Farewell America

My dear friends,

this is it. This is the last day of my 15 months long american adventure. I am sitting on a Delta plane on my way to Germany, where I will be living and working from now on. They are showing "Eat, Prey, Love" on the screens, which I decline to watch. Somehow I don't think Julia is pretty. So I challenged myself to filter over 1,200 pictures which Kivanc took with his Nikon D90 during our trip to Nevada and California in the final week before my flight. I'd like to show you some selected ones:

The strip in Las Vegas. Vegas was the first stop on our trip. I was fascinated by the amounts of cash & booz flow in this city. Honestly, Sin City and all its casinos are nice, but it's not really something for me… except of the buffets of course :)

 The obligatory bed test in our Hotel room. Don't worry, the bed survived it.

For some reason many latino fellows gave me these cards, which I kept collecting. At home, I finally had a chance to look on them and realized that they were "accompany" business cards, offering services for a low price including a free limousine ride. There was a slight Charlie Sheen feeling coming up in my gut, followed by a bigger feeling of disgust, which is why they ended up in the garbage can.

The Grand Canyon. I am really happy that I did the day trip to this historical place. I think everybody should come and visit at least once in their lives. Be prepared though, $150 for a day trip feels ripoffy.

But they do have a small indian and cowboy village including a local jail… free to try out.

Our rental car, a Mazda 3 Sedan. I encourage all germans visiting the states to rent a car with the help of ADAC. You don't have to be a member, but you will get much nicer prices, and you'll also get all insurances, unlimited miles and a second driver for free. None of which is true when you rent your car in America.

Samy paid me a visit in LA and we spent a couple of hours at Madame Tussauds'. Man that motherfucker has a nasty look on his face… all the time.

The soldier and Tom Hanks' star. Forrest Gump is still my favorite.

This is exactly where Eddy Murphy was standing in one of his movies in front of the Beverly Hills police department. Oh my gosh was that a nice area. I am still humming the theme song :)

David and me in front of the Hollywood sign. The weather in LA was horrible: I mean it was raining without a break for two days, temperatures where at 61 degrees F (or 16 C). The lady at the gas station assured us, that this is the worst it can get in LA. Lauren: there were no mudslides but we kept watching the Weather Channel, which left us pretty nervous about the rain, or thunderstorm-rains, or, as the locals call them, t-rains. Apparently it t-rained much more in Vegas after our initial three days, and they had problems in Nevada, but we were fine on our route.

At the Universal Studios, a place all movie lovers should have been to, which Kivanc and I certainly are.

Chinese hot pot. Many have asked me where this restaurant is, but I really can't tell. David took us there, I guess it's a secret place. He mentioned that there's a more popular one close to it, but the pot is by far worse than this. My dear european friends, this is a traditional chinese dish. You sit at a table with a hole in it, where a hot pot with some kind of soup basis will be placed. Usually, the pot is split in half, with a mild and spicy side. Vegetables and extremely thin slices of lamb, beef, chicken and shrimp are served. You basically cook and eat at the same time by using your chop sticks to drowse your desired food into the soup which instantly boils it for you. At the end of the day the soup will have gathered all the different flavors, and you will finish your meal with bowls of liquid yumminess, although you're already full. Fantastic guys.

The beach of Santa Barbara, a very nice small town in the south of California. This was the first day the Californian sun warmed our faces. Very nice town… we were imagining working and living here. Later Donovan mentioned that Oprah lives here. This showed us how expensive this place actually is, and there deflates our daydream balloon.

On our way on Highway 1 from Santa Barbara to Monterey, we stopped in Los Olivos and San Luis Obisbo, and passed Lake Cachuma, the Big Sur,  Hearst Castle and lots of pacific beaches. This BBQ was in front of the single grocery store in Los Olivos. The lady was preparing the meat for their Christmas special, a Tripit (?) beef sandwich. I can't really say which part of caddle this is, but just by looking on a stack of 7 piled big chunks of roasted beef and smelling the delicious odor of roast and garlic, man… I got crazy, it was so good.

Hearst Castle. So, there was this guy named Hearst, a politician in the 30's, who was rich and who travelled to Europe. He came back and remade replicas of castles including arts of the spanish and greek worlds all over America. Now, he wants people to pay big time to see those fancy places. I don't know, although I have been there, I didn't wanted to go inside… pass.

Le pacific est magnifique. Big thanks to Daniel for suggesting me this route. It was a very nice ride, I wish I had a motorcycle with me.

No, that's not the lonely cypress on the 17 mile drive. Unfortunately, we missed the sunset by 10 freaking minutes, which made me so upset, that I decided to move on to San Jose in the same night. We had a nice mexican dinner with Donovan, and Eric joined us later too. Cali folks, I love you, keep up the good work, and always stay happy, I'm sure you will.

The sky ain't got no limits over the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco. Jagruti texted me when I was at this spot, which put a smile on my face :) Later we had a nice lunch with Kai and Fong in an overpriced italian restaurant in SanFran, and I did my last walk to Ross - dress for less, which was kinda empty this time. I guess because of Christmas.

This is it. The adventure started in South San Francisco in May 2009 when Martin and I had our first meetings with Papa Roche in Palo Alto. The adventure ends with a visit of honor in California, which is totally different than Jersey *fistpump here boyz*, and New York City, oh boy, yeah, New York is way too loud and narrowed compared to the chillaxing atmosphere of this place. I still kinda have problems liking SanFran over NYC though.

I give a shout out to all my friends in Jersey: I love you. Please take care of yourselves and enjoy your time with Papa; He will always buy you a drink and treat you with first class traveling.

That's my travel account for this year :)

Appreciate the beauty of working in an international company and make as many international friends as you can. There is a lot to learn from this, and the company offers a unique opportunity to do so. I am proud to be a part of this.

I will definitely never forget you, and we should meet whenever we can. Holla at me when you're abroad. Basel is not really far from Frankfurt. Or stop by and I show you Frankfurt, which is a true city, not only an airport :)

Farewell brothers and sisters,
farewell America,
I'll miss the way of living there,
Yusuf