Haunted..

New York City seems never boring. On Friday, a sunny autumn day, my wife, my sister and I rented some bikes and drove through Central Park. And yes, this time I saw the ice scaters :) At night we went up the Empire State Building and enjoyed the view. The day after a snow storm surprised us in the morning, so we went to queue for MoMA. A five-hour ride later and the home base in College Park was reached.

Today is Halloween. During our road trip we saw countless haunted houses. Back in our apartment complex we were 'expected' by lots of college freshmen and -women; all dressed up. I saw four smurfs, ms ketchup & mustard, the joker, a few supermans and quite many questionable and also tiny outfits. Yes, it's Halloween! I'm curious what's happening tomorrow night...

                                     ...I'm scared!!!

Central Park

Central Park Reservoir

Autumn in Central Park

View towards Queens

Colorful Times Square

33rd and 34rd street

Rare October snow in Brooklyn

Chasing autumn leaves

Leaving Toronto on Monday, my sister and I traveled along the north shore of Lake Ontario towards East. The next three days were quite busy as we planned to have a look at the Thousand Islands and then go back into the US. There we would see the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, visit the Green Mountains in Vermont, check out the egg in Albany and finally reach New York City by Thursday afternoon.

The autumn leaves near Lake Ontario were mostly gone due to a storm a few days back. However the scenery was really nice and sometimes very Finnish. One highlight were the Sand Banks, a long sand beach with big dunes. Unfortunately the dunes were not allowed to access in this time of the year. Even a local guy we met didn't have a clue why that is. In any case we found a nice spot to oversee the lake during a cloudless but windy sunset.

Adirondacks, where do I start. Of course with the leaves. Same as Lake Ontario - gone. Some pine trees turned yellow though, so it wasn't all like 'naked' trees. The landscape was great, nice mountains and roads winding around them. Again lots of resemblance with Finland. Home sweet home. If I'll ever be back, I definitely visit the Adirondacks again.

In the evening we discussed whether to see the Green Mountains in Vermont or not. So many people told me that Vermont is really beautiful. Weather forecast showed +6 C only and the whole day rain. Luckily we went there yesterday. I felt like being back in Central Europe, it all looked so familiar. And - most important - when getting there, almost all the leaves where still on the trees in so many colors! Even in rainy, foggy weather the colors where shiny. So it felt like we hit the jackpot anyway. The scenic byways didn't disappoint.
After that we drove to Albany, the state capital of New York. There, a theater for performing art was built in the shape of an egg. Interesting architecture.

Today we conquered the last 100 miles to New York City into Brooklyn, where our hotel was and where we met up with my wife. Traffic wasn't too terrible and besides a few close encounters, my nerves held up quite well. Nice experience, once and never again..;)

A rare moment, leaves and sunshine

At Sand Banks just before sunset

Thousand Islands - looks like Saimaa

Adirondacks, New York

Green Mountains, Vermont

Gotta love those colors

The Egg Center in Albany

Ten years, ten days..

Tomorrow we'll leave Toronto and I have quite mixed feelings about that. After seeing the mighty Niagara Falls on Friday my sister and I drove to Toronto, where a good friend of mine lives. I was already a long time looking forward to this visit as we haven't met in over ten years. What made this special was also the fact that he visited me in my hometown in Germany and finally I had a chance to visit him at home. Arriving in town just felt so surreal and it was hard to believe we'd see again. We met him and his wife in the hotel lobby for dinner and it just felt as we had seen each other ten days ago. Sometimes these things go like that...

On Saturday they took us on a 90 minute ride to visit St. Jacobs, a little town West of Toronto. Located there is Canada's biggest Farmers' Market, where one can buy all kind of food and clothing. Mennonites are living there as well, selling their harvest and hand-made products. It was interesting to see them traveling with horse and buggy, refreshing as to all the cars. The only thing I bought was pure maple syrup, yummy!
A stroll around the town center was lovely with the nice houses and we even went to the maple syrup museum. Now we are all experts, theoretically :) A Korean grill dinner and a visit to the 'Biermarkt', a pub with live music and many different beers, wrapped up a nice day.

To be a real tourist for half a day, my sister and me went today by ourselves to the harbor area, took a boat cruise for sightseeing and went up the CN tower, from where we had a great view over Toronto. This afternoon we went to my friends place and after that to his parents, who had us over for dinner. In addition

to the tasty paprika-chicken, we all prepared a typical meal from my home area - Kӓsspӓtzle. It was great fun and apparently also eatable :) After a lively discussion, dessert and sitting in front of the fireplace it was time to leave.

Back at the hotel, we all said our goodbyes and I must admit, it was quite hard. Those couple of days were great and it simply felt wrong to say goodbye - again. So tonight I'm glad that I had the chance to visit the very nice city of Toronto, but I'm also a bit melancholic for obvious reasons. One reason is also the fact that i couldn't share this with my wife, apart from phone and emails.

Today - more than ever - I realize how great this opportunity is for me to have this sabbatical year. I can travel around, see all kind of places and meet up with old friends. Also I have the time to listen inside myself figuring out new, old and perhaps forgotten things and put them into perspective.

Niagara Falls

St. Jacobs Farmers' Market

A store in St. Jacobs

View towards Toronto from Centre Island

Autumn at the Toronto waterfront

View of Toronto

Monuments, Memorials and Mable leaves

I’m sitting in the motel room in Niagara Falls, Canada. Outside it is windy and raining a lot. I just came back from a walk with my sister Andrea having a first look at the Falls. She is visiting us for two weeks and the two of us are on a 12 day road trip.My clothes are soaking wet and I’m still convinced it was worth to get a first look at the Falls from the Canadian side.

Andrea arrived last Sunday evening just after my return from NYC. On Monday evening the both of us went to D.C. to hop on a bus tour to see the ‘Monuments by moonlight’. The tour took some 2 ½ hours during which we had a few stops to get some pictures. The next day we went to see a couple of monuments, the Capitol and the White House during daytime. Finishing off the day in picturesque Georgetown we had dinner with my wife.

On Wednesday Andrea and I left College Park to drive the 300 miles to Warren, Pennsylvania, our first pit stop. There were lots of Halloween decorations countless pumpkins around many houses. Warren is a nice, small town located in the Allegheny National Forest, through which we drove today on route 59 and 321.
The weather has been quite ‘moody’, lots of rain showers, mostly cloudy and a fresh 45°F (7°C).  The scenery was unbelievable. Mostly leaf trees with all kind of shades of red, green, yellow and brown made this unforgettable. At Rimrock Trail a short hike took us to a place overviewing Kinzua. We caught a break weather-wise and it actually saw a tiny but of blue sky. Hopefully we'll have one day with blue sky and sunshine to get those colors even stronger. I can only recommend to anyone visiting that area to take this route. You certainly will not complain about too much traffic. In many ways this reminds me of Finland.

Getting closer to the Canadian border a boring stretch of highway made me start writing on the netbook and download the pictures from my camera. I considered how easy it would be updating the blog online. Eventually I came to my senses and closed the lid. I thought about the insane digital information age we live in.
As internet access is getting easier, people tend to use the opportunities more and more. Have you noticed when riding a bus or train that most of the people take out their mobile device almost right away after being seated? Is it getting more difficult for people just to be? With people being so ‘attached’ to social networks I fear creativity is suffering. I can speak only for myself but I noticed a huge change in my mind (especially for writing) when being longer time away from the nine-to-five routine.

Hey, I should get back to the travel part now. Crossing the border into Canada turned out to be quite easy. A passport control with a few casual questions and we were in. The rest of the day you already know and now it’s time for bed...

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

United States Capitol

Washington Monument with Capitol in the background

The White House

 

Autumn in Pennsylvania

Somewhere along route 321, PA

Pumpkins, did you get yours already?

Niagara Falls at night

Sometimes umbrellas are useless..

Outrageous fun - I *heart* New York City

I admit, I was interested to see New York City, but I was not overly excited. My wife couldn't wait to get back to the city after spending some months many years ago. The spark didn't catch on to me really. Come on, just a bunch of skyscrapers, yellow cabs and tons of people. I was so wrong. It was a blast and my mind is still buzzing with all the images and impressions I took with me.

On Friday morning at 6am our group left from College Park towards NYC. During the four hour drive I learned yet again more of other cultures. One of the teachers from Argentina taught me to drink mate, kind of a tea. It kept me awake until we arrived at a school in Soho district for a scheduled teachers visit. I was participating as well and it was interesting to see how school life is different.

In the afternoon we drove to our hotel in 42nd right next to the Chrysler Tower. Passing street after street I saw nothing but skyscrapers. It was impressive. Thinking about when they started to build the skyscrapers so long time ago and seeing what they accomplished on that relatively small island really put things into perspective. Dropping our bags into the room, my wife and me went to Rockefeller Center to check out the area. After a quick visit in the Lego store and St. Patrick's Cathedral nearby we went for some real American dinner and had... a burger.

Just as we ate the last sweet potato fries, we had to get going towards Broadway where we would enjoy the musical Chicago. The theater was small but packed and the artists performed really well. Afterwards we made our way to Times Square. That place really blew my mind. I have seen pictures before but couldn't understand the hype about the place. Actually being there, seeing all the advertising screens at the skyscrapers all around me in all possible colors and thousands of people from so many countries, created a very special atmosphere. I could have stayed there for hours and hours.

The next day we went to the Village after a morning boat tour around Manhattan. It was a nice and lively area and most of the houses had the famous fire escape stairs facing the streets. In combination with the yellow cabs I felt like in a movie. It's really like that! After a quick Thai lunch in Christopher Street we went further South, witnessing the Wall Street protests. The crowd was very calm and peaceful. Still, on the side roads dozens of NYPD cars were parked and ready in case..

Last but not least on that day, we went on a night ride with the double-decker bus around Manhattan and Brooklyn to see the city at night. The view from Brooklyn towards the skyline of Manhattan was stunning. Unfortunately the bus did not stop and my camera could not capture this view. At the end of the tour we left the bus at Times Square and we stayed a while to suck in all the impressions (yet again). After a midnight snack we went happy but extremely tired back to the hotel room.
 
On Sunday we had few hours in the morning before the bus would take us back to College Park. We (well, my wife..) decided to get up early. We took the subway (which is an experience itself) to Harlem and visited the University of Columbia where my wife worked for two summers. After that we had one hour to spare and went - finally! - to Central Park. I just love that place. After almost two days surrounded by skyscrapers my body and mind needed a break and space to breathe. Central Park was just the right place for that. All the grass and trees made it a nice place to be. But looking at the horizon and see the huge skyscrapers around made it such an amazing extraordinary place! We were in the nature but the huge steel monsters were watching us from far. This combination made the final switch in my mind and I realize more and more why New York City is such a special place.

I got to somehow stop writing and finish this post. So here's my top 6 for NYC:
1) Times Square
2) Central Park
3) Soho and Greenwich Village
4) a musical on Broadway
5) Manhattan Skyline from Brooklyn at night
6) ride the subway

Times Square

Outrageous fun at Times Square

Manhattan Skyline

Statue of Liberty

Yellow cabs and skyscrapers

Greenwich Village

A haunted pub in the Village

View near Times Square

Ghostbusters at Times Square

Central Park

Central Park

I *heart* NYC

The early bird..

It's Sunday morning, 5.40am. My alarm goes off and I get up. The night before my wife and I arrived from Chincoteague Island at midnight and I went to sleep at 1.00am. I'm tired. But I gotta get up. My ride is arriving at ten past six and the weather forecast predicts 0% chance of rain or clouds. That's enough motivation to leave the cosy bed. A hot&cold shower wakes me up quickly and a berry&milk bowl for breakfast pumps energy in my body.

Last week during the football match I met most of my wife's university program. A bunch of 20 people from India, Argentina, Morocco, Mexico, South Africa, Singapore, Israel and one from Finland. I love the diversity and enjoy getting to know many new persons and their cultures. One woman from Singapore brought her family. I got into a discussion with her husband E Pei about sports, electronics, the usual guys stuff. Fishing is one of his passions. I like it too, especially on a boat. We agreed to go someday out on Chesapeake Bay. Last Wednesday E Pei sent me a text, let's go on Sunday. Ok, done deal.

I pack the sandwiches and other snacks into a backpack. A rain jacket, a change of clothes, my camera and I'm good to go. E Pei is already downstairs waiting. Being lazy I take the elevator down and get in the car. His son Jonathan is also joining us. He loves fishing. A fifty minute ride from College Park to Shady Side takes us through a wonderful countryside. Morning mist lies over the meadows, some deer search for food and nice houses are surrounded by trees with colorful leaves. Autumn is not too far away.

At the dock, the morning air is brisk and the last bit of tiredness leaves my body. Our captain awaits us already and behind the tree line I catch a glimpse of the rising sun. After a lecture of very detailed safety instructions we are off into the open water. Dozens of boats and houses decorate the shore. Bay Bridge Maryland, which we crossed last night, is on the horizon. Our ride is fast and the wind works its way through my clothes. It's chilly.

We reach the first pack of birds which are circling the water to catch their morning breakfast. Those small fish are bait for the big boys at the bottom and we are after them. I watch Jonathan and E Pei pulling in fishes. Finally I get lucky as well, but none of our catches meets the 18 inch requirement to keep them. So it's all catch and release today, back in the water for all of them.

We follow the birds and other fishing boats, but all big fish stay out of our way. It's time to change the location and ride to another spot in the Bay. In the meantime the sun is warming up nicely. The sea is calm, the only waves coming from other fishing boats. It's just a perfect morning.

After four hours we return to the dock. No catch, I should have known. The saying goes: The early bird catches the worm. Not big fish.. It really doesn't matter, this is great morning to remember for a life-time. We drive back to College Park. Jonathan is tired and lays down on the back seat. Only ten seconds and he's out. Happily, but tired I go back to our apartment. My cosy bed is waiting to offer me a well deserved nap.

Leaving Shady Side into Chesapeake Bay

Nice place to live

Sunrise and calm waters

Fishing with the birds

Doesn't get much better than this..