So it’s time for a fun travel story… Let me see, considering that lately, in the last 5-7 years,  I haven’t traveled outside my country for some exotic  places, nor have I searched for extreme adventure, I can recall easily a trip that was fun for me

So it all starts in the US, the country for all my crazy adventures that I desperately miss. The main one was taken in the winter of 2008-2009 from 26 December till January 9 I guess. For those that don’t know me, I am an alumna, of the UGRAD program that was sent to one of the coldest states of US, after Alaska: P, yes, to Wisconsin. So in the middle of December I decided to make this fabulous trip tooooooooooooooooooooo: Los Angeles, a city that I dreamed of my entire life and Vegas, the one that the entire world is dreaming to visit… Well, so imagine that great feeling of leaving -20*C for hopefully +20*C, awesome feeling. The trip was planned very carefully not to miss any points nor to get lost in the middle of America, but of course leaving some space for tiny fun details.

So, first part: leaving Eau Claire for Milwaukee, with a bus of course, with THE special Greyhound bus: P.  I had to be at the station at  11pm, and surprisingly the station was in the middle of nowhere, sorry, it was somewhere as there was a McDonalds next to it, but still in the middle of a highway, there was a tiny road leading to the station. So there I was, in the middle of nowhere, at 11pm waiting for that great bus, stories about which I heard tones, and not of the good ones… waiting and waiting till like 11.20 when from far away and from the fog a huge bus was coming, and I of course was so excited!!!!! What was I excited for? Idk, cause as I entered the bus was full of black ppl and all with very cold eyes staring at me. Scaryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy as I didn’t even know where was I supposed to get off, as there were a couple of stations, and it was night, very dark and foggy night… Now imagine what need of sleep was I in? None, with fear in my soul and emotions… Nevertheless I got to my destination at 4am happy and surprisingly full of energy.

Next day, which started at 4am, went very quickly as at like 9 am we had our next train to catch. By we I mean my great friends that met me in Milwaukee,  a Japanese and a Danish guy- Daiske and HugoJ Imagine, they made this sacrifice to get up so early and come and pick me. I was more than happy to see them so early and their friendly look, even if sleepy.

So we stopped at our 1 train trip. At 9 am the train was waiting for me and Dai, to take us first to Chicago. Hugo, had to take a plane (several reasons). Again me excited: going all by myself to somewhere so far away, then first time with a train, then while waiting in line just received a phone call from ma mom and aunt, they like felt I wanted to hear their voice and wished me good luck. Everything went perfect. And we got into the 1 hour train to Chicago and afterward we switched to our greatest part: the train from Chicago to Los Angeles… 2 days of train, no beds just those uncomfortable “armchairs”. But still it was exciting as we shall be seing the whole America, from one corner to the other!!! YayJ

Of course the trip was very uncomfortable and every 2 hours we had to run downstairs where we found a plug, to charge ma laptop that was constantly discharging L No more comments to this part. Next on our itinerary was the entrance in LA, because as we entered the train slowed the speed and it took us an hour to get to that final train station… god so slow K K K

Once we were out of the train, finally stretching our bones and breathing LA air, we had to move on; next destination was to get to the airport to meet Hugo. So we checked all the possibilities of getting there: 1. Mb walking, as we checked it didn’t seem so far away, as we got informed prior to the trip; 2. Get a cab, the price $60, can you imagine??? When we asked, we definitely said we shall better walk, but someone advised us to take a shuttle. So we agreed. Got into it and ok, the driver drove on tens of highways on 70-90 km/hr and we got there in 45 min, now imagine us walking that distance… hahaha J

Anyhow, we luckily got there to the LAX, what a huge airport, and the funniest and stupidest we didn’t ask Hugo with which air company was he flying. So we had to checked like 4 or 5 terminals and “lucky” us again, the cell phone battery died, so we couldn’t call him… we were desperate…. After 2 or 3 hrs of waiting don’t know how we found him. Ah, and forgot to mention that all the time we had our luggage with us, huge suitcases….

tired but happy to have reached LA.

For that great long day a couple more adventures waited for us. Once we took the picture, we got into a bus to get us to a certain part of LA: Santa Monica, there Hugo had a friend at which we were supposed to stay. To get to our destination we had just the name of the street and that’s all….So we got into the bus and as it was a working day, it had a lot of ppl inside that were looking at us, with all that luggage and tired faces… We got into the bus, took a map and all 3 of us tried each at a time to make a connection between the map’s streets and where we needed… calculated smth asked someone and we got of at one station. One more detail, as we were in LA, on the 29 of December, it was very warm, detail that I forgot for a couple of hours and forgot to change, so me dressed in turtle neck and a hoodie on the top, for the sun from LA was insupportable… and a bunch of heavy luggage…

We got off, and started asking ppl where next, amazingly no one knew anything, so we had to get our map and calculate smth… so we kinda found the “right” direction and started walking… and walked and walked straight straight for like 2 hrs and no result… we walked 30 blocks, indeed in the right direction, thank God! And when we were so close to our destination we called  our host,  and found out that she was out of state, but she was almost coming to LA, that morning, so there was the truth that we are going to find a locked doorrrr…………. Omg……. But we didn’t freak out…  we kept walking and started discussing about our host, and as it turned out, her father made her a gift a Porsche. Why am I saying this? Well, as smart as I am, I made immediately the conclusion: she must be rich. She must have a huge house, like those in the movies, with rooms for each of us…. Yay! For the moment that was a real consolation and day dreaming…. So continuing to day dream… We got to the house.

Now the truth: it was like a 3 floors block with flats. So that wasn’t the castle I dreamed of, but it looked ok J We gave her a call and she told us where the key is hidden so we didn’t have to wait for her outside. That was so nice of her tooooo. So we got the key. Unlocked. Ok, it wasn’t the castle,but it looked decent, so It had to be smth neat and nice. Opened the door: and shock for me!!!!

I am a very tidy and neat person and as you may know the American life style is so damn messyyyyyy, and so was hers….stains everywhere, 2 cats and hteir fur everywhere, clothes, and bottles and again clothes and shoes and DVD thrown everywhere….I was in shock! Where is my castle and my bed and room?????????????????????/

The shock was just for the first couple of hours… cause as we were so damn tired it actually meant smth in the beginning. Later as I had my bed, I got used to it. And now I even miss it. Messy but  with much space J

So not to make it longer ma story, hope you didn’t get bored… it went nicely and fun later… with 31 December on the ocean seaside… and many other amazing places and people and adventures… Hope you all get to visit our great world, have fun and explore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Andrei for letting us share