Tempus fugit - posted from Buenos Aires, Argentina

As you might have noticed, the blog frequency has dropped: I'm quite busy and not having a laptop makes the workflow a lot slower as well. My apologies but this is the way it is going to stay.

The title of this post refers to the incredible rate at which time is passing: it's already been two weeks in Buenos Aires, meaning that my classmates are leaving or will soon leave and also that I am already halfway into my stay here. The total trip is nearly 5 months under way, with some impressions already feeling as ages ago. Working life in Holland for instance feels really far away. That being said, the journey has already passed its midway point: I should start thinking about where and what my life in Holland should be.
 I recently received an email from the research station in Chile where I would like to do an internship, it looks like this will go through. Giving me two months to get used to a working schedule again, and also two months to contemplate future plans.
This blog post however deals with activities already long past: a couple of days in Phoenix and a week in Florida.

Warning: huge post ahead.

Phoenix was a rest stop: 5 nights in a motel, with all the time in the world to relax, explore a little and make plans for Florida and South America. I'll drop some pictures here with their stories, but for the rest there's not much I can tell except that it was very hot.

South American jewelry and ornaments made of bird feathers and insect husks: very colorful

The first attraction on the list was the Hearst museum: a museum on native American culture getting good reviews. There was a lot of different stuff on display, with a guide telling you all about it on a waking tour. There were a lot of beautiful objects on display, but the museum was not really what I expected: most objects were modern art- and craftwork, with very little background on culture and history of the various tribes that were making the items: for some sections it was as if u were walking in a jewelry store. Besides that, the museum covers tribes all over the US, not specifically from the phoenix area. On top of that the entry fee was ridiculous compared to other museums, making it a mixed visit for me.

Dolls that were originally simple and used only once a year for religious purposes evolved into elaborate puppets sold to, and designed for tourists

Next up: a commercial center and going out area: the stadium and the nearby west gate mall. Not much interesting happening there, except that's is a nice place for a drink and some food.

The day ended with a trip to a nearby mountain to see the sun set, but the sun made it down first :-(. Beautiful skies all around though and a good place to sit down and enjoy the spectacle for a bit.

Time went fast and after a couple of nights it was already time to leave the west of the USA. I must say I did this with a little pain in the heart after having spent such a great time there, having seen so many incredible things and having met so many wonderful people.

The flight was a daytime flight and offered many beautiful views of desert, mountains and different cityscapes. It also goes on the list as being a flight in the smallest aircraft I've flown in so far. Sadly the flight went the wrong way: first back to LAX to wait half a day for the night flight to Miami.

On the same day that I was flying from Phoenix to LA my parents were crossing the big pond from Amsterdam to Miami via Atlanta. They had a lot of delays and mishaps on their journey, but made it to Florida safely. While I was waiting in LA they had picked up a rental car and checked in at our hotel, to get a good night of sleep before they'd pick me up at 07:30 the next day. 

Finding me the next morning proved a challenge: they'd crossed half the airport and had also had to drive a while to find a parking spot. Seeing them again after all this traveling great! My luggage was first off the belt though, so were soon on the road again, but not before having had to deliver another wad of cash to the scoundrels of the car rental company to allow for me as an extra driver. 

The day was supposed to be a resting day, but after a shower and discussing our plans a little we considered ourselves awake enough to already head for an exploration of the Everglades. 

You expect lots of water but it was dry season so what you get was a sea of grass! We booked a tramride to an observation tower as it was way to hot for my parents to go walking or cycling for such a long while. We hoped to get glimpses of the local wildlife. What we got was lots and lots of wildlife some from very up close. The area seems to be teeming with life, especially the waterways. An impression in pictures below.

Alligator

 Sea of grass

 Some kind of snapping turtle

 Black vulture

 Anhinga

 Turkey vulture

Southern water snake?

After this trip we ate dinner at the hotel (or at Denny's, can't remember). And went to bed early to get some necessary sleep: the next day we had to get up early to drive to a coral reef national park in the Florida Keys.

The drive was not that interesting, the park from the outside not so beautiful, the boat drive to the reef was nice, but also not spectacular, the fun started when we slowed down above the reef.

My last glass bottom boat trip had been on Bali, with a small, weathered and not very clear window on an overfished and half destroyed reef (get out of Kuta as soon as you can), so my expectations were low. The quality of the glass bottom, the huge viewing area, the clear water, the untouched reefs and the enthusiastic crew made this a remarkable trip, and as close as my parents will get to understanding why I enjoy diving so much. 

We saw lots of fish, colorful angelfish, parrotfish and wrasses but also larger fish as barracuda. Besides that the marine biologist on the crew explained about the different types of coral and other underwater life we were passing. I hadn't planned any dives in Florida, nor had I expected it to have such beautiful reefs. No more time on this trip though, so it will have to go on the 'to dive' list.

There was still more wildlife to be seen next (my mum was involved in selecting sites). A little further into the keys is a small bird sanctuary, just on the edge of the mangroves. It was nice to be able to come so close to the animals, but for most I would say it would be a better idea just to kill them (there's a lot of birds with no chance of recovery that stay at the sanctuary because they would not survive in the wild). It's funny how one's opinion can change over time: I would have never thought this ten years ago. Anyway the people there are doing great work for helping birds that do recover so we left a small donation.

That night we got stuck in a terrible traffic jam so when we spotted a Denny's dinner I turned off to grab dinner and sit the traffic jam out. I had had great food there before (for instance in Page, AZ), but the quality of food and service we received there was of such abominable level that it was nearly  inconceivable. The food was bad and cold, the maid rude and disinterested and when my mother had accidentally dropped a spoon+sauce on the ground this remained there for the whole evening, with the maid doing as if she didn't see although she had to step over it each time she came to serve something. We had a beer in the hotel and the restaurant was soon forgotten.

With the sites we wanted to see all visited in the first two days we had the third day open as a rest day. We took it easy but didn't need a full rest day, so instead we visited Miami Beach. Quite the contrast with the other two days!

But of course wildlife also attracted our attention here: the small lizards living on the peer's rocks had an interesting way to make themselves look bigger.

After walking along the water for a while we went to visit Miami Beach proper: ocean drive. Lots of (crazy looking) people, weird cars and great art deco buildings.

The first day of June was a driving day: Miami-Orlando. Driving in Florida is extremely boring: the road is surrounded by a green corridor and the land is flat so all that you see all day is green to the left, cars in front and green on the right... Ow yeah, and one car crash.

Luckily the next day brought something more exciting: rockets! Kennedy space center: an unique site, so a must visit. Except for rockets, familiar launch sites and one of the biggest buildings in the world we had little idea what to expect. What was funny is that this visit came mostly from my list, but that my mother seemed most impressed by the whole visit. I'll take u through it via a series of pictures.

Surprisingly similar to Thunderbird I no?

The first thing you see when you enter (actually already from some distance away) is the rocket garden. I thought that the big rocket lying on the ground was one of the Saturn rockets ( developed for the Apollo program) but an employee  me: this is only the small stuff. We would see the big stuff (really, really big) later in the day. At 10:30 we had booked a tour, so we had about an hour something to fill. We were recommended to check the historic section on the start of space flight first, then if time allowed it, visit the space shuttle and afterwards the tour. So we started with cold war era technology.

The first american satellite: a response to the Russians' Sputnik

Control room of the 50's

Trusty Russian technology still in use today: Soyuz

The exhibits in this museum really breathe a 50's cold war atmosphere: from the eery control room to the roots of both space programs in Nazi Germany. A display on space craze with all the toys, household robots and future visions of colonies provides for a small lightening of there mood, but you are soon reminded that the world was once at the brink of nuclear war: the rocket that put Shephard in space had originally been designed to carry a nuclear warhead to the ussr. It was nice to step out into 2014 to see where science and technology had since brought us.

A nice homage to international collaboration

Entrance to the shuttle building

We had just 20 mins left to get first glimpse of the shuttle before the tour would start. When we entered we came to a queue and it became clear you couldn't just enter the building, you first had to see a 12min movie...lame. Well actually it wasn't that lame: It was a very american movie, but the story of the development cycle of the shuttle project spoke to me. The collaboration in a team, the setbacks, the ideas turned into reality, time and money constraints... As an engineer and also as a budding project manager these things were all part of life, albeit at a much more modest scale. The finale of the movie comes when the teams sees their creation become reality after 12 years of work, the same moment that for us museum visitors the curtain is lifted and you are confronted with an impressive full scale space shuttle.

Instead of taking this all in we had to run downstairs to get to the exit and to our tour bus! During the wait in line for the bus the tour guide went along the waiting people to introduce himself and have a little chat. Very nice touch and a good way to make an otherwise boring wait a nice opportunity to meet someone new.

A little sense of scale: looking out towards the VAB from the land bridge to cape Canaveral.

A familiar site: almost any space shuttle launch you see on posters or in videos took place from this launchpad

Yup that is molten concrete

The huge crawler that carries the rockets from VAB to launchpad

When first entering the cape Canaveral area by bus you are confronted with a strange mix of nature and wildlife, coupled with a living and working space port: the components of which can be seen dotting the horizon. Due to safety zone around launch pads and between them and control and office locations there's a lot of room at the space center. All this space is actually a wildlife reserve and managed by the national parks organization, which is why you can see a nesting osprey surrounded by rocket launch pads.

I had expected the tour to bring you up close and into the space center but distances stayed large. A little disappointing but being in such a unique place this is soon forgotten. The building above is the VAB from up close: this is where satellites are loaded into rockets, where the Hubble space telescope was first loaded onto the space shuttle and where most of America's space journeys started. Fun fact: it takes 45 minutes to open the doors (which are the worlds largest doors).

The tour ends by dropping you of at the Apollo museum, which starts with the now familiar entrance movie. Pretty cool again this time set in the launch control center, taking you through all the checks and people involved during launch.

The scale of the Saturn V's main engines is quite extraordinary

Evolution of the moon suit

The capsule that returned you to earth

The Apollo museum describes the story of one of man's greatest technological  achievements. Besides that it is also a story that is very much a part of my parents lives, they remember seeing the moon landings on TV. With the very few people that have actually walked on the moon and the long long time since these missions happened it is really awe inspiring to walk around the equipment developed to make this happen. The stories of the people making them, the tragedies of lives lost, the sense of discovery, the earth as one, hearing about the first footsteps on the moon. A very impressive gallery indeed!

At the end of the day we still had a little time left to have a proper look at the modern shuttle museum. Another one of these unique achievements, a sense that is one again brought across very accurately in the museum.

Nose to nose with space shuttle Atlantis

Hubble

Space shuttle belly with the infamous thermal protection tiles

If you are a kid or have more time there are a few more places to visit on the site but for us this concluded our visit, we left the space center awe filled at all the amazing stuff we had seen. The day was ended with a properly american meal: steak in a wild West steakhouse.

Our final touristic day in florida had manatees on the program. When I looked them up earlier in the year I had found crystal river as the best place to look at them and with thinking that that was a river in  Orlando (many tours are offered starting in Orlando) I hadn't really thought about it until we were in Florida couple of days... big mistake. Crystal river is a city on the west coast of Florida with most tours leaving already at 06:00 or earlier in the morning (when the manatees are most active). With Orlando as a home base and everything already booked this just want an option. We opted for a boost tour of coco beach instead, hoping to see some manatees too.

We were lucky and got to see lots of manatees. It was actually their mating season so there was a lot more splashing and activity going on than normal. The water is not as clear here as on the west coast but it did give good enough a sight of the animals.

Another fun thing is that we saw lots of dolphins even one who had learned to hunt against the flood wall and we saw him catch a fish. Besides this wildlife the tour featured lots of real estate: there's a lot if rich people living in coco Beach!

After the boat tour we visited the local beach, only to be grated by a raccoon... Not your typical beach creature you'd expect.

The day ended with a dinner at a restaurant that was getting rave reviews. After the waiter brought in the main meal before the starter and this also didn't taste very well we were beginning to suspect something fishy. And sure enough, after we left after this very disappointing meal we saw that the place with the rave reviews was next door, and closed... Ah well... We skipped a visit to the largest surfshop aka theme park in the world and went straight back to the hotel.

The next day was another boring driving day and also our last one in Florida: back to Miami. At the hotel we asked for a tip for a good american hamburger restaurant and the clerk recommended fuddruckers... A name I only knew from movies. We went there however and can that guy was right: best burgers ever! Great service, great food and they even served Grolsch (in beugel!). I had to drive though so they got me a closed bottle to take away. This served as the perfect finish for the US trip.

The next day we had an easy schedule to get cash dollars for my trip, turn in the rental car and say goodbye to each other once again. This of course was emotional, especially with my parents rightfully not liking the stories they heard about Buenos Aires. Due to the layout of Miami airport I could not join them all the way to their gate, but we had to say goodbye a little earlier. For them it was back to home and missing their son, for me it was on to new adventures!

Picasagoogle+ links(picasa seems broken, so evil g+ for now):

Phoenix impression

Phoenix flight

Florida day 1: Everglades

Florida day 2: Florida keys

Florida day 3: Miami Beach

Florida day 4: driving

Florida day 5: Kennedy space center

Florida day 6: Manatees

False start in Buenos Aires

Normally you would have seen a short summary of my latest activities and location here and then a full blog post about Florida and Phoenix. However, the first weekend in Buenos Aires (BsAs) got off to a wrong start so instead i will cover that here and come back to the US in the next post.

The last blog post was already posted from BsAs, actually from a cafe next to the apartment of my couchsurfhost Nerina. So far everything had gone fine: the flight was uneventful, customs and security were a breeze compared to domestic US flights and the cab ride to the center was a little expensive but much easier than riding a bus and the consecutive hassle to find Nerina's flat would have been. I arrived in the morning while Nerina had a full working day to go, we had agreed that I could drop my backpack at the doorman, which worked fine. I walked around the block to get my bearings (she lives near the famous Recoleta graveyard) and soon found a cafe that could serve as my office for the day (no Starbucks anymore).

What I did was first of all reply to the responses from language schools (haggle a bit, and get some info on group sizes and compositions). With the #1 school in my mind it was easier to rate and find apartments nearby. Just as in Madrid you have agencies which offer excellent furnished apartments aimed at holiday makers, expats or language students. These however typically offer overpriced services and apartments where you live alone. I wanted roommates and preferably of my age instead of nosy or awkward families/seniors (the language schools offer overpriced homestays). What you need to do to find an affordable place in Argentina is use the website http://www.compartodepto.com/. This site list houses in a lot of a Argentinian cities but i couldn't find Buenos Aires... Weird! After some trial and error it became clear that it was listed as 'Capital Federal' instead of BsAs and i could start to look for a nice place.

After signing up and completing your search profile you start getting a lot of messages from property owners quickly... People really need the money here. A lot of the offers are irrelevant or just completely lame apartments. I reduced all of it to a shortlist of places i wanted to visit on Saturday. Afterwards i made a selection of my US pictures and wrote the previous blog post. By the time i was done it was nearly 19:00 so I moved to the neighbors and waited for Nerena.

We quickly got acquainted and headed into town with Analia, a friend of Nerina. We explored a very busy cultural center nearby: nice. Good atmosphere, live music, photo exhibitions of the Beatles and rolling stones and a free artistic haircut (for the people brave enough).

The next day meant first of all sleeping until late... Nerina had had a long week of work and I was really tired from the overnight flight. After brunch we went apartment hunting together with another one of Nerina's friends. We had planned on getting the free city bikes, but after copying our passports it became appartent that these have to be returned before 1800 on saturdays and that they can't be used on Sundays.. The last visit was planned at 19:00 so that wouldn't work... the bus then... off to San Telmo, according to the guidebooks a neighborhood typically BsAs and a little gritty. This soon became apparent... Graffiti, dog shit, ruins and badly maintained streets and sidewalks. First stop: Nicolas, a photographer in the process of restoring a building, with a high ceiling loft up for rent. This looked interesting from the pictures but during the visit it became clear that there was still a lot to do, the most poignant point being the lack of heating... When the dog also started pissing on the carpet of 'my' room I had seen enough...

The other two houses were actually very nice: an upper floor shared apartment right in the heart of San Telmo. Complete with a balcony overlooking the street where the Sunday market is held, a nice living room with beamer roof terrace and an international mix of people in the house. The other house was on the ground floor and also very beautiful: nice furniture, cosy atmosphere and Argentinian roommates. However, the balcony, roommates and roof terrace of Defensa had already made up my mind: this is my place for the next month:

The evening was spent with a celebratory dinner and the next day once again consisted of sleeping in late. Nerina wanted to see the Roland Garos final, so I did some Spanish studying and nerding in between. By the time it was halfway into the afternoon it was time to move into my new place. This however did not exactly go as planned....

After we had gotten off the bus and had walked some 100m ( me with backpack and rucksack, Nerina carrying my camelbak ) I felt something like birdshit on my head... I got my handkerchief to clean it off, but two old women behind us started making noise as if something really bad had happened and offered tissues, it also stunk really badly so when I let Nerina check what was wrong with my backpack and she also reacted excitedly I removed it and put it against the wall on the side of the street.

From top to bottom it was covered with lines of grey goo. Definitely not bird shit, as it looked like someone had shot a load from a curry flask at me. I had read about this type of robbery and was looking around me who could've done this, except that the street was empty except for the old ladies... Of course i kept an eye on my belongings at all times, while cleaning my bag and putting my rucksack besides it. One of the women kept plucking at my jacket to also clean it and take it off, which I did after a few seconds although i didn't trust her. I kept it away from her, with my stuff in my hands and all the time checking my bags from the corner of my eyes. The jacket wasn't really dirty so i quickly put it back on. All of a sudden the ladies were gone, they had taken a cab. When i checked my bags immediately noticed something was wrong: my rucksack was gone and had been replaced by another black bag.... You can imagine what i was thinking and feeling at that moment... My laptop was in that bag....and my toiletries bag, some cloths, ipod, chargers etc....and all the time i knew it was happening.... Grrrr

So, whenever this happens to you: old ladies can be thieves too, and keeping your eyes on your bags is not enough... So just do as adviced, keep walking... Or kick the old ladies in the teeth if you want to risk getting stabbed or worse....

It happened quite close to my new home, so we made our way there to get cleaned up and drop my stuff, sharing our story with my roommates... Who of course could name friends who had had the same thing happen. We had to keep moving though, i needed to get some money changed and nerina had to get to a  physiotherapy session. 

Getting money changed is one of BsAs' peculiarities: the government has decoupled the peso from the dollar and has artificially fixed the value due to continuous inflation. However this means that the value is not really correct and that has people who had seen their savings devaluate distrust the peso: they rather deal in euro's or dollars. The government however blocks Argentinians from buying foreign currency, which has led to a large black market in them. The official exchange rate is about 8 pesos for a US dollar, while if you change them on the street you'll get at least 11 pesos ( the so called blue rate).

There's one thing you shouldnt do here and that is get money from an ATM at the official rate. Luckily i read about this beforehand so i brought 1000 USD in cash. We found an arbolito (litterally: small tree), which is what the guys dispensing the green notes are called, and i exchanged my first 100 dollar to have some pesos in hand to do shopping etc. I wouldve also liked to buy a subte card (for the bus and metro) but after trying three stores and only then finding a charger machine which nerina needed we have up so that she would at least make it to the physiotherapist. I got back to my home and already bought as many toiletries on the way back because i needed a shower to get the stink off me.

This post should now turn into an upbeat story about the rest of the week, which was really, really nice, but because it is so long already it will have to be in a separate post. Be assured that by now I'm having a good time and that I've already almost forgotten about the robbery.

Last days on the West Coast - Posted from Buenos Aires, Argentina

Sunday morning in San Mateo was laid back, Eli and I had breakfast and then said goodbye, although I think we'll keep in touch. With the deadline of turning in the van quickly approaching my focus was now really shifting towards organizing stuff. The plan: drive to LA in two days, camp at Walmart the first night, check in at a hostel for the last two nights, using one day for cleaning the van, and one day for turning it in and being a tourist in LA. Reality pretty much turned out as planned. The drive along the coast was uneventful: a few nice views and a campsite that for once did turn out to be exactly as I had thought. Along the way I gave myself an hour per surf spot to try and sell my surfgear, but this turned out to no avail. Just when I was beginning to lose hope I got a sms from a guy wanting to buy just my board, and he was in LA as well. We agreed on a meeting spot, and this was the first thing I did when I got to LA: sell the board!

Camping at Walmart did turn out to be a little more difficult than expected: I was sent away from the first one after the manager had told me that it was not officially allowed, but that I could camp out in the corner (if the police would turn up it would be my problem). The parking lot guard did not agree however, and he gave me the address of another Walmart. This looked better and also had some other RV's there. I already sorted and cleaned part of the van before going to sleep. The next morning there was another parking lot guard. This one told me that I could not camp here... well that's too late now mate, already done :-D.
The cheapest hostel I could find at a reasonable distance from Universal, the airport and Escape's van drop-off turned out to be right on the heart of Venice beach: cool! The staff was relaxed, the atmosphere good, lockers in your room, and relaxed roommates as well: good. Too bad I didn't have any time for socializing: get a new camera, pack my bags, clean the van (inside and out) and do the laundry. This made for a very long day actually, and by the time I got back to the hostel it was dark... I got the last slice of pizza from the pizza place on the boulevard (where all the hobo's were already out and about) but the dusk turned out pretty well to make pictures.

The hostel itself was the last building near the boulevard, and beautifully painted at that too. Ofcourse I spent most of my evening behind the laptop in the lobby, apologizing to the few social people in there for my anti-social behavior. Apparently this is not done much anymore nowadays: almost everyone was behind a laptop or staring into a smartphone.... not what I was used to from hostels! The wifi generation has really appeared! It's pretty sad to see a guy laughing out loud while wearing earplugs and staring into his screen streaming youtube, while surrounded by others drinking beer and socializing... In the other corner of the room was a Chinese girl, doing the same thing, but then on a phone. All of a sudden there was a large dog in the lobby... a few minutes later follows a strange guy and his friend... offering beers. Turns out it's two Swiss guys: one a former professional skateboarder, the other a friend of his who has lived in LA for the last 5 years. The LA-guy is pretty crazy: right at home in LA. We share some conversation, the guy asks around if people are scared of his dog (who is a puppy, but big already and running wild all around the lobby). He tries keeping it away from two girls who are scared, but doesn't really succeed... after a while he gets tired of all the people staring at screens and starts running around pushing and shoving them to get away from those screens and start having some fun! Little response from the wifi-generation. By the time I am done with planning my transport and tickets for the next day they are already gone, having met a 50-year old guy who was interested in sharing their spliff. Nice little disturbance :-D.

What I had planned: at what time to get up to arrive at Escape at 07:30, what route and public transport to take to get to Universal Studios afterwards, and how to get back to my hostel after spending the day at Universal. Not much interesting again when bringing this plan to reality. I had a nice chat with Robert, one of the guys operating the LA office of Escape campervans. He shared some stories about why their insurance is so expensive (US suing culture) and we bounced some idea's around about what they could improve about the vans and their service. Of course we also shared our travel experiences while road tripping the US west coast.
I couldn't spend all day talking though, so off to Universal!

One of the major tourist attractions, and of course ridiculously expensive (yeah, that's the stingy Dutch again)! Highlight of the visit is of course the studio tour: you get to see all the fakeness that is created to make movies and TV-series, besides there's some pretty cool ride's/shows on the tour as well: A visit to King Kong, with very nicely done 3D animations and motion simulation. Of course everyone has seen Jaws, but there's also a scene/simulation of being inside the big LA earthquake. An impression:

This fake alley has been used in lots of series/movies... bonus points for people who can name scene's!

Well I guess you recognize the painting style on this car?

Special effects: cool!

We all know this one! It's a lot more scary in the movies!

Yup, all fake... just a facade

Any fans?

I didn't see this movie... I think it was used in the Grinch?

Very impressive war of the worlds scene (a 747 crashed in a residential area)

After the studio tour it was time to explore the rest of the park: more of a theme park experience, but with some movie flavor here and there. First up was a special effects show. Not much interesting there... afterwards I went down to the lower area: first up: the Transformers ride. This was the best ride in the park: if I remember correctly it was a combination of a roller coaster, motion simulator and 3D immersion movie. You're part of the movie and get slung around by explosions, decepticons, crashing buildings, etc, all the while with Optimus Prime getting your back just in time. Definitely ride this one when you're there!

The area holds some other rides, but also a little museum with famous artifacts and props from some recent movies. A cool thing to witness from really, really up close were the puppets used in stop motion animated movies: what an incredible detail, and what an incredible amount of expression can these artists create from paint and clay!

Yup... there was something with a clock tower now wasn't there?

Incredible detail on these little guys and gals!

Pffft, this piece of rubber and electronics made me cry when I was 8?

I'm not gonna describe all the rides here.... but the Jurrasic Park one was pretty nice, but in most other rides you kind got the impression that they didn't want to spend the money on physical decoration anymore. Most of the other rides have you sitting in a chair watching a screen with 3D glasses, while being shaken/tilted/sprayed on. This kinda gets old after the third ride (even though all have different 'themes'). Well, Universal is in the moving pictures on a screen business, but well, especially the newest ride felt kinda uninteresting to me (might be because I am not <10 year old anymore... it was the minions ride). The return of the mummy ride is a nice little roller coaster, but the theme here consists of two mummy heads illuminated with strobes... 

A true highlight: the waterworld show! Pyrotechnics, stunts, fun little interaction with the crowd (a lot of people get soaking wet!). Some pictures:

thanks neighbor...

Another highlight was the showcasing of the animal actors... lots of different animals and an instructional talk on how they are trained and how close the animals and their trainers are to eachother. I ended the day by a walk through the scary house... there's some people in there that have the best job that a high-school drop-out can have: scare the shit out of people by jumping out of dark places threatening them with rubber knives... hilarious!

Yup: pretty scary pieces of plastic!

More scary plastic: The Beast and his bride! ;-)

While on the metro in the morning I had seen that one of the stops included the hollywood walk of fame.. visiting this was a plan B, but since there was time I snapped a few must-make-pictures.

Hollywood walk of fame*

This concludes the visit to the western US. Next up: Phoenix and Florida.

Picasa pictures:

Day 59 & 60: Driving to LA

Day 62: a visit to venice beach 

Day 63: Hollywood

* I have no special love for Britney.. she just turned out to be the star closest to the bus stop