Update

Hey folks. Nothing much has happened over the last few days, so I'll keep it short and "basic".

"Basic", that was the word our car insurance broker used at least 20 times:-) But still, our car is insured by now and we're not driving around illegally anymore. The others even got pulled over by the police yesterday night and everything just went fine.  That's our ride by the way!

Probably I will post some more news later on. Gotta go...

Dude, where's my car at?

We keep on riding the "lucky wave". 

Since we have to return our rental car the day after tomorrow we finally need an own car. Weighing up the alternatives, we decided to buy a car instead of a long term rental. 

Question: Where do you buy a car? 

Answer: At our hostel!

As a matter of fact Patrick and me were just returning from the beach last night at about 3 AM talking about our car problem... when, all of a sudden, we saw a FOR SALE sign inside a Jeep parked right in front of our hostel. We doubled up laughing about the coincidence and decided to give it a try. We placed a note with our mobile numbers and indicated our interest in the car. It turned out that the car is in a very good shape and the owners are a couple from Switzerland staying at ou hostel leaving tomorrow:-) 

We met up today instantly connecting with those guys ending up not only buying the car but also their surfboards. How good can it get? Problem solved. As Chaz, a local working at a surf shop would put it: Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet

I'll post a picture soon. 

I think all of this is happening just because of a little fortune cookie I got after eating in a Chinese restaurant. All it said was: You can achieve anything you want. Sweeeeeet!

CU

Long time... no see

Even if I don´t have to apologize for not posting here I´ll do it anyway. I just didn´t have the time;-)

Things are just going fine here. We rented a car, a Ford Thunderbird V8, found a place to live right away (people are having a real hard time finding something close to the beach: we were lucky to find a 2 br. appartment just 2 blocks away from the beach in PB, Pacific Beach) and basically I´m having the time of my live. 

OB (Ocean Beach, the part of San Diego where the hostel is at) is just such a great place to be. 

See Google Maps

It´s calles "Hippie Town" and the people living here, as well as those guys staying at the hostel are just so laid back, it´s amazing. We've been going to the the beach every day, renting body boards most of the times, trying to catch the "perfect wave"... 

The school's orientation week is about to start tomorrow so I'll let you know what University will be like. We went there once, and it's simply astonishing. Nothing compared to Koblenz:-)

Anyway, I'm on the run. Later skater!

A lot of things...

...can happen in just 3 days! I just say: Queens, Philadelphia, Washington D.C.

Back on Friday we got up, had a nice breakfast at Big Daddy´s and decided to explore yet another part of NYC: Queens. Even if it involved a lot of walking around, we didn´t regret this decision at no point. For those of you who know or like the TV show "The King of Queens", the following spots could be familiar:-)

 

The following morning at about 8 am we finally set out for a rather big trip- NYC--> Philadelphia--> Washington D.C. --> NYC in 36 hrs.

To make a long story short. The trip was simply amazing. Philly  is a nice city with lots of places of historical interest: Liberty Hall with its Liberty Bell, just to name the most important. 

  

  

After just 5 hrs in Philly we caught the next Greyhound to Washington D.C. (stops in Wilmigton, Baltimore, White Springs) and after a 4 h ride we fortunately found a Motel instantly, ordered a Pizza and some Buffalo Wings and swithced on the TV just in time to watch the triumphs of Michael Phelps and the hilarious 100 m world record of the "Lightning Bolt".

 

If I wanted to accurately desribe the unforgettable impressions we got from Americas capital, that would definitively take too long so I´m keeping it short. We´ve probably seen all the famous sites (The White House, the Capitol, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, FBI Building etc.), including the Archives which house the Declaration of Independence (signed in Liberty Hall in Philly), the Magna Charta, the Bill of Rights and the original Constitution.

      

  

Totally exhausted but still happy we boarded the bus back to NYC at about 5 pm and after a  five hour ride we finally got back to where we started from.

NYC: Update

Right now I don´t know what´s bigger: Manhattan or the blisters on my feet? I´ve been walking around A LOT! Since I´m not much of a storyteller here´s just an overview 

of what I´ve seen or what I´ve visited:

Soho, Little Italy, Chinatown, Riverside Park, Brooklyn Bridge (@ night), large parts of the Central Park, Madison Square Garden, Greenwich Village, Times Square, NYSE...

.... and last night: the Empire State Building, especially the 86th floor... 

That´s it for now! Enjoy the view:-)

NYC: First impressions of the Big Apple

Yesterday I arrived in NYC after a long and quite stressful trip. Instantly I was blown away both by the size and the beauty of this city. 

I took a cab from JFK to my hostel and after meeting with good ol' Benny and killing a cockroach trying to sneak into my room we almost directly took the Metro to 5th Avenue starting to explore the city until I was too tired to go on and we headed back to our hostel (which apparently is a Catholic house now giving shelter to somebody definitely irreligious, ME!:-)

Today I was on my own, since Benny had to work and I made the best out of it. 6 hours of hardcore walking up and down Manhattan and looking like a dumbass tourist. Frankly, I didn´t give a fuck. Starting at Grand Central I made my way down to Bowling Green and took the Ferry to Staten Island.

After I got back to Manhattan I forced my way back North. Wall Street, City Hall, World Trade Center Site, Madison Square Park, Union Square... just to name a few highlights. Now I´m back in the Kolping House eagerly waiting for dinner! I will keep you guys informed about what´s going on here.