed Harris who portrays him in his directorial debut, but I just found myself attracted to his paintings. There was also a painting from a Flemish artist, whose name I forgot, but was a collection of muscles glued together. I loved that. And of course you have Warhol and Liechtenstein, who is more famous the country with the same name. Yeah, I could have spent more time there.

I had an appointment with Amy though, who was one of the most charming people I had on my tours last year. Amy is maybe 27 or so and she’s married to Chad, who’s 31. they were travelling with their parents and Chad’s brother and sister-in-laws; The six of them were really cool and I took the kids out for some Belgian beer tasting in Nijmegen of all places! That was fun. Amy was very excited in talking about Washington DC. She asked me where I wanted to go and we headed to Dupont Circle. We didn’t really walk around there, but went into this cool book store with a restaurant in the back. An insider tip! For 15 bucks we got three different appetizers brought to us on three separate plates on a stack. A bit like tapas, but then in huge portions. We shared quesadillas, the house tacos with guacamole and some buffalo wings. It was a lot. Also cool was the refills of course. I drank Dr Pepper, but she came to refill it three times. Nice place. Amy is cool. We talked a lot. Funnily enough, I thought she worked in the Smithsonian building, but she works in the National Portrait Museum where I stood earlier in the morning for a closed door. Next time, she’ll let me in and I’ll have the museum for myself. Yeah, that sounds cool.

003 Washington Day 1



I was in Washington today. It was an interesting visit. I didn’t get to do what I wanted to do and I’ll need to go back to explore the city more. But it was fun. I was very lucky to stay in a hotel just opposite of a park and ride stop for commuters. In five minutes I was on the commuter’s bus to Washington, for a mere 4,25 dollar. I thought the commuter bus would be filled with people working in second rate jobs. But no! This is a commuter bus from Annapolis, which is a pretty rich area, so the bus was filled with just normal businesspeople who prefer commuting by bus than being stuck in the traffic jam. It felt very European.

The nice thing with this bus, was that I was able to take a bus ride in the city! Like a free sightseeing tour. I got off at the White House as that was the first stop on my list of things to see in Washington DC. It even rhymes. But much to my surprise, I couldn’t get in. Apparently, rules have changed and now you need to request a visitor’s pass six months before you visit Washington DC. Apparently at the Belgian Embassy in Washington, which doesn’t really make that much sense. But anyways. A bit frustrated, I did go to take a picture of the south side wing of the White House. It didn’t do much to me. All flags were half stock and I forgot to ask why. I think because president Ford died.

From the White House I walked down Pennsylvania Avenue which is lined with big government buildings. Actually the whole city is just one collection of Federal bureaus of something. The developer of the city was a Frenchman and it took decades to finalize his project. I have to say that I wasn’t that charmed by the look of the city. It’s impressive, no doubt, but there’s no charm. I thought I liked symmetrical, neo-classical buildings, but DC just has too much of them. And all the buildings look white and relatively new.

Capitol Hill is an impressive area though. I had heard about hours of waiting to get into the Capitol, but this is end of January and it’s cold, so I just could get on the next available tour. I met up with a Hong Kong student who lives in Montreal and started talking to two typical American women. Typical in the sense that they made a whole scene out of the fact that they could not take in food or drinks. Americans have this way of making scenes although it’s not really complaining as we know it in Europe. It’s more making a big deal out of something and getting some attention. Anyways, fine for us, because in stead of throwing it away she handed out chocolates and almond nuts. If I were a homeless person in Washington, DC, I would not move an inch from that garbage bin. The amount of food that is thrown away! Incredible. So, should you ever visit the Capitol, makes sure you have as little with you as possible. This is a rule for all buildings in Washington!

The visit of the Capitol was very interesting! I had an excellent tour guide who was informative and funny. I didn’t expect anything of the visit, but it really turned out to be a must. The inside of the Dom is amazing! Especially when you get to hear more information about the details of the fresco’s and the paintings and statues! The whole building is filled with 100 statues, 2 from each state! I was amazed how much I know about the American History, especially since some of the fellow tour takers had no idea what the guide was talking about. One person had never heard of general Lee for instance, the traitor to the North and the leader of the South in the Civil War. Amazing. The ugliest statue in the whole Capitol was given by the state of Hawaii. It was the statue of the Flemish missionary Father Damian!

I liked the entire visit. Especially the visit to the old House of Commons where the echo and the acoustics are amazing. The way the room was build unintentionally created an atmosphere that made it possible to hear everything the person across the room was whispering! Not so good for a room filled with politicians. It’s now filled with more statues. I was able to get into both the House of Commons and the Senate, which both looked incredible small. There was a lot of ‘On tv it looks so much bigger’ comments. I had hoped to see some famous politicians as it was the day of the State of the Union and there was a law being passed in the Senate about minimum wage/income. But no! No sights of hero of the moment: Senator Barrack Obama.

When I left the Capitol, the sun was out and it looked like a beautiful day. I didn’t want to visit a museum and just continued walking around the area, having a quick look into the Library of Congress (impressive reading room!) and the Court Of Justice. But by that time I was already fed up with the extreme security checks. Really, if you visit Washington, take as little as possible with you. Period. It’s worse than in an airport (or at a festival). I ended up at the huge Union Station, which again looked like it could be a big hub in a European city. I made the fist mistake of the trip by being lured into a 6,95 Buffet deal! I always too my tourists to one of those all you can eat buffets along the road. However, what I didn’t read was the small letters: per ounce. I ended up paying 15 dollar. I also bought my train ticket to go to New York. Excited to see how travelling by train will be like in the states. Another thing I bought in the Station (a day later) was the best muffin I’ve ever eaten. A cinnamon crumb muffin! It was so good that I thought for a moment to go back two blocks to get another one. But I didn’t.